Dear Healthy Men: Do women really find men with beards more attractive than clean-shaven guys? A: According to the old story, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln grew a beard in response to a suggestion from an 11-year-old girl who said it would make him a more attractive presidential candidate. She was right. About 140 years later, another...Continue reading
Men and boys continue to have a higher death rate in nine of the 10 leading causes of death. Why? To start with, the overall healthcare system is inherently unfriendly to males. And, in some health care situations men tell us they do not feel welcome at all. There are other systemic concerns, including insufficient...Continue reading
You may be convinced that you are not very well endowed in your private parts. Certainly, using the Internet to figure out where you stand on size won’t help you feel any better about yourself. And, you can always find someone who will promise to make you bigger and better in any number of ways....Continue reading
About Sex: The Evolutionary Importance of Males and Females There is a lot of confusion about what it means to be male or female these days. Masculinity today is maligned and misunderstood. Some believe maleness itself is inherently destructive and should be eliminated. Others view males as superfluous. This idea is reflected in the witticism,...Continue reading
There’s a lot of focus on men these days, much of it negative. Many are concerned about the harm men cause to women, children, and other men. Others are concerned about the problems men cause to themselves. My work over the years has been to help men answer three questions that we all need to...Continue reading
My life was in turmoil. My marriage was in trouble. My two kids were suffering. I was very successful at work, but the stress was killing me. When I saw the flyer in Mill Valley I almost screamed. “Men, come and share a day with other men and hear psychologist Herb Goldberg, author of The Hazards...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: I’m completely convinced that my son has an eating disorder. When he was little, he was always a little on the heavy side. At about 11—right when puberty hit—he suddenly started dieting. At first, I was proud of him for taking charge of his own weight. He looked really good and seemed...Continue reading
As a female college student, I have participated in a fair number of conversations about body image and self-esteem. For many college women, these conversations revolve around how much they had to eat that day, that they cannot treat themselves for a while, or that they need to get back on the treadmill this semester....Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: My husband and I have a boy and a girl and we try as much as we can to treat them the same way. We don’t limit our daughter’s wardrobe to pink and our son’s to blue and we’ve banned gender-stereotyped toys from the house. But our daughter still behaves like a...Continue reading
As a young man, I often learned life lessons from my father. Perhaps none have been as lasting as the lesson he inadvertently taught me about health as his own health took a downward turn. While I was in middle school—a time when most boys are navigating puberty—my dad was busy prepping for heart valve...Continue reading