Movember - Changing the face of Men’s Health
Movember (the month formally known as November) is a charity event held during November each year. At the start of Movember, guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants known as ‘Mo Bros’ then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo (Australian slang for mustache) and along the way raise as much money and awareness about male health issues as possible.
Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck, Hulk Hogan and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title.
While growing a Mo (moustache) is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (ladies who support their guys or love Mo’s!) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Partés.
But it’s not all fun and games, so why the extreme behavior?
Which ever way we look at it, men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy for men is many years less than females; seven years less for African American men and five years less for Caucasian men. This is due to the lack of awareness about the very real health issues faced by males. Also contributing to the problem is an attitude of having to be tough “real men” and men’s reluctance to see a doctor about an illness or to go for regular medical checks.
The aim of Movember is to change this attitude, make male health fun by putting the Mo (mustache) back on the face of fashion and in the process raise some serious funds for key male health issues (prostate cancer being the top benefactor of this very worthwhile and unique initiative).