'Don’t let the man bring you down'

Submitted by anthony on Thu, 2012-05-10 21:54

Article here. Excerpt:

'The same thing that makes many men a “manly” man is also the same thing that leads men to die, on average, 5-10 years before their female counterparts: masculinity.

Some argue that this difference is due to the sex hormone, testosterone, which makes younger men prone to make rash decisions. While higher testosterone levels slowly harden men’s arteries, the impact of natural and biologically oriented masculinity on society is very slight. Past the age of 35, testosterone slowly declines—fortunate because if not, men would die far earlier than they do already.
...
These arbitrary, hyper-masculine standards for what means to be a man cause suffering for all people in our society, even men. When men disregard all other aspects of their personality in order to conform to rigid gender norms set by our society, they fail as men, as human beings and our society as a whole fails.

Our society needs a radical change in its gender norms if we really want everyone’s lives to change for the better. So long as we participate in a society that continuously shames women and more feminine men for their own femininity, very little in our society will improve.'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

The assumption that the shorter life expectancy of men is caused by "hyper-masculinity" is dubious but the writer gets one thing right: societal expectations about men often lead to earlier deaths. Men are expected to provide and protect, both of which can have adverse effects on one's health. And without risk, there is no progress--and men are more willing to take those risks (such as testing new planes) than women.

The one thing that will help men the most: relieve them of their responsibility to provide for women and children and to protect women, children, and the country. That's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by el cid on Sun, 2012-05-13 13:51

The same thing that makes many men a “manly” man is also the same thing
that leads men to die, on average, 5-10 years before their female
counterparts: masculinity."
Actually, the reason men die 5-10 years earlier is because men have to work their whole lives to take care of women and children. It's also due to disproportionate spending on health resources. Men's health concerns generally receive half the funding women's health concerns receive, if any is given at all.

"According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, even though females are
twice as likely to suffer from depression as males, four times as many
males as females will commit suicide."
How convenient of you to omit the fact that it is widely believed that depression is highly underdiagnosed in men because it is likelier they feel they will be ridiculed for asking for help. In fact, the very fact that 4 times as many men as women commit suicide strongly suggests this, if not proves it.

There's nothing wrong with masculinity, but there is something wrong with trying to demonize a demographic based on physical characteristics and then attempt to justify it with junk science. This same tactic was used centuries ago to try to justify racism. It's simply another flavour of the same bigotry.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by xtrnl on Tue, 2012-05-15 03:39