Shame that it went by without any discussion on issues facing men.
How about the high suicide rate in men and the state of male mental health? Only a few months ago a article on the Guardian regarding Male suicide rates in England and Wales reaching a two decade high (linked below). Maybe international men's day could have highlighted this issue?
We could have discussed (I'm speaking of the UK here) how in divorce cases, it is mostly always the mother that gets custody of the child. In fact, in the UK the father has very little rights at all to see their child after a divorce.
We could have talked about the damage of telling men they need to live up to this male stereotype. A stereotype that tells men they can't cry, show any emotions, never ask for help and be a walking Alpha 24/7. We could have talked about how trying to live up to this image causes huge mental distress.
We could have talked about these and a host of other issues facing men today. Yet we didn't. The day went by without a word. If it was mentioned, it was mocked with memes or damaging articles about how it's an opportunity to talk about the patriarchy.
Maybe next year we'll get progress.
Rate of 16.9 deaths per 100,000 in 2019 was highest since 2000, ONS data shows
www.theguardian.com