19th November, the day marked to celebrate "International Men's Day" all over the world.
While we all know that its the International men's day, how many of us really know the reason behind celebrating it?
8th March, International Women's day is celebrated with such a great response every year. But when it comes to men's day, everything goes unnoticed. The Google doodles specially designed for such special occasions failed to design a doodle for men's day this year. I honestly don't know the reason behind why Google had no special doodle for men's day this year but that seemed a bit unfair to me.
❝ BLUE FOR BOYS, PINK FOR GIRLS. EMOTIONS FOR WOMEN, STRENGTH FOR MEN. THESE ARE THE FEW STEREOTYPES THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST. ❞
~Saransh Gehlot
Going back to the main question, what is the reason behind celebrating International Men's day?
As I have discussed this earlier in one of the previous chapters, this patriarchy has made the life of men miserable. And it's true. This system portrays a man as the one who should be strong enough mentally and most important, financially to support his family. Plus, according to a famous saying, "Mard ko dard nahi hota!". It means that if you are a man, you need to acquire the skill of not experiencing the pain. Every living being, irrespective of gender has the inbuilt quality named 'emotions'. Its an absolutely natural phenomenon and there's nothing wrong if a man experiences the emotions, hurt, pain and letting it all out through tears. But as per our 'oh-so-very-sweet-society', a man who sheds tears and expresses his emotions is simply termed as 'unmanly' because emotions are termed as a sign of weakness.
Men who are supposed to support women in all their struggles are often left alone to fight their own battles, of course, not the physical ones but the inner battles against the societal norms. Also, men are portrayed as the gender which brings food to the table. And honestly, it is not a trivial thing. The amount of burden this thing brings upon men is immense. In this age of equality, the fact that women work shoulder to shoulder with men is simply ignored most of the times pressuring the men to take all the responsibilities solely. This stereotyping affects a male mindset to a very great extent at times which compels them to take a serious step like suicide. The aim of International Men's Day is to celebrate positive male role models and to raise awareness of men's issues. These include topics such as mental health, toxic masculinity and the prevalence of.
Why should we celebrate the Men's Day only on 19th of November? According to me, each day should be celebrated as Men's day encouraging them to open up, express themselves openly breaking the stereotypical walls built by the society.
A vehicle cannot run unless both of its tires working in coordination and are in a good condition. So to all the women out there, support the men as far as possible, share their burdens because when you seek gender equality, sharing all the burdens schlepped by the men comes along with it. And to all the men out there, just take a chill pill, don't stress yourself too much to spoil your health, don't give a damn about those silly societal norms, just be you. Happy International Men's day!
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And sorry for being late to post this!