Australia: Mens ambassador debates depression suicide link

In Canada, suicide is the leading cause of death for men aged 25-29 and 40-44. [Source: Mishara. "Suicide Section of Intentional Injuries Background Paper. [Listening for Directions on Injury"]

Dr. Augustine J. Kposowa, University of California at Riverside, examined the link between suicide and marital status using data on nearly 472,000 men and women included in the National longitudinal mortality study. 545 of these individuals committed suicide 1979-1989. 'Men were nearly 4.8 (the gap is increasing each year) times as likely to commit suicide as women,' he wrote in March 15th 2000 (54:254-261) issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Dr. Kposowa elaborated further: "Divorced or separated men are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as men who remain married. The link between divorce and suicide in men holds true even after adjusting for other factors associated with suicide risk, including age, income and level of education. Race is also a factor, with 50 percent more white than black men committing suicide.

For women a marital split is not a significant risk factor for suicide whereas age is a stronger factor than marital status. The suicide rates were higher for women over 65.”

In a comprehensive Australian study of 4,000 suicides P.J.M. Baume, et al. found that 70% of adult male suicides were preceded by a relationship break-up. Chris Cantor, one of co-authors of the study said: “It seems highly likely that most suicide problems associated with separated men may relate to child access problems.”

A study of 13 European countries by the regional European office of the World Health Organization found that divorce was the only factor linked with suicide in every one of the 13 countries. The study showed that factors like poverty, unemployment, and disability were associated with divorce in some of the countries but that disruption of the family was the only factor linked with divorce in all 13.

Christine Winquist Nord and Nicholas Zill in their report called "Non-Custodial Parents' Participation in Their Children's Lives: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation Volume II Final Report" write: “Policy makers may want to consider ways in which they could reduce the psychological stress that non-resident fathers feel. Steps that try to involve the fathers in truly meaningful ways in their children's lives and that award them a sense of control may ease their stress and reduce the tendency for them to remove themselves”.

The denigration of men begins early in the lives of boys. Doris Lessing, a well known feminist, said at the 2001 Edinburgh Book Festival: “I was in a class of 9 - 10 year olds, girls and boys, and this young woman was telling these kids that the reason for wars was the innately violent nature of men ... you could see the little boys sat there crumpled, apologising for their existence, thinking this was going to be the pattern of their lives.” (The Guardian, August 14, 2001).

In family courts men are routinely robbed of everything that they own. They lose their homes for which they have worked tirelessly, their children and any possibility to provide for themselves in the future.

In their “Policy statements” the Doctor’s Reform Society Men’s Health Policy (Australia) offers one example of our culture’s pathologising view boys and men: 8.3 Men's Health: 8.3.3 “The DRS believes that increased attention to lifestyle changes (such as exercise, reduction of alcohol consumption, and strategies to reduce violence) are more important in improving the health of men than technological improvements in health care.”

The word “violence” appears seven times in the above document which is mere 250 words long.

McGill University (Montreal, Canada) researchers P. Nathanson and K. Young, in their book called "Spreading Misandry: the teaching of contempt for men in popular culture" say that the goal of their research is to show that “our society has not only silenced men per se, but also dehumanised them” (p. 18) They found that the Library of Congress (U.S.) has 3 books under the heading misandry and thousands under misogyny.

For a while, a new worldwide trend in "health" information was the proliferation of "Men's Health" Websites. Rather than disseminating health related information the majority continue the stereotypical portrayal of men as an irresponsible herd of buffoons, collectively pursuing their destructive and abusive lifestyles with little regard to the consequences.

The first World Conference on Men's Health was held in Vienna, Austria, in November 2001. As a result, the International Society for Men's Health (Now called “International Society for Men’s Health and Gender”) was established. Further, the "International Journal of Men's Health" was launched in January 2002 in the U.S. under the editorship of Will Courtenay.

The Conference began and ended with the theme of gender inequalities, meaning that women have been, and continue to be, the victims of patriarchy.

Sydney feminist Eva Cox expressed the prevailing attitude when she reportedly said about male suicide: “maybe men’s competence in this area should make them feel better” [Source: Good Weekend Magazine of 26 August 2000]

Clearly it is useless to throw money on an ever increasing number of social services which only focus on the symptoms and intentionally ignore the causes. This approach maybe an excellent method to produce job opportunities to the otherwise unemployable women’s studies graduates but rather than solving the problem it will enlarge it.