On 19 November, we mark ‘International Men’s Day’. We’re never quite sure whether we should take part – here’s why:

> The origins of Men’s Day are anti-feminist.
The founder of the day, Jerome Teelucksingh, is one of the leading figures in the global ‘men’s rights movement’, an explicitly anti-feminist and male supremacist movement, of which the ‘manosphere’ is the latest offshoot.
International Men’s Day is often portrayed as the counterpart to International Women’s Day, but it is not a formal UN commemorative day. The organisation behind Men’s Day is campaigning for the day to be recognised in the UN calendar as “the first official day for men or boys, when there are already 13 days for women and girls.” You can also sense this lack of recognition in the fact that most Google searches for “International Men’s Day” take place on 8 March every year…

> Even if the focus on Men’s Day isn’t explicitly anti-feminist, it’s usually not feminist either.
Much of what takes place in the Netherlands in connection with Men’s Day is not explicitly anti-feminist. That’s great! But it is usually not explicitly feminist either. The problems men experience – and which Men’s Day seeks to highlight – are often caused by patriarchy as well. Feminism is therefore the solution. And that needs to be explicitly stated, precisely because there is so much anti-feminist focus on these problems on men’s issues.

> So is it wrong to take part in Men’s Day?
In the Netherlands, too, there has been increasing attention on Men’s Day in recent years – partly in the wake of greater focus on transforming masculinities work! More attention for masculinity norms is, of course, a good thing. At the same time, we are wary of lending legitimacy to the day, given its history. So we’re not quite sure ourselves – so we’ll just write a critical blog post :)

> We call for attention to men, masculinities and gender justice every day.
Every day is Men’s Day. And every day we call for more attention for the role of boys, men and masculinities as part of the solution to gender equality, and to what men themselves stand to gain from broadening masculinity norms.