What does “normal” really mean? Besides your grandmother, and maybe your parents, do you know anyone who is truly “normal?” There’s a list of normal Hollywood celebrities that includes Matt Damon, Johnny Depp and Jennifer Aniston, but are they really normal? That famous, last-century psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud made a stab at defining normal: “Every normal...Continue reading
Category: Masculinity
My Men’s Movement: 45 Years on the Path
Part 1 My Father, Myself, My Future By Jed Diamond, PhD When I began writing this I realized I couldn’t talk about the Men’s Movement because, for me, my involvement is personal and I don’t seem to fit within any one tributary within the Men’s Movement river. Wikipedia says, “The men’s movement is a social...Continue reading
Fatherhood with Klinefelters
What’s the most common definable cause of azoospermia among infertile men? Here’s a hint: it’s also pretty common in general, occurring in 1/500 male births. Answer: Klinefelter syndrome. Men who have it possess an extra X chromosome in every cell in their bodies. It’s inherited, and about equally so from mothers and fathers. The fact is that most men don’t know about...Continue reading
Prostate Health Index
October marks the beginning of all things pink, as Breast Cancer Awareness month kicks off, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about Prostate Cancer and the awareness we which we raised for it in September. Not only do we want to keep raising awareness throughout the year, but always strive to achieve better standards...Continue reading
The Truth About Vasectomy and Pain
I give a Certificate of Honor to specially recognize every patient on whom I perform a vasectomy. It’s really quite nice and very frameable. “Why?” You ask. Well, it’s not that a no scalpel vasectomy is the most gruesome thing that a man could experience in his life. It’s just that, in the real world of fish stories and Internet tales,...Continue reading
“Sonning”
The following is an excerpt from John Lee’s forthcoming book, Breaking the Mother-Son Dynamic, due out in 2015. One day in my mid-forties I called my mother and very gently and compassionately said, “Mom, you’re fired! I don’t need you to be mothering me anymore. In mid-life, I had been a college teacher for twelve...Continue reading
A New Purpose
Winning. That’s what matters most – at least that’s what I imagine former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Joe Ehrmann believed while playing in the NFL early in his career. And then tragedy struck. On the same year he played in the Pro Bowl, Joe’s brother Billy lost his life to cancer. Following Billy’s death, his...Continue reading
Tomorrow’s Hope
May 24, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was a memorable day–the day that my friend, and health policy wonk, Adam Dougherty’s life changed forever. Arguably one of the most important days of his life, my good friend was crossing a major threshold, another chapter of adulthood; Saturday, May 24 was his wedding day. A...Continue reading
Four Skills Every Man Should Possess
Being born a man is a matter of chance, but being a real man is a matter of knowledge and skill. Geohive reports that, of the 6.89 billion people in the world, there are about 60 million more men. There’s a lot of men on the planet, but what separates “the men” from “The Men”...Continue reading
Healthy Start Fathers: Real Life, Real Dads
By Kenn Harris, National Healthy Start Association, Dads Matter Initiative and Armin Brott, Mr. Dad We all know (or at least we should know) how important fathers are in their children’s lives. Children with involved fathers get better grades and are more likely to graduate high school. They’re less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol or...Continue reading