I'll admit it. I decided to look through a mainline newspaper to see if there would be a mention of International Men's Day 2020, even a negative one.

What I found was this opinion piece by a former chief executive of probably the biggest and well-known suicide and crisis helpline in Australia.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-s-bloke-blindspot-we-keep-overlooking-the-people-most-at-risk-of-suicide-20201119-p56fyf.html

Overall I think extremely positive in terms of awareness raising and pushing for a more targeted prevention approach for men.

Most intriguing to me was this little quote, which I didn't expect to see:

It doesn't help when men’s behaviour is sometimes generalised as “toxic”. Putting aside that “male toxicity” is in part an ideologically fuelled stereotype, this is unproductive. Shame and blame don’t change someone’s behaviour, especially if they are mentally ill or emotionally fragile or developing as men.

As the father of young sons at a private school said to me: “We know the boys are growing up in a really privileged way. Therefore, it’s our job to impart lessons about values like humility and responsibility. But it’s hard when there are so many messages out there saying that boys are somehow inherently bad. You can see how that explains a lot of hopelessness and defeat.”

The article doesn't mention IMD, though it is relevant to this year's theme, and to the month of Movember.