The ABC and the UN Ignoring Men

A couple of days ago, 19 November, it was International Men’s Day, although you may not have known it depending on what media you consume. Places like Kenya celebrate it, as shown onscreen. I was only reminded about it because a viewer told me, hence why I’m making this video. Despite the rhetoric of some segments of society, men often suffer too. Here are some facts onscreen, some that you may already know, such that men’s life expectancy is at least four years less than women, and perhaps other facts you might not have known but could probably have guessed such as 94% of workplace fatalities are men. The media continually remind us about the so-called gender pay gap, but they often forgot to mention that the jobs men tend to do are often dirty and dangerous. In recent years, it feels like it’s become a conversation about equality driven by women. Personally, I’m not a big fan of “days” in general, but by highlighting which days are celebrated, and which days are not, it’s a good indication of where society places its priorities. And what better place to check than the United Nations!

“We are the global champion for gender equality.” They also have a page that lists all their recognised International Days and Weeks. If you search through that list for all mentions of women, or related terms, this is what we get: International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, International Women’s Day, International Day of Women Judges, International Girls in ICT Day, International Widows’ Day, International Day of Women in Diplomacy, International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent, International Day of the Girl Child, International Day of Rural Women, and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. That’s eleven days directly related to women and girls. How many do you think there are regarding men? Go on, guess. Zero. The closest I could find was Nelson Mandela Day. Actually, that reminds me. A South African colleague of mine told me that if I ever wanted to sell a book, write one about Nelson Mandela. It will be a guaranteed success.

Just to double-check myself, I asked AI, and it replied, “The United Nations doesn’t officially recognise specific days dedicated solely to men, unlike International Women's Day. However, International Men’s Day is celebrated on November 19th each year.” It’s funny, in the UN’s list of observed days, they recognise World Tuna Day, World Toilet Day, International Day of the Arabian Leopard, and International Day of the Potato, and no, I’m not making these up. Look, I like potatoes, but aren’t men at least as important as potatoes? The only thing I can conclude, is that the UN are intentionally excluding men. They are intentionally excluding half the world’s population. It’s certainly not an oversight. I would argue that you don’t solve equality by ignoring half the global population.

If you search our taxpayer-funded ABC for International Men’s Day, they literally don’t mention it. All Australians pay for this train wreck, but half of us don’t get a mention, unless of course, it’s about violence against women, gender inequality, then there’s plenty of information about that. Of course, there’s endless articles about International Women’s Day. “International Women’s Day means more than cupcakes”. No, really?

To be fair to the ABC, they did do a piece last year on “International men’s day puts spotlight on high rate of male suicide”, but this year, they seem to have skipped it. I’m sure there’s journalists at the ABC who want to talk about this sort of staff, but obviously, the powers that be don’t let them.

So what did the ABC talk about for this year’s International Men’s Day? The gender pay gap of course! “Gender pay gap means women on average working for free from today until end of year”, “Why half the population is working for free from now until 2025”. Yes, Happy International Men’s Day by rubbing this gender pay gap nonsense in your face. In this video released the same day, “Report finds gender pay gap narrowing quicker under Labor”. I find it hard to believe that 16 people actually “liked” this video. Actually, in the very first sentence, the reporter says, “The gender pay gap is the difference between the average amount that men and women earn in Australia. It is not equal pay. Equal pay is getting paid the same for similar or comparable work between men and women. That’s been the law for 50 years.” There you go, case closed! We have reached equality! But no, they somehow turn that around and say it’s unfair that women’s average income is less than men’s. I’m not going to go into that here, I’ll do that in another video, but obviously, equality is not the goal anymore.

The UN might not care. The ABC might not care, but some of us do care. Happy International Men’s Day.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn