- 24 Mar 2015 15:52
#14539797
IBT
But do you even care?
Male suicide scandal: UK men are paying for a system that drives thousands of them to death
Suicide is the leading cause of death of British men under 50 years of age. Over a quarter (26%) of men who die between the ages of 20 and 34 take their own lives, and 13% of deaths among men aged 35 to 49 are self-inflicted. The figures for women are 13% and 5% respectively.
The state is responsible – through its actions and inactions – for many of the crises that lead men to kill themselves. As a class, men have long suffered high levels of reactive depression, the form brought on by distressing life events. This is driving the relentlessly high male suicide rate, rather than long-term mental health issues.
In 2014 the government published a report, Preventing suicide in England: First Annual Report on the Cross-government Outcomes Strategy to Save Lives. Virtually no interest (let alone concern) is expressed in the report at the remarkably high rate of suicide among men.
When politicians are pressed on the male suicide rate, they generally (and callously) attribute the problem to men's disinclination to seek help for mental health issues in times of crisis. Politicians are victim-blaming.
They know – or should know – the "mental health issue" is generally reactive depression and all too often the only support available to men is talking, which won't help those denied access to children after family breakdowns, or those denied support as victims of domestic violence, or who who are homeless...
The male:female suicide rate differential was 1.7:1 in 1983 and steadily rose over the subsequent 30 years, reaching 3.5:1 in 2013. The prime reason was a steep decline in the number of women committing suicide. Nobody has suggested there was a major improvement in women's mental health over the period.
Disadvantaging of males begins at an early age. Life outcomes for boys deprived of a father active in their lives tend to be poor and the state has long been the architect of the destruction of the nuclear family.
About two-thirds of secondary school teachers are women and state schools are failing large numbers of boys. One in four boys is labelled as having special educational needs.
William Collins, an important blogger on men's issues, has suggested female teachers often give girls preferential treatment in school, for example by giving them higher grades for the same quality of work. This may be why so many boys are demotivated at school; today, three out of five university students are female and 70% of medical students are women.
Collins has written about the "gender education gap", which emerged after the introduction of continuous assessment by teachers in 1987-88. The state education system is permanently blighting many boys' lives.
Huge amounts of taxpayers' money has been spent over decades 'encouraging' women into traditionally male-dominated professions, notably those relating to STEMM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine). The state is spending £30m "encouraging" women into engineering alone. Female engineering MSc students at Brunel are entitled to sponsorship of £22,750 denied to their male colleagues.
Taxpayers' money is not being spent "encouraging" men into female-dominated professions, although male unemployment has long been higher than female unemployment, and unemployment is known to be a major driver of male suicide, but not female suicide.
Two thirds of public sector employees are women, yet the Equality Act 2010 is designed to prioritise females over males in recruitment and promotion terms. It's termed "positive action" in the Act but it's positive discrimination in all but name.
The Athena SWAN initiative is designed to preference women over men in appointments to research posts in STEMM subjects. This is a state-funded assault on men wishing to pursue scientific careers.
Following divorce, the suicide rate of men is nine times higher than the suicide rate of women. This is sometimes the result of financial devastation, but more often the result of denial of access to children.
The link between denying fathers access to children and reactive depression – and therefore suicide – is an obvious one. When in opposition, politicians promise fathers' rights groups they will resolve the problem once in office but renege on the promise once in power.
But do you even care?
- By wat0n
- By litwin