Yesterday was the International Day of the Boy Child.
I initially saw it on someone’s status and I had to go make further inquiries to make sure it’s true cause if it was a female celebration, we would know a week or even a month before!
I found out that the celebration started in 2018 and I also discovered that the UN doesn’t officially recognize International Men’s Day which is celebrated on the 19th of November every year.
I had a lot of expectations yesterday, to see a lot of men post, and to see people talk about this celebration but I was disappointed.
I saw more women posts than men and I was confused for a bit, why was that?
Don’t misconstrue this: men posted, I liked a video done by the newscentraltv Host Osarogie but I couldn’t feel the buzz from men or even people alike.
It led me to think this was and I came up with two reasons:
A. It would be difficult for the average African man to want to celebrate themselves on their day because the themes (men should cry, men should be vulnerable, men speak up when abused) surrounding International Men’s Day and International Day for the boy child is totally against what he believes in or what he grew up knowing.
B. As a society are we ready to be receptive to men when they finally become vulnerable, when they decide to walk into a room and speak up about an abuse they faced, or even cry? Are we ready to accept that man? Or do we feel secondhand embarrassment that they are crying like a ‘woman’?
Or was there a genuine lack of knowledge about the celebration?
Nobody knew it existed?
I love the awareness and the little buzz but we could do better.
I’m not just asking the men to change themselves but society should start morphing their mindset to knowing that there’s nothing like an emotion a man or a woman feels separately.
We are all human beings and innately these emotions would surely be there, some people have just learned how to suppress theirs.
PS: i dont know why i can’t upload pictures!