Content Warning: Masturbation.
Hey, are you a man?
Or were you at some point?
Ever noticed how November seems to have these two really weird ideas in them?
Okay, so, for those who aren’t paying attention or not in the countries that do these things, there are two fairly-commonly men-centric ‘events’ that run in November. The first is Movember, which deserves more credence because for a start, it’s an actual charity. The basic idea is that you go without shaving for a whole month, and people who normally see you without a mustache notice, comment on it, and that gets the conversation started to talk about the charity and its aims.
It’s not a terrible impetus for a charity, and it does work with something pretty reasonable – lots of guys don’t have facial hair, and making it so growing facial hair is used as a kickoff point to talk about men’s health isn’t a bad thing. Broadly speaking, Movember also wants to do things that an actual charity does – it asks you to raise money, it asks you to ask others to raise money, and it looks at ways it can put that money to use. It’s a registered charity. Movember is doing work for men’s health, which is more than you can say for a lot of other things in the same space.
It’s got a dark cousin in November, though, the weirdly fascist ‘no nut november.’ For those of you not aware of this one, it’s kind of a game or meme or event, where you spend the entire month of november not ejaculating, and it’s presented as a challenge. Now, I’ve been in a community that tried for No Nut Ever, and it wasn’t a lot of fun, but what’s really weird about it is that No Nut November is explicitly tied into alt-right and fascist misogynist movements.
See, the idea seems to be that masturbation and ejaculation are ways that women can take control over you. The idea is that if you can resist masturbating for a month, you show more power over your own desires than the other people around you. What’s more, because this is a conversation that tends to intersect with the space of Professionally Attractive Women on the Internet, you get instagram ladies making remark on No Nut November, as a fun, ‘hey, I’m so hot, you’re going to lose No Nut November.’
And like, yeah. This creates a weird tension where there’s this conversatoin about No Nut November, where it’s a thing and it’s a valid conversation for people, and yet, if you already think of women as being manipulative and controlling (and have a lot of misogynistic opinions already), this way of talking about it can turbo-charge it.
I don’t think you’re in a situation to worry about it if you’re reading this, but if you are.
If you were worrying about No Nut November.
Juuuust don’t worry about it.