I remember watching a social experiment. They had a couple (man and woman) in a park. They would get in a fight, with one person as the aggressor. In one trial the man got steadily louder and more aggressive and abusive towards the woman. In the other, the reverse occurred. I *think* the woman may have actually "hit" the man in the second trial, but I can't remember.
Iirc the people running the study observed the reactions of passerby in both scenarios and found that, while people were readily more likely to at least call the police on the male aggressor if not outright intervene themselves, almost no one was willing to intervene when the woman was the aggressor, and, in fact, when asked after, at least one person said they just "assumed he'd done something to deserve it."
Admittedly, men can *usually* do more damage to women than the other way round during a physical altercation, but women tend to be far more vicious with their words, and at the end of the day abuse is abuse. And a lot of men will not defend themselves against physical violence from a female, especially if it's one they care about or are being manipulated by. "Don't hit girls" and all that bullshit.
I don't think at this point anyone doesn't think guys commit suicide. Most of the songs and such I've ever heard about doing that stuff are sung and written by men, and a lot of the depressed/suicidal people I've known are also male, so it never occurred to me that people would think this is something only girls do. And I find it strange that anyone in this day and age would ever think that. If they do they have definitely been living life with their eyes wide shut for the last several decades.
As for male eating disorders, this is probably not as common as it is for girls, but it definitely exists. I remember hearing Marianas Trench "Skin & Bones" for the first time several years ago (yes, I'm bringing up music again) and it struck me that I'd heard guys singing to girls about how they don't need eating disorders to be beautiful, but I'd never heard a *guy* sing about *having* an eating disorder. Outside of crazy diets for muscle gain, or losing weight due to stress I hadn't really heard any guys talk about eating disorders at all. And even if it may be less common than if girls have it, it felt very wrong that it was never really discussed.
So hopefully we are actually easing into a time where guys will feel comfortable being more open about this as well. Not in a ProAna kind of way (I know some people claim that helps them, but it seems beyond dangerous), but just in general.
Actually there is no conclusive evidence that women have eating disorders more than men or vice versa. The issue is that men are far less willing to report having a disorder. When given a small sampling one study found that of reported disorders women only had an increase of 1%-2% over men. The biggest issue is that given any situation like those described above men are far far less willing to admit it happening to them. Unfortunately it's impossible to assess exactly how many go unreported for either gender and this unintentionally skews the numbers. At this point it's really just best to remove gender altogether and treat it as the disease it is whenever it rears it head, period.
As you said, probably there are undiagnosed men, but there's actually evidencie that women are around the 90% of bulimia and anorexia cases.
Which does not make men cases less important whatsoever
Mental illnesess are quite common in
both genders and we have to end the stigma that comes with it.
A huge part of that is what op says. The fact that depression or ed are more common in women should not be a "shaming factor" for men.
Accepting that men can be vulnerable is a huge step on men being happier
Ironically depression (and by extension suicide) is one of the things exercising probably can help the most with. Not that it's a cure-- far from it, let's not even put a toe in that direction. But it does help elevate mood, and can be a good distraction for the brain.
Being physically fit won't necessarily make you a good deal more attractive, but it can help theoretically. However, that won't necessarily stop cruel people from attacking your appearance.
Pain it depends largely on the type/source.
Eating disorders have little to do with exercise. True, it can stimulate appetite, but some anorexics for example pride themselves on doing intense workouts with as little food as possible. Someone with issues overeating wouldn't have their issue solved if they overcompensate with unhealthy food, etc. Obviously there's more than one kind of eating disorder but that's just an example.
What if they don't make it to men? What if they couldn't grow because people took the light from their life? Oh and by the way, men can have a hard life too. Don't perpetuate exactly what this post is trying to get rid of
We need quality men, over quantity men. Society now only rewards obedience, do exactly as you’re told and all your needs will be provided for. Betas running rampant.
@christopher148 there's one or two guests that pop up on every post like this for no other purpose than to say the stupidest and most controversial things they can think of. If they can throw Muslims into the mix, even better. They seem to always take the same tone so I'm assuming it's the same person or people. Either that, or they're multiplying, and that's far more worrisome.
Either way, I wouldn't waste too much energy arguing with them. At their best they seem to be just trolls. At worst, morally bankrupt assholes who failed to integrate into society and take it out on those around them (read: trolls). You won't get through to them, and there's probably far more worthwhile ways to discuss topics that are important like this
Iirc the people running the study observed the reactions of passerby in both scenarios and found that, while people were readily more likely to at least call the police on the male aggressor if not outright intervene themselves, almost no one was willing to intervene when the woman was the aggressor, and, in fact, when asked after, at least one person said they just "assumed he'd done something to deserve it."
So hopefully we are actually easing into a time where guys will feel comfortable being more open about this as well. Not in a ProAna kind of way (I know some people claim that helps them, but it seems beyond dangerous), but just in general.
Which does not make men cases less important whatsoever
Mental illnesess are quite common in
both genders and we have to end the stigma that comes with it.
A huge part of that is what op says. The fact that depression or ed are more common in women should not be a "shaming factor" for men.
Accepting that men can be vulnerable is a huge step on men being happier
Being physically fit won't necessarily make you a good deal more attractive, but it can help theoretically. However, that won't necessarily stop cruel people from attacking your appearance.
Pain it depends largely on the type/source.
Eating disorders have little to do with exercise. True, it can stimulate appetite, but some anorexics for example pride themselves on doing intense workouts with as little food as possible. Someone with issues overeating wouldn't have their issue solved if they overcompensate with unhealthy food, etc. Obviously there's more than one kind of eating disorder but that's just an example.
Either way, I wouldn't waste too much energy arguing with them. At their best they seem to be just trolls. At worst, morally bankrupt assholes who failed to integrate into society and take it out on those around them (read: trolls). You won't get through to them, and there's probably far more worthwhile ways to discuss topics that are important like this