Let’s set the scene here (I promise I will finish chronicling my adventures in the land of rainbows and Spam musubi later):
2006, Sydney, Australia. I see what looks like a reincarnation of Ron Jeremy walking down the hall:
Me: “Kane, what’s with the uh, caterpillar facial hair?”
Kane: (in his Kiwi accent) “Don’t you know, it’s Movember.”
Me: “Mo. What?”
Kane: “Movember. I’m growing out my ‘mo to support awareness on testicular cancer and stuff.”
Me: “Oh…what? How does that work?”
Kane: “Well, people basically sponsor me to look like a creepy 1970s porn star for a month.”
Me: “Sponsor you?”
Kane: “Yeah, they donate to the ‘Mo fund so that I’ll keep the ‘mo til end of the month. Then comes the shave. THE SHAVE.”
Me: “Oh, so you’re saying they PAY to see you look like Burt Reynolds’ offspring?”
Kane: “You got that right.”
My first exposure to Movember was, in fact, in the birthplace of the Movember movement. Credit the Aussies, they’ve got a good thing going. I remember seeing men everywhere with some of the funniest / ugliest / most absurd / most amazing mustaches known to man. And have since loved November that much more.
There isn’t much attention given to men’s health issues. There’s an overwhelming aknowledgement that Breast Cancer Awareness month is October and the Susan G. Komen Foundation has pretty much Pink’d out about every product possible in an effort to get the word out on this cause. But when it comes to Movember, I still hear a lot of questions surrounding the sudden appearance of the ubiquitous ‘mo in the month of November.
Nobody knows better than women, just how much men and doctors do not get along. I grew up with a family of stubborn men who often refused to go to annual checkups, because “nothing was wrong”. Anything less than a guy’s arm being accidentally dislocated and thrown across the street on a neighbor’s lawn didn’t merit a doctor’s visit, apparently.
If you poll your female friends with husbands, boyfriends, fathers, you’ll see that this isn’t an uncommon approach to healthcare in the male world. The “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, don’t even go in for maintenance” rule of thumb has just stuck, for some reason. But if you look at any urologist’s waiting room, you’ll see a reasonable percentage of men who skipped annual check-ups, didn’t discuss their ongoing pain or suspicions that something may be wrong, and waited until treatment proved difficult.
Movember isn’t just about raising money and awareness for men’s health issues. It’s to strike an open conversation about what can keep men healthier, what small steps they (and people close to them) can take to open up dialogue about health and potential health problems. We all love our brothers, fathers, sons, husbands, boyfriends. So dedicate November not just to a tasty, juicy turkey, but also to the health and wellness of our fellas.
This initiative is deeply personal, and it isn’t. I think it has the potential to become personal to everyone at some point, and so my friend El and I have decided to become, for the first time, ‘Mo Sistas. So, if you can, please help us in our goal of raising some money for the cause. Thank you X infinity.
My Mo Space
We are, of course, being women, (thankfully) unable to grow the ‘mo physically but will update with uh, our creative takes on the modern-day ‘mo…more to come!
The Girl Wander 