New York Times: Men Are Now Happier Than Women

First I don't believe it, and second, if men on average are happier than women, what the hell is the emergency? Oh yeah, men can't (or shouldn't) be happier than women, so let's all jump up and down if it seems that that is the case. *Hurl*.

But it does show just how incomplete the gender revolution has been. Although women have flooded into the work force, American society hasn’t fully come to grips with the change. The United States still doesn’t have universal preschool, and, in contrast to other industrialized countries, there is no guaranteed paid leave for new parents.

Why would these only make women happier? Are we asking for another handout? I don't think the "gender revolution" will ever be complete to some people until the roles are completely reversed (women at work, men at home).

Government policy isn’t the only problem, either. Inside of families, men still haven’t figured out how to shoulder their fair share of the household burden. Instead, we’re spending more time on the phone and in front of the television.

Just had to throw that out there, huh? More bitching about sitcom dads while poor wife slaves away at multiple things?

letters@nytimes.com

Dear Editor,

In "He’s Happier, She’s Less So," David Leonhardt relies on anti-male stereotypes when he say one reason for the gender happiness gap is "men still haven’t figured out how to shoulder their fair share of the household burden. Instead, we’re spending more time on the phone and in front of the television." Maybe Leonhardt is the one watching too much TV, because he obviously didn't do his homework.

A recent 25-nation study by economists from Berlin, Brussels and Texas, which included rich and poor nations, found men do as much work as women when all types of work are combined. The study is publicized at www.slate.com/id/2164268/

A University of Maryland study found the total workloads of married mothers and fathers is roughly equal when paid work is added to child care and housework, at 65 hours a week for mothers and 64 hours for fathers.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007204060320

And a University of Michigan study found women work an average of 11 hours more housework per week more than men while men an average of 14 hours per week more than women outside the home.

First of all, any survey that attempts to measure a woman's degree of happiness is just .... silly.

Women are by nature capable of morphing from happiness to despair in a nano-second.

Observe them! They do it all the time!

It is like watching a windsock at an airport.

88% of American retail space is dedicated to women's happiness.

They are still not happy.

A happy woman is like a bicycle without a fish.

Yes, it is.

Then why is male suicide so much higher than female suicide? Don't they like being happy?

...while men have "responsibilities". Including the responsibility for women's choices, apparently.

Women were the ones who wanted massive social changes. They got them. They made their beds (well, actually, given that men actually work more than women when you account for work inside and outside the home, as Marc pointed out, it's slightly more accurate to say that a man made them for them), SHUT UP AND LIE IN IT ALREADY.

The fact that women wanted to become men (or at least obtain what they saw as the privileges men enjoyed, without the responsibilities of course), does not automatically imply that men wanted to become women, and it's asinine to expect men to simply take over any job that women feel is beneath them.

And if I hear one more woman talking about how she "needs a wife", or see yet another woman marrying a man for just this reason, I think I'll probably throw up all over them. If it was sexism when women did all the housework, it's sexism when men do it too, girls.

You don't know what you are talking about. Women have MORE suicide attempts than men. But men simply have higher rate of _successful_ suicide attempts than women.

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Two pillars of the World of the Future:

Asexuality
Artificial Reproduction

"What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality."

J. Steinbeck.

That's not-surprising at all. Women and male daughter-owners are a decreasing branch of social evolution and they are doomed to disappear from the Earth at all.

And single men without children are on the rise in this world.

----------------------------------------------------
Two pillars of the World of the Future:

Asexuality
Artificial Reproduction

"What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality."

J. Steinbeck.

To nbdspcl,

Suicide "attempt" rates are much harder to measure than completed suicides. It's very likely that, just like for domestic violence victims, males who only attempt suicide but fail are far less likely to report it than females who attempt suicide but fail. And the methods used differ as well. The methods more often used by women, pills, are probably more often recorded as failed suicides than the methods chosen by males, i.e., crashing a car while drunk, or cop-assisted suicide, which rarely get listed as suicides or attempted suicides. It's likely males attempt suicide even more than females. There is no way to know without more accurate ways of measuring.

...let's see what happens. Being that it is the NY Times -- known for misandry -- I doubt it will do anything.

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"Why do they(women) constantly stand before the fairy-tale mirror-on-the-wall, to reassure themselves that they are the most beautiful, the smartest, the most courageous? Because they are compelled t

Suicide "attempt" rates are much harder to measure than completed suicides.

Actually, attempts are much easier to measure due to the simple fact that after an unsuccessful attempt there is a living person who can be questioned.

It's likely males attempt suicide even more than females.

There is a lot of statistical data refuting this statement.

----------------------------------------------------
Two pillars of the World of the Future:

Asexuality
Artificial Reproduction

"What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality."

J. Steinbeck.

How does one define "attempted suicide"?

Does drinking yourself to death count?
Does stupidly reckless behavior count?

Isn't 'attempted' suicide just a belief that the world would be better off without you, and acting on that belief in some way? I think there are a lot of things guys do, that may not necessarily lead to death, that isn't defined as attempted suicide.

--Demonspawn

"Actually, attempts are much easier to measure due to the simple fact that after an unsuccessful attempt there is a living person who can be questioned."

I disagree with that and don't see the logic behind it at all. When one completes a suicide there is a death that needs to be accounted for and its cause needs to be recorded. When a person attempts but fails a suicide, it will only be reported if either that person reports it, or someone else nows about it and reports it. I'm willing to be males who fail a suicide are far less likely to let anyone know than females who fail a suicide. When a male attempts suicide by trying to hang himself, getting drunk and crashing into a building, or cutting his wrist, say, but then lives, it's likely he doesn't tell anyone it was an attempted suicide and he probably gets rid of any suicide note. Males face a much worse social stigma than female for attempting suicide.

I agree with you that it's likely males actually do attempt suicide more than females. We just can't know that because attempted suicide rates are not reliable at all. But I don't see how you say attempted suicide rates are easier to measure than completed suicdes.

Just a quick memo to add to the suicide debate. I read somewhere (no time to look it up now) that females make more suicide attempts than males, but are enormously less "successful" because a very large proportion are not genuine suicide attempts at all: they are usually just an extreme way of grabbing attention. The commonest tactic among females is to take an overdose of pills in a place where they know they will be discovered quickly before the pills can have a fatal effect, and just a short distance from a hospital. They also take care to leave the empty pill bottle right at hand, so whoever finds them will know exactly what they have taken.

Male suicides do not use these tactics so often, because if they set out to kill themselves, they make sure they are not going to be discovered or stopped until it is too late.

In other words, men are much more likely to mean it when they set out to kill themselves; while most female suicides are cries for help and attention, with no real intention of ending it all.

I read somewhere (no time to look it up now) that females make more suicide attempts than males, but are enormously less "successful" because a very large proportion are not genuine suicide attempts at all: they are usually just an extreme way of grabbing attention. The commonest tactic among females is to take an overdose of pills in a place where they know they will be discovered quickly before the pills can have a fatal effect, and just a short distance from a hospital. They also take care to leave the empty pill bottle right at hand, so whoever finds them will know exactly what they have taken.

Male suicides do not use these tactics so often, because if they set out to kill themselves, they make sure they are not going to be discovered or stopped until it is too late.

In other words, men are much more likely to mean it when they set out to kill themselves; while most female suicides are cries for help and attention, with no real intention of ending it all.

Yes sir. Now female sympathizers lay down and die(along with this site). You have no place in the world anymore. You're has-beens...it's over for you and your kind.

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The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

You still need the support of more then 8 or 9 people who read your blog to take over and rule supreme. So bashing the hell out of everyone here and wishing this site would just die probably isn't the best tactic to use when trying to win people over to your point of view.

Been here all this time and you still haven't learned a thing.

You still need the support of more then 8 or 9 people who read your blog to take over and rule supreme. So bashing the hell out of everyone here and wishing this site would just die probably isn't the best tactic to use when trying to win people over to your point of view.

1. Who said anything about winning someone here "over to my point of view"? I most certainly did not.

2. You have no idea how many people "read my blog." Nor is my blog part of the conversation. A weak insult based on no factual data whatsoever.

3. Honestly, This "one site" out of the tons I post on means little to me. Especially since there are a fair share of female sympathizers here that readily attack males yet leave women to wreak havoc(as always). That's pathetic to say the least.

In conclusion: You're placing words in my mouth. Here's what you should do: You stick to your comments and let me worry about my own.

You've been here all this time and still have not learned I could care less about the opinions of fools I encounter on the internet.

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The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek