Before we leave the month of November in just a few days, it would seem appropriate to spend a little time, via a thread, on some facts about
this month's event known as Movember.
I say "event" rather than "holiday," because Movember isn't really a "holiday" in the sense that celebrations like Thanksgiving and Christmas are.
And while its observance technically extends all the way through this month, a good many people outside of the PCa circle aren't even aware of it.
Some facts about
it, from a number of websites:
WHAT EXACTLY IS IT?"Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of Men's Health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide."HOW DID IT GET STARTED AND HOW OLD IS IT?"In 1999 ... a group of young men in Adelaide, South Australia, coined the term "Movember" and ... (inspired) ... the idea of growing moustaches for charity throughout the month of November ... they came up with the idea for Movember one night in a pub."
"Three years after starting the Movember movement, the organization was granted official charity status in Australia ... (then) after spreading to South Africa and Europe, (it) reached North America in 2006. In 2009, Movember obtained official charity status in the United States." HOW DID THE NAME "MOVEMBER" COME about? "It is a portmanteau of the Australian-English diminutive word for moustache, "mo," and the month name "November."IS THERE AN ORGANIZATION THAT OVERSEES IT?"The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at Movember.com. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health."See
https://us.movember.com/ for more details.
OTHERMen who participate in its activities are known as "Mo Bros."
"Since inception, the Movember Foundation has raised $837 million and funded over 1,200 projects in more than 20 countries."
"In 2012, the Global Journal listed Movember as one of the world's top 100 NGOs (non-government organizations)."THE MOSCARS ("Mo" + "Oscars")"The charity launched The Moscars in 2010, an online global user-submitted video contest that helps Movember participants showcase their involvement in the movement. Submissions cannot be longer than 4 minutes each, and prizes can be won in several categories." Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbkqvdldaicInterestingly, activities such as the above "Moscars" have lead to criticism of the movement as being too much into "showmanship," and not enough into the more serious aspects of promoting men's health concerns.
Criticisms such as
"Movember’s emphasis on screening tests ... place well-intentioned men in unhelpful conflict with their doctors. Meanwhile, the far more pressing concerns of mental illness, alcohol and substance misuse, smoking, and obesity are pressed into near silence."and
"(There is) ... mostly focus on the social aspect of the Movember campaign, with relatively few tweets focusing on the health aspect of Movember. Additionally, those users that do mention health related issues, often use generic statements, instead of focusing on the two specific health issues that Movember aims to address (cancer and mental health)."OTOH, perhaps it can be argued that the dance party atmosphere that can accompany some Movember events, such as
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=movember+dance+party+youtube&mid=1ad6755c24b4ac3125641ad6755c24b4ac312564&form=vire can serve to "get out the word" about
men's health issues, which is not a bad thing. (No such thing as bad publicity?).
Nevertheless, the presence of November in the PCa world is firmly established, and despite what may or may not be areas needing improvement, its influence and contributions to PCa charity work are noteworthy.
So it would seem worthwhile to take a little time to know a bit more about
it.
Especially during November.