A day for men

Luther students recognized International Men’s Day with a Brown Bag discussion on male violence and bullying.

The event was held on Nov. 18, a day prior to the official observance, and was hosted by the Diversity Center, along with Counseling Services, and coordinated by Executive Director of the Diversity Center Sheila Radford-Hill.

“I think that people interested in gender studies should consider the implications of gender and sexuality as broadly as possible,” Radford-Hill said. “To me, this involves educating our campus about the role gender plays for boys and girls in our society.”

The theme of the event was “Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life.”

Administrative Assistant in the Diversity Center Hans Finanger played a large part in publicity and inviting Luther students to the event.

“The main goal of International Men’s Day is to consider how we can develop local solutions to the global problems boys face,” Finanger said. “Those challenges that we focused on this year were health, education, family life, violence and life choices.”

During the event, Counselor Stu Johnston showed a 10-minute trailer from a new documentary summarizing why the issue of masculinity is important to discuss.

“It seems to me that we as a society support and allow males to show emotion through aggression and assertion,” Finanger said.  “I feel this way because of how we reward competitiveness in business and sports. On the other hand, we hesitate to encourage men to show their emotions through sensitivity and care for one another. I think this is the bullseye of what International Men’s Day is about.” 

International Men’s Day has a history of more than 12-years. It was founded in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago to highlight achievements and contributions made by men and ways in which societies can promote gender equality and improve gender relations. Since then, it has gained support worldwide.

This is Luther’s second year participating.

“I was happy to see each of the students that came to the event. [It was] attended by both men and women, first–year through senior,” Finanger said. “I would have liked to see a more intense discussion take place on such an excellent topic, and certainly there’s more room for student groups and demographics to be represented.  Nevertheless it was great to gather and put many minds together on an important issue.”