So it’s international mens day. I’m very glad it exists because mens issues really need to be talked about, and it seems that cultural conversation is slowly coming to the fore.

Unfortunately, a lot of discussion of the truly important topics around men have been horribly co-opted by the MRA movement who tend to pull everything back to an anti-feminist agenda and misogyny.

But we seem to be moving past that and slowly topics like the extremely high rate of suicide in men, the absence of discussion for male victims of abuse and rape and slowly but surely being properly talked about.

As we as a society continue to interrogate toxic masculinity and name and examine patriarchal power structures it’s been nice to see men talk about the fact these structures act as a sort of prison, and crush men under unhealthy expectations and pushing them into self harming behaviour.

Earlier this year I found the mens lib board on Reddit, and to have a space where men are openly trying to construct a positive, healthy masculinity and provide a space for men to openly discuss and heal their trauma has been a great thing. I really hope 2020 will be a year we see real change.