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National Man Day Celebrates Masculinity
To me the symbol of National Man Day could be the red Craftsman Tool Chest. I can still see the shiny Craftsman sitting in my grandfather’s garage. He fought in World War II in the Pacific. He never talked about it. He was a man.
June 15 marks the third National Man Day, which, like all great things, started when “my brother, a buddy and I were talking at work one day,” says Aaron Longanecker, co-founder. In 2009 they launched a Facebook page, and 300,000 men signed on that year. Then came the media: Fox News, National Public Radio, and the New York Post. The country had National Man Day fever. Longanecker realized they hit a nerve.
“I feel like men make a lot of compromises. There is no day throughout the year that focuses on men.” Portrayals of men in the media also played a role. “Men are being grossly misrepresented in the media today.”
I asked Longanecker to name the most egregious example, the one that really got him fired up. He mentioned a hackneyed hit TV show that ran 6 seasons on CBS, “Yes, Dear.”
“I watched two episodes of that show. The men were represented, for lack of a better word, as a bunch of pussies. They hid behind their wives all the time. They were cowardly,” he says.
What better way to counter-balance the American-male-as-doofus stereotype than to start a day devoted to doing manly things? The Facebook page features a picture of a regular guy holding a rocket-launcher on his shoulders. I hope he has a permit for that.
All in fun. All for a cause. But now, Longanecker wants to emphasize the serious side of this masculine holiday.
“We want to change the behavior of men in America, being better fathers and being better dudes in general. We’re in favor of guys taking care of their own responsibilities,” Longanecker said. He plans to spend the day volunteering at a Boy’s and Girl’s Club in his hometown of Richmond, Indiana.
And men’s health has become a priority. Longanecker and his brother are urging men to get prostate cancer screenings. In case you think Longanecker brushes off such things as education and book-learning as unmanly, he recently completed a Master’s degree in management. He wrote his thesis on the role of men in America. Longanecker acknowledges the changes in society, and he truly supports equality for women.
“Men's traditional roles are not the way they've been. Men not being the sole provider or the main provider. I understand and appreciate the feminist movement. As women have gotten more and more rights, that has been good, but men are portrayed as these bumbling idiots,” Longanecker said.
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