We celebrate International Women's Day with such fanfare and are advocates of an equal society but forget to celebrate International Men's Day in the same breath. While we all acknowledge the fact that the current society is lopsided, this was the wrongdoings of decades and centuries. The current men are just handed this broken society and as with the majority of broken stuff in a house, they are expected to 'fix it'.
There are a few instances though where in the whole process of a gender equilibrium, men get adversely affected. And yes, a few opportune women take advantage of the soft corner that society has for them. When consensual relations get sour, the guy gets lynched in public. Women use it as a revenge mechanism and we all turn a blind eye. While DEI is so rampant, it's not to say that recruitment decisions are flawless and unbiased - it's an unspoken fact that a woman stands a higher chance of getting a job if the current number of women working there is relatively low. The whole gender equality thing is going for a toss, but I have no solutions on how it can be rectified such that men don't face the brunt of it in the interim.
There are so many men I have interacted with socially/at workplaces (and a few in my own family) that make me cringe with their cave men attitude and chauvinistic thinking. But fortunate to know and interact with a growing breed of men who consciously or subconsciously are doing their part to make the world around them just and fair. In the process, many take on more than their share of the burden and sacrifice more than they ought to. Movements like Movember shed light on the rising mental health issues and a known neglect of physical health that men undergo - putting family first over self. Trevor Noah's recent talk on men vulnerability and lack of intimacy is so raw and moving !
