Men Complain About a System Made by Men
by Kathryn M
TW: Discussion of suicide & violence.
They don’t care about the pressure of being masculine or men who want to show their emotions without being ridiculed. They care about controlling women.
Men clearly have it so much worse than women.
Men are more likely to commit suicide, men are under the constant pressure of toxic masculinity, and men are always seen as the breadwinner of the family.
This is what I would say if I was a raging misogynist.
According to “Our World In Data”, Global, suicide rates in men are just over twice as high as for women. If we look at these statistics, in 2017, the global suicide rate for women was 6.3 deaths per 100,000; for men, it was just over twice that figure at 13.9 per 100,000.
However, women are more likely to attempt suicide. At first glance, this doesn’t making sense, until you find that men are more likely to chose more violent methods of suicide, usually using a firearm or a gun, which they are more likely to own.
Sociologist Angela Stroud studied applications for licensed firearms in Texas. When interviewed, the applicants (who were overwhelmingly dominated by men), said they felt the need to protect themselves and their families. Angela says,
“When men become fathers or got married, they started to feel very vulnerable, like they couldn’t protect families. For them, owning a weapon is part of what it means to be a good husband and a good father. That meaning is rooted in fear and vulnerability - very motivating emotions.”
These feelings clearly stem from toxic masculinity, and men can’t be vulnerable because of this, especially as mental health isn’t always taken seriously enough. Men pressure men to be masculine, and to them, showing emotion isn’t manly. Since men are so much more likely to own guns, in America, over 50% of suicide methods are done with a gun, and is by far the leading method.
Toxic masculinity kills.
Have you heard of Andrew Tate?
In case you haven’t, Tate is an American-British former professional kickboxer who’s infamous for being openly misogynistic, yet unfortunately formed a fanbase that mostly consists of young men. On the contrary, DazGames is a much loved British YouTuber who makes gaming and reaction videos. Less than a month ago, on August 18th, Youtuber DazGames uploaded a critical video exposing Andrew Tate of blatant misogyny, violence and abuse, as well as the indoctrinating and poisoning of young men’s perspectives on women.
In this video, his detestable views on women were put under a spotlight, which led to Tate’s permanent bans from Facebook and Instagram the very next day. However, women have been speaking out about their experiences for months on several different platforms, and no one took action. A singular man makes a singular video saying the exact same things and Andrew’s kicked off his platforms permanently in under 24 hours.
Men will only listen to men. When a female feminist speaks out, they’re nagging and shrill. But when a man does it, he's praised for doing the exact same thing. This isn’t to chastise DazGames at all, but to the men who watched the video and realised the problem after listening to one man rather than hundreds of women. This silences women.
Now, let's go back to the statement made at the very beginning - that men have it worse than women. People who genuinely think this with this mindset don’t in fact care about the hundreds of thousands of men who commit suicide per year. They don’t care about the pressure of being masculine or men who want to show their emotions without being ridiculed. They care about controlling women. Disparaging, invalidating women and silencing women.
So how do we solve this issue? We can’t.
Similar to other issues such as racism, homophobia and classism, we might never see the end of misogyny in our society, but we can still mitigate this problem.
Instead of treating every woman as something that needs to be protected, painted as the weaker gender, we need to EDUCATE MEN. Particularly, younger men. Though this may not lead to misogyny completely dissipating ,it will definitely improve our society, as women are given more respect, and men are validated for being vulnerable.
To support the cause, take a look at these websites;