What is Movember?
Movember, as you can tell by the name, is held in the month of November. Every year, during this month, men grow a moustache to raise awareness about men’s health issues. People, then, support these men who have grown a moustache by donating money to a men’s health charity. An important question you might be asking, though, is why does Movember matter? Well, in this blog we’re going to explain three important reasons to care about Movember and why men’s health matters.
Movember fights against negative mental health stereotypes
A harmful stereotype about men is that they should always be strong and not talk about their mental health problems. The issue with this is that men are people, and like all other people men can get depressed or anxious or suffer from any other type of mental illness. So the stereotype that men should be stoic and ignore (or fight through) their mental health problems can have some serious consequences. Men are less likely to get help for their mental health issues and this can lead to terrible results like suicide. Movember promotes mental health awareness for men, and makes men realise that it’s ok to get help.
Movember promotes awareness of men’s physical health
Because of embarrassment men often ignore symptoms of illnesses that affect only them. Things like testicular or prostate cancer are deadly illnesses that many times go undiagnosed because men don’t want to admit that they can be sick. Movember tries to take away this embarrassment and make it acceptable to talk about, and seek help for, health issues that affect men.
Movember changes old-fashioned stereotypes
Finally, Movember’s biggest achievement is to change these stereotypes that hurt both men and women. Just because you’re a man doesn’t mean you can’t suffer from a mental or physical health problem, so it’s time to break the silence and encourage men to get the help they need.
Too many men are dying young, and Movember is trying to change this. If you want to support Movember you can grow a moustache or donate money.
Read more about Mental Health from our latest blog posts about this topic: