Moojinorbit

On a little road trip this weekend, Katie and I were wondering, as I’ve wondered over the years, what would be the equivalent of “mooj” for a man. This after Marshall sent Katie a postcard featuring the legendary Al Green looking kind of, um, moojlike, for a man.

Can we agree that a man-mooj would have the following characteristics, male parallels to the taboo-defying, groundbreaking, and gender expectation-busting mooj? He:

• loves, supports, and respects women–and this is not lipservice
• is not afraid to weep, dance, parent, clean up, or be vulnerable, because he doesn’t cowtow to society’s imposition of narrowly defined masculinity
• nevertheless is not soft in the pushover sense; he will stand up for the right, the good, the important
• has a wicked, sometimes self-effacing sense of humor
• cares deeply for other people
• believes in full-blown human equality and therefore navigates “marriage” as partnership
• listens
• expresses openly, but without sniveling

Stuff like that. I tried to think of all the men I know that fit this category, but have I forgotten anything?

Anyway, what word could we use to describe such allies and heroes? People like (off the top of my head) Barack Obama, John Cusack, Jerome Irons, George Stephanopolous, Michael Phelps (? the guy seems to adore the women in his life), Ben Harper, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Anderson Cooper, Keith Olbermann, the late James Baldwin, Eric Schneider, John Bon Jovi (don’t ask me why), and Damien Rice. These are some of my man heroes.

Katie and I came up with “homb”–prounounced hOHmb. It retains the Spanglish origins like mooj, but also has linguistic kinship with “homie”(is that good) and “womb” (good). I don’t know if it’s catchy enough, though. I need suggestions.

And, yes, Rachel Maddow has been all that I could ever ask for on her new show. I’m stuck like glue.

Palin, on the other hand, might be, as Jen suggested, categorized as an evil mooj, though I don’t like putting those two words together.