Not Guilty of a Good Argument
Recently I picked up a book Not Guilty: The Case in Defense of Men
I have to admit, even the title of this book made me giggle a little when I came across it in the library. I still hoped however, that it would be a sensible read. By the end of the first page I knew I would be reading it for the comedic value alone.
See by the end of that ever import first page Thomas has already concluded that women don’t really have much to complain about… because men tend to kill themselves more often.
Wait… what?
Yup, men commit suicide more than women… so they must be worse of than women. Then he conveniently steps off the subject before he has to answer any real questions. Unfortunately for Thomas it takes about three seconds of slightly critical thinking to see how flawed this assumption really is.
First of all there is the implication that people who commit suicide do so because there is something devastatingly wrong in their lives. Which is only somewhat true, a very large percentage take their own lives due to problems that can be overcome but seem overwhelming at the time. Many of these people may suffer from various mental instabilities that interrupt their ability to reason such as depression.
It is very rare indeed that a conclusion of suicide is brought about by rational thought.
There is also an implication that these male deaths are consistent because the problem is ‘maleness’. Truthfully however there are two groups that really push the numbers for males up. The first group is old men, those who are considered seniors over the age of 65. It’s not easy to loose one’s independence while loosing your friends and your health with things only really going to get worse. Not surprisingly the rate of suicide goes up within the age of infirmities among all groups.
The second group? Gay men; three times the rate of suicide attempt compared to males overall. You think that might bump the number up a bit? It’s pretty daft to claim that the modern man has it bad when those among you who are most suffering, are those who are most ostracized by their own gender.
Speaking of attempt, don’t you think that would be the most important statistic. Not just how many people were successful at killing themselves but how many actually attempted it. Of course that would of destroyed the entire thrust of Thomas’s argument as more women try to take their own lives, again about three times as much as men in general.
The question becomes was Thomas completely oblivious due to dishonesty or lack of research ability. Because he doesn’t really try that hard; not a single footnote or endnote the book in mainly comprised of angry little ranty anecdotes. If this book had been written ten years later it would be in a LiveJournal format.
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- Sexism Exists? How Dare You
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