November is for Men

If you have not referred to November as Movember, where have you been?

Movember is a month dedicated to men’s health where men are encouraged to let their mustaches grow as an awareness gimmick for prostate, testicular and suicide prevention. These three diseases take too many men too early, and the Movember organization’s goal is to reduce the number of premature males deaths by 25% by 2030.

Movember has great recognition here in the US, but International Men’s Day, also in November, is less known here.

International Men’s Day is November 19, 2021. They are The 6 Pillars of International Men’s Day:

1. To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and sports men but every day, working class men who are living decent, honest lives.
2. To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and to the environment.
3. To focus on men’s health and wellbeing; social, emotional, physical and spiritual.
4. To highlight discrimination against men; in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law
5. To improve gender relations and promote gender equality
6. To create a safer, better world; where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential.

This year’s focus is on improving relations between gender and promoting equality.

IMD was founded by  Dr Jerome Teelucksingh a history lecturer at University of the West Indies in Trinidad Tobago in 1999. There have been a few attempts to make IMD more widely celebrated and acknowledged in the US, but that has not happened yet.

IMD is meant to celebrate the value men bring to the community and their families, while also addressing some of the serious challenges facing men worldwide.

These challenges include: 

1. men have a suicide rate 3 times higher than women
2. 1 in 3 men have been the victims of domestic violence
3. men on average die 4-5 years before women
4. men are nearly twice as likely to suffer from lung cancer than women
5. men are nearly twice as likely to suffer from heart disease than women

To celebrate and support the wonderful men in your life visit one of these organizations’ websites today and learn more.