#Manning Gives You an Excuse to Cup Your Friends’ Balls

By Erik Oster 

In October, we brought you news of #mamming, “the act of laying your (clothed) boobs on a flat surface” to promote breast cancer awareness and remind women to get mammograms. Now, we have the sequel, thanks to a couple of mystery (we’re guessing British) creatives. If #mamming wasn’t ridiculous enough for you, you’re going to love this new parody, called #manning.

#Manning is “the act of cupping your hand onto a pair of (clothed) balls. A friend’s. A colleague’s. Maybe even a Michael Jackson-esque selfie?” While the idea is executed as a parody of mamming, the folks involved sincerely hope that people use it to promote “awareness of testicular cancer to the millions of men who should be regularly checking their balls.” As goofy as manning might be, testicular cancer is no joke, and if this stunt can get more guys to check their balls for cancer then that’s a good thing.

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Visitors to thisismanning.com are offered a quick definition and description of manning. As they scroll down the page they can view manning photos, read a (very) brief “About Us” section and learn how to participate. If you’d like to get involved you can Instagram a picture of yourself cupping balls, or having your balls cupped, with the hashtag #manning; talk to the dudes in your life about checking regularly for testicular cancer; or check out organizations like Movember, Everyman, Ballboys, and the Mark GorryFoundation. You might wonder about the timing of this campaign, coming as it does right after the end of Movember, but there’s never really a bad time to touch your balls.

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