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The Girlfriend's Guide to Health will be updated every Tuesday.... Stay tuned dear readers and let me rock your world.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Last Days of Disco


November is officially over and I have never been more pleased for a month to end. I realize male solidarity is a lost art and that charity starts in the home but the month of “Movember” was 30 days too long. Let’s be frank… it was 30 days of the 1970’s gone way too far.

The “Movember Movement” challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days to raise money for prostate cancer.

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, the movement has continued to grow year after year, expanding to Canada, the US, UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands and Finland.

I like a moustache on a man as much as I like it on myself. There. I said it. It’s out there.

No I am not a tyrant. I am as much a fan of men getting together to fight prostate cancer as the next person. I hate prostate cancer. I hate all cancer. But do we really need to encourage good looking men of all shapes and sizes to sport some facial hair and adopt a 1970’s porn star persona all in the name of disease eradication?

What is with the stache? Seriously. Charity aside. I get the whole beard and mustache thing but a single stache? WTF? Sorry to insult my cyber brethren who may feel the need to warm their upper lips a’ la mother nature but dudes…. Come morning shave the damn caterpillar off. You look freaking ridiculous.

In fact just this very morning I was discussing the upper lip fuzzy movement with some of my male friends. We all agreed (or rather they dared not to disagree with me) that there are only two men alive who look better with a mustache than clean-shaven. The very short list includes: Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds.

I would argue that the mustache has been more a part of our history’s negative figures than any other facial feature. Take any world dictator past or present and more likely than not- he (or even she) had a stache.

In fact Salvador Dali was said to have grown his own flamboyant upper lip hair just because most dictators of the day were sporting the same.

Sure there are positive role models in Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin. But are these enough to erase the damage done by Yosemite Sam, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Fu Man Chu?? I think not.

In the spirit of fairness, the Movember movement really has been a remarkable one. It is a true exercise in what can happen when people join together for a cause.

The doctor in me warms with pride as I think of my male patients getting behind health promotion in order to educate one another and raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and men’s health.

The Girlfriend in me chuckles at how women with run marathons for breast cancer and restructure an entire marketing campaign around a pink ribbon to raise funds and awareness…. Boys? Boys forget to shave. Boys forget to shave and the money comes flying in….

According to the Movember Movement 4 million men sport a stache worldwide.

The Movember community has raised $574 million to date and funded over 800 programs in 21 countries.

Statistics show that men are more often diagnosed with cancer than women and have a higher rate of death from cancer. One in six Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Every day 70 Canadian men will be diagnosed with the disease.

So yes, there is good evidence that health promotion of men’s health is important and vital. I am a huge fan of grassroots fundraising initiatives that are geared towards raising health awareness and promotion. I’m all about raising awareness dear girlfriends, am I not?

That being said…. It’s been a long month of hairy faces. I, for one am grateful when December closes the door on MOVEMBER for yet another year. Boys, grab your shaving kits and get clipping. You had best be whisker free by dawn.