Thursday, January 26, 2006
How cute
Hey, look... a woman trying to understand men. See, men commit suicide a lot more often. Apparently, this is something that people should be concerned about.
Some will argue that these statistics don't tell the whole story and are even misleading. And to some extent, they would be right. Girls and women attempt suicide at much higher rates than boys and men. So there is good reason to be concerned about girls, too.
But most girls and women, fortunately, survive. They live to tell about it. They can get counseling and address the problems that made them suicidal. They survive, in great part, because they choose methods -- taking pills or cutting themselves -- that allow for rescue or a change of heart, methods that often simply fall short of completing the job. Boys and men tend to use guns or ropes, which result in a much higher "completion rate," to use the experts' language.
Haha! Women suck at killing themselves! Need help opening the pickle jar, too?
Blah blah usual stuff about how men don't seek help because it's "not manly." Interestingly, Joan Ryan answers her own question about why nobody cares that a lot of men kill themselves. Women are too busy being feminists, and men know that their fellow men don't want their help. Women, on the other hand, seem to think that men really do want help, but don't feel like they can ask for it in this society. She's wrong, of course. We really don't want help. It's part of our existence. To take that from us in the name of "mental health" or some crap is essentially taking part of our identity. Sorry, ladies, we'll pick a higher suicide rate over becoming women. (Obligatory dig at Temina Madon: We'll also pick it over paying your stupid guilt fee.)
At home and at school, we need to teach boys -- and reinforce for girls -- that the brain needs tending just as the body does, and that when brains get sick, they need doctors to help them heal.
I don't think drawing the analogy to seeing a doctor for the body is the right way to convince men to go see a shrink. We don't go to the doctor in huge numbers either, you know.
And maybe more of our sons will live long enough to pass along those lessons to their sons.
There's no shortage of dudes in this world. I say let natural selection take care of it.
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