GUYnECOLOGY

some friends and i are working on a men's health zine. i'm excited about it. i feel really strongly that many populations are underrepresented in holistic healthcare and that men are one of these.

feminists decided to take their bodies back from the capitalist, patriarchal system with publications such as our bodies, ourselves and women's bodies, women's wisdom which grew from some of the consciousness-raising groups of the 1960s and 70s, with susun weed's new-agey "wise woman tradition" of herbal medicine which grew from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, and with the 1980's and 90's punk culture in zines like hot pantz.

many of my female friends have "taken charge of their fertility," know how to treat yeast and bladder infections, know how to bring on a missed period, and/or have had natural pregnancies and homebirths.

i don't know very many men who know the first thing about their health, seek herbal or holistic medicine, or go to a doctor for anything less than a broken bone. in a way i think this is a good thing. i don't trust healthcare providers. i am one. i still don't trust us. the first way to prevent illness is to avoid going to the doctor and/or the hospital. to a point.

but men get sick. there are illnesses, diseases, and afflictions that bother mostly or only male-bodied people. i don't really know what they are besides prostate troubles and i don't know if there are very many men in my community who know what they are either.

that's a problem. it's the problem we are trying to confront with this zine.

another problem is patriarchy. patriarchy is keeping men from healing themselves. it conditions men into thinking they are an island, powerful, virile, healthy. to admit having illness or the possibility of illness is to admit they are not all-powerful, invincible. preventing and treating illness are not manly things to do.

but patriarchy is also causing dis-ease. not only in the women who it physically oppresses, mentally, physically, and emotionally. but also in the men that patriarchy puts into the roles of oppressors.

patriarchy reenforces unhealthy psychological afflictions in men such as the cycle of abuse, addictions, co-dependence, withholding emotions, unnurturing father roles, emotional bankruptcy, jealousy, and rage. in my opinion, these psychological afflictions can bring about physical symptoms such as chronic infection, heart problems, asthma, and cancer.

in our zine we are trying not to create an apology for patriarchy, but rather offer a critique of and response to the cultural situation we find ourselves in.

utilising the templates our foremothers have created in the above-mentioned books and zines, we would like to create an anti-patriarchal men's health movement, supporting men on their paths to an egalitarian partnership society.