Ssshhh, I have a secret I want to share.
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It was recently International Men's Day - or maybe it wasn't.
A local regional health district said International Men's Day was on Sunday, December 3, but a quick Google search said it was actually November 19.
Not that anyone seemed to care, because it came and went like a fart in a hurricane - unseen, unheard and unnoticed, with the date uncertainty just a symptom of the fact no-one paid attention to the day.
It certainly didn't get any of the fanfare associated with so many other international days
And it never has, since it was begrudgingly started in 1999 - a full 90 years after International Women's Day was established.
Yet while International Men's Day was founded as a global awareness day for many issues men face, including parental alienation, abuse, homelessness, suicide, and violence, it still feels as tokenistic as some of the other weird days out there - akin to a day for left-handed librarians who need to wear shoes of different sizes.
Actually, I take that back, because if there actually was an international day for left-handed librarians who need to wear shoes of different sizes, there would actually be some media and interest about people in that predicament.
But instead men - or males across the board - seem to be seen as a problem.
And it starts pretty much from day one, when little boys are sent into pre-schools and schools, where they are inevitably under the charge of female educators, and encouraged to follow the female of idea of "being good" - which is sitting still and being quiet.
Of course boys do not learn the same way as girls, and many need to run around and be physically active.
Forcing them to instead sit still and be quiet results in many becoming fidgety and distracted, and there are too many cases of female teachers thinking young boys have learning problems or even ADHD because they spend all their class time staring out the window - where they want, or even need, to be out running around.
It doesn't stop as the boys grow older.
In fact Celia Lashlie, author of the acclaimed book "He'll be OK - growing beautiful boys into good men", said she believed teenage boys needed to take a break from classes every hour and spend a few minutes putting eachother in headlocks if they were to be successful in education.
Now I know there will be many out there who say that every day is men's day, that men have the inside lane and a decent head start in the race of life, that men don't need to be celebrated any more than nature already gives them.
And fair enough.
But just think about this for a second - the number of men who die by suicide in Australia each year is about double the national road toll.
Why is this happening, if being a man is so awesome and full of so many opportunities?
And why has that number not reduced, despite funding being given to so many organisations?
Is it because many of the organisations trying to help address the issue have been designed by women and staffed by women?
Is this just the adult version of the early classroom, where little boys are forced to deny the essence of who they are in order to be seen as "good", by authority figures who assume there is something wrong with the boys, rather than correcting the way they are teaching?
For crisis support call Lifeline Australia 24/7 on 13 11 14, or children and young people can call Kids Helpline Official 24/7 on 1800 55 1800 or chat online at kidshelpline.com.au.
The 24/7 national crisis line support for Indigenous Australians is 13 Yarn or 13 92 76
For non-crisis support call MensLine Australia on 1300 78 99 78, or Beyond Blue on 1800 51 23 48.
