The goodmenproject.com website includes the posting of accounts, by men and women who write of times in their lives when something happened that called into question what makes a good man.
“The Good Men Project Eats Stereotypes for Lunch,” is one of their slogans, which they use to help define their brand.
Branding is an unfortunate idiom, but it is quite understandable. Men used to forge a distinct logo out of iron, then heat that iron in order to burn an identifier into livestock. When the burn healed the scar, it told those who might claim a cow to be theirs, when the cow wasn’t thiers, they should think again.
Today a name brand means a product with a reputation for quality. If a potential consumer sees a product marked with a brand they know they may become interested in the product even before they look at it carefully, because they like the brand.
In this age of the dizzying parade of things to look at, good branding is more helpful then ever to determine what gets a closer look, what gets a pass and what a quick glance.
Brands are, of course, often misused. Brands can be faked. There are many popular knock offs where the product sports the right brand, but hides a fake product underneath. On the streets of New York City and elsewhere, you can get some great deals on hand bags and sunglasses if you don’t look at the good deal on a great brand too carefully.
Companies know they can sell stuff they don’t make so well by using their name, which makes good on products the company does make well. Brand name owners that are trusted can be bought out by corporations that shouldn’t be trusted. This is happening more and more in the business of media.
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So, what can be made of a brand that illustrates itself by describing what it had for lunch? It goes like this. Whatever you eat for lunch momentarily disappears. The body breaks down what just disappeared into fuel, cell repair, cell growth, and waste product. The Good Men Project is primarily interested in the “just make it disappear part,” when it comes to putting stereotypes on the lunch time menu.
When I write for The Good Men Project, I generally have a light breakfast and go heavy on the black coffee. I prefer to eat the stereotypes as to what makes a good man before I have lunch.
When I pause to check out goodmenproject.com to see what other writers have been having to eat, I don’t know what I will see and at the same time I do. What I know I will see is diversity. I know that it will be organic. Much of what is written for consumption on their website is composed of food grown near the grass roots of ordinary people.
Much media is focused is on what celebrities are eating, what they are eating off of and who they are eating it with, so much so that it can make you want to puke. The Good Men Project features cuisine from local diners, lunch boxes, paper bags, and pot luck suppers.
The food is never bland and can be quite spicy in a well-seasoned kind of way.
There are no pushy waiters telling you what you should be eating. If your taste runs to xenophobic crap, you will go hungry.
For generations, men have been force fed stuff designed to make them good wage slaves and cannon fodder. Men have been encouraged to distract themselves from their resultant indigestion with the abuse of women and the neglect of children. The Good Men Project shows how good food can be good medicine for good men who have been poorly fed.
I am having so much fun with the food metaphors that I fear getting that bloated feeling and just ignoring the focus. If you have read this far, you may have ralphed by now. In any case, I hope you have some room for dessert.
Good Men writers don’t just make stereotyping disappear, they can aid in its digestion. The human body is usually pretty clever when it comes to knowing when to store fat and when to burn it. It is clever at knowing when to hold fluids and when to take a good long piss. The body knows what to do by being mindful of situations.
There are situations where big boys not crying, manning up, showing no fear while scared shitless, loving lust, going for broke, and other traditional real men stuff is exactly what the situation requires.
The Good Men Project does a good job of maintaining its brand while not substituting one stereotype for another. That is, there is no Good Men Project stereotype as to what a good man should be.
The Good Men Project is an important project for all of humankind. This article may not be to your taste. If not, there is plenty on the goodmenproject.com menu to chose for lunch. Like eating your vegetables, you may need to hold your nose at first and later come to find the reading here is delicious, as well as nutritious.
Okay, now I am bloated with food metaphors. The good news is that its time for my lunch. I’m going to pass on having any stereotypes. I’ve got some great chicken salad from a little deli that I know about.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
As of yet, y comment has not come out of moderation
So why didnt GMP have a single article on International Men’s Day today?
Because this site is rarely about men.
It’s about men in the same way romance novel porn is. It’s a woman’s view of what men should be rather than what men are. Cue the cover picture with Fabio…and ACTION.
They need to rename the site ” The wussification of men”
My reply already disappieared into moder.ation
Not sure but they did manage to take a male birth control trial and make it all about women. But for some odd reason despite the story breaking weeks ago GMP just happen to decide to cover it on IMD.
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/we-dont-care-about-birth-control-side-effects-until-they-happen-to-men-wcz/