Tom Matlack, one of the gents working for the Good Men Foundation, is my guest poster today. Swing by and check out the website.
There's also an Essay Contest running now through May, and it's for a great cause:
“There is no more important question at this moment in history–with markets collapsing, corruption rampant, two foreign wars, environmental disaster at hand, and the fabric of the American family disintegrating–than what it means to be a "good" man. The conventional wisdom is that men don't like to talk about their interior lives. But James Houghton and I have come to the conclusion, after running a venture capital firm together for a decade, that conventional wisdom is wrong and that men are desperate to tell their stories and hear how other men have met the challenges of our time.
We have collected a cross-section of men–black, white, brown, gay, straight, rich, poor, liberal, conservative in small towns and big cities–to help us look at this issue by writing about a moment that shaped them as a man. We have a drug lord who spent 15 years in Sing Sing and the US Noble Laureate; a football Hall-of-Famer and a Russian Kick-Boxer; a sniper scout in Iraq and the best known war photo journalist covering that war; drug addicts and stay-at-home dads. We have Pulitzer prize winners (Charlie LeDuff), Golden Globe winners (Matt Weiner) and just regular guys–fathers, sons, husbands–grappling with what the hell to do as a man when the world is falling apart around them and what, in the end, really is important.
At the center of our project is our website: www.goodmenbook.org and our blog www.goodmenbook.org/blog and the forthcoming book Good Men: Real Stories of How We Grow Up, Get Over It, and Get on with Our Lives. The goal of these print and electronic forums is to begin a national discussion amongst men. To that end we are kicking off a national Essay contest March 1 (which runs through May). At a time of darkness, this is a unique opportunity, in our minds, for a reassessment and a new perspective on the part of men in our country.
Our mission is modeled after Newman’s Own. The Good Men Foundation will support men and boys at-risk across America. All proceeds from our book, magazine and merchandise go to the foundation which fund The Boys & Girls Clubs and Big Brother and Big Sisters, among many other organizations doing work with boys looking to become GOOD MEN.”
Bluestalking 
Awesome – in a day where making men look like total boobs on TV is celebrated (but don’t you dare make fun of the woman!) it’s good to know that there are other positive images of men out there.
You know, I love the idea of women being powerful and all, but I don’t agree with some of the stereotypes coming from women about men. Like, “If women ran the world, there’d be no war.” BULL SH*T! Just look at how they trample each other at those designer bridal dress sales.
I love men! I have an amazing Dad & husband. So way to go –
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A aerious question (to which I don’t expect an answer) that comes to my mind every time I read a post like this is “How come, with so many people involved in so many organisations with good and charitable objectives throughout the world do we still manage to have a world that is in a mess?” I just can’t fathom it out.
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