Men's Day -- has it come to this?

John Gudmundson, writing in Suite.101, has an excellent piece on something that had been bugging me for a few days, now: International Men's Day. It was billed as a day to celebrate what it means to be a man, and John brilliantly encapsulated -- and, sadly, confirmed -- the reservations I'd had about it.

One of those reservations was wondering whether it had really come to this: that men have become so feminized -- from "manscaping"* to putting up with rather nasty jokes about the "typical man" (I came across one recently, which, had it been "tweaked" slightly and the genders reversed, would have been vilified as "sexist" and (in a different generation) MCP**) -- that we now have to have a day to look consider manliness.

Another thought was that it was a lot like my feelings about the secularization of Christmas. On the one hand, I get downright depressed when I see decorations and celebrations that totally ignore the One "whose birthday we're celebrating,' as Stan Freberg put it, especially when other religious/cultural festivals like Vaisakhi, Pride and Chinese New Year get wide-open, unabashed promotion. But then I ask myself if I would want Christmas to be viewed as "just another religious/cultural tradition". Same thing with a Day To Celebrate What It Means To Be A Man: as you said about the need for male role models, it should be self-evident.

From John's article, it's not clear whether the Biblical call on men -- as exemplified in Promise Keepers, etc. -- was covered at this Men's Day "forum". That would be something truly useful in society, especially when I think of the women we minister to and pray over and try to encourage as they struggle with drugs and other assorted demons. These are women who've been abused, knocked-up, had their children taken away because they're unfit mothers. One can't help wondering what would have happened if the men in their lives had been raised to know what it truly means to be a man -- husbands and fathers as God calls us to be. I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn't be wandering like zombies around Hastings Street, looking for their next fix.

 
*Thank heavens for those beer commercials for "The World's Most Interesting Man", whose commentary on "Manscaping" was, "I have no idea what this is".
** For those from a more recent generation, MCP means "Male Chauvinist Pig", referring to men who staunchly opposed any moves towards gender equity in society or the workplace.