The idea it was hosted by a panel of experts is laughable – experts don’t start every point or sentence with “I think”, “I feel” or “I believe”. It’s almost as if the panel had done no research whatsoever.
By Jordan Holbrook: Lo and behold, would you believe that yet another student panel on a topical men’s issue would be derailed by feminist virtue-signalling and man-blaming? It’s almost as if this sort of thing never happens! Yet, I am afraid to report, it happened at the Bristol SU “debate” titled Save the Male, as part of their Mind Your Head month that was held at the University of Bristol on Wednesday 4th March.The panel featured Natalie Jester, PhD candidate at University of Bristol; Ben Marshall, 4th year Engineering student and another fellow who only said his name once, alas I could not find him on the Facebook event page. In fact, according to posts on said Facebook event page, there was supposed to be another speaker yet it wasn’t until the event when we were informed that this speaker had dropped out. Such an organised panel of field tested experts, I see.
The discussion started with the trailer video from The Representation Project “The Mask You Live In”, a terrible depiction of the issue of male suffering which essentially says that men are defective women (that tired argument) because they can’t be like women and talk about their feelings. It features young boys talking about their issues and the trailer states that because they are masculine is why they are suffering.
I guess the trailer isn’t aware that 1 in 7 US boys are diagnosed with ADHD because they act boisterous and in turn millions of these boys will be prescribed powerful stimulants to “normalize” them. Maybe they’re difficult because even from a young age their behaviour is being pathologised!? Sigh, start as you mean to go on, as the old saying goes.
What absolute drivel they provide us with
It didn’t take long for the self-declared pro-feminist panel to start using terminology such as “Toxic Masculinity” and “Patriarchy”. Two kooky feminist concepts that have no basis in either reality or science yet are peddled by these snake-oil salesmen as a (false) problem so they can sell their (false) cure: feminism.
They continued from blaming patriarchy to repeating that stupid lie that men kill themselves because they can’t get in touch with their feminine side and talk about their feelings. Tell me, if the feminine approach is so good then why do women have a higher prevalence for suicidal thoughts than men? Surely these women you reference should be in a better situation than men because they are, as you said, more in touch with their feminine side and talk about their feelings? This also stood against when the panel said that men don’t have the language needed to express themselves. *Face-palm*
The first obvious incident of virtue-signalling (excluding the lady who introduced the panel as experts, ha!) reared its ugly head when Nat Jester spoke of how she has written about masculinity and how it affects suicide. The article in question, found here, does raise a few good points but unfortunately for her it is all drowned out by the utter garbage found in the rest of the article. Titled “We Need To Talk About Men” this article is nothing more than feminist proselytizing masked under sheep-skin virtue-signalling.
Starting with what can only be considered as an attempt at humour she says “Being a feminist, I care a lot about the damage society does to men”, sorry hunny, but I’ll tell the jokes. She correctly says how suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50, 74% of homeless are men and in Bristol there was a 137% increase in rough sleepers. Yes, a feminist doing actual research, I am as surprised as you.
But she lets it all down when she says “Society tells men that they must be unemotional breadwinners with chiselled bodies. This, my friends, is the fault of patriarchy, which is basically male domination of women.” Ugh, citation needed.
Another interesting incident arose when Ben tried arguing that men being seen as independent, strong, self-sustaining, etc was putting unfair pressure on them to be the bread-winners and when this was challenged this caused upset with men, leading to suicide. He’s not entirely wrong, however the implication that this is an issue of men and that the male identity & masculinity needs to change to address this issue is wrong. I highlighted how being seen as honourable, self-reliant and respected was important to men’s idea of masculinity, this was seen as a flaw by Ben. I disagree, the male identity of strength and being able to support those around you is not a flaw but a perk, a key element to being a man.
One thing that really irked me was how they kept referring back to women’s issues and how we can help women. How is male suicide a women’s issue? Typical feminists derailing the issues and pulling it back to Gynocentrism. This sort of rhetoric tickled me in ways that I found *ahem* disagreeable and I was nearly removed because my natural biological reflexes would repeatedly kick in, causing me to yell “Bullshit!” anytime the word patriarchy was mentioned. Chat shit and you get called out on it.
Their vague, wishy-washy lack of correct terminology and complete inability to cite studies or evidence aside from feminist pseudo-science really pissed me off, so panellists, down below I have collated some information for you to help send you in the right direction and to try to understand at least a little bit about male suicide. But fuck it, who am I kidding, you’ll just gloss over this and blame the patriarchy!?!?
1 – Age
There is a notable age factor in suicide, the peak age for suicide today is 45 – 49 both for males (26.8 per 100,000) and for females (7.7 per 100,000). Also, the same age band that has the highest suicide rate today is the same people who had the highest suicide rate two decades ago.
2 – Money and Class
Men of lower socio-economic classes are ten times more likely to commit suicide than men of higher socio-economic classes. 40% of the recent increase in male suicides since The Great Recession of 2008-10 can be attributed to rising employment.
3 – Nobody gives a fuck about men
Everything I ever write about on male suicide always contains the screenshot seen below, for me it resonates just how men feel and how they are affected by the way society treats them. There is a huge gender empathy gap that cares less about men and their suffering than it cares about women. Essentially, men are seen as disposable.
Jess Phillips MP laughed at the idea of a discussion of men’s issues in Parliament for International Men’s Day (IMD) last year saying that “as the only woman on the panel, every day is like International Men’s Day”. The issue in question? Male suicide. Yep, male suicide is a laughing matter.
4 – Feminism and the attack on men & masculinity
Feminism hates men: ranging from using terrorist tactics to prevent Erin Pizzey (founder of Refuge) from opening domestic violence shelters for men, to Jess Phillips MP laughing about male suicide, York University cancelling IMD, Essex Feminist Collective tweeting that they laugh about male suicide, feminism hates men. Radical feminism is not fringe feminism, as Donna Laframboise pointed out clearly in The Princess at the Window. This narrative has permeated into modern society, capitalising on the gender empathy gap, to the point where men and masculinity is attacked at every opportunity.
Men who like to drink and talk about boobs and cars? Lad Culture. Misogyny.
Men who play rugby? Misogynists.
Men who work their way up the ladder? Evidence of patriarchy.
Masculinity? It’s toxic, do away with it.
5 – Male Coping Mechanisms Aren’t Great
Men have a higher biological susceptibility to alcoholism, which isn’t helped by the fact that men have little else to turn to. As was mentioned above, nobody gives a fuck about men and the narrative of men and masculinity being negative has been drummed into men’s minds.
The dip in suicides post-1998, as seen in the graph above, was caused by working to change the coping mechanisms employed by men. Professor Louis Appleby, chair of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group in England said: “Men are more at risk of suicide because they are more likely to drink heavily, use self-harm methods that are more often fatal and are reluctant to seek help. Fifteen years ago the rates among men under 35 were brought down sharply by tackling these problems and we need to use this success to address the problems of the new highest risk group, middle aged men”. This is just one step in the right direction.
You really want the male suicide rate to deplete? Stop pathologising men, stop attacking their masculinity and stop thinking you know who they are and what they are going through.
When the “debate” was over I was in a group of people talking and I said “look around, there’s at least five guys here. Statistically speaking, 42% of men aged 18 to 45 have contemplated suicide so that means two of us here have done so”. Without a moment’s hesitation one young man stepped forward and said he had.
I dread to think how that “debate” must have made him feel, to be told that the reason he contemplated suicide is because he is inherently faulty and because he can’t connect with his feminine side and talk about his feelings. The panellists spat in his face with those comments, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
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