Social Suicide: The Growing Plight of Middle-Aged White Men

[Devout Pessimist]

The acceptable hatred and racism towards white males is no secret and when people hear the words white males and problem together they usually just laugh and viciously mock the person who is trying to discuss it, but the following opinion piece sheds a light on a legitimate growing issue, Suicide, when it comes to white males.

Source: The growing plight of the middle-aged white man

From the opinion piece:

It’s not just a U.S. problem. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, men die by suicide at four times the rate of women and, in Ontario, over the past 10 years, more men died from suicide than car crashes.

...

“Suicide is proportionately a male problem. Something is going on that is driving higher rates for men in this age range. The real question is, what’s going on at a social level and in a workplace organizational level. We don’t know,” he said.

...

Unfortunately, in our current cultural environment, a lot of people find it tough to feel sorry for middle-aged white guys. As the Salon piece implies, such men have a branding issue and there will be no telethons or fundraisers to focus on their plight.

Now an opinion piece about male suicide becomes a defense of feminism and an attack on men's rights groups:

It’s also hard to draw attention to the plight of middle-class white males without falling into the open arms of the men’s rights movement, a “manosphere” populated by misogynists who blame women and feminism for all of men’s woes. Let’s be clear: Feminism isn’t to blame for this issue. In fact, it may be part of the solution.

“Women, and feminists in particular, have been saying for decades that they want men to be more open with their feelings and want men to abandon masculine ideas of rugged individualism, so it makes no sense for women to somehow be blamed when men fail to seek help,” argued Cliff Leek, a Brooklyn-based doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Stony Brook University and the managing editor of the research journal Men and Masculinities.

The solution to the white male suicide problem, more feminism and males sharing their feelings.


Discuss.

 

[Devout Pessimist]

Here was an excellent (and rather long) response in the comment section:

HumanistForEqualRights:

This article was rather misandric despite being presented in a "I care about white men" veneer. The whole premise of the article is that men (and in particular white men) are offing themselves because they are sexist and unable to adjust to the rise of women. So the answer? More feminism. (implied) We need to start indoctrinating our boys so that they are not the centre of the universe. That "it's okay to cry". That it's okay to accept defeat to the rise of women.

The reality is that men - and especially white men - are demonized from the moment they enter this world. We constantly bombard our society with the women=good/wonderful; worthy of society's attention and love; men=evil/disgusting; and disposable. Take the White Ribbon Campaign - a feminist movement to brand every man AND BOY with a white ribbon scarlet letter - shaming him into submission to promise never to hit a woman. The take home message? Men hit women, period. Men are bad. Women never hit men, women wonderful. In reality men across our country are being subjected to domestic violence that approaches the rate of DV for women. But of course women can't be perpetrators of DV and the result men in desperate violent (physical or verbal) have no place to turn - yes, maybe a large portion of male suicides are those who had no where to turn. We want to hear about the abnormally high rate of murder of aboriginal women, but aboriginal men? No that doesn't meet the paradigm.

You don't think a young boy or teenager doesn't subconsciously internalize this rhetoric? We bombard them with "Teach Boys not to Rape", the mainstream media never elects to write an article on how men are wonderful - yet we are constantly bombarded with articles on how women (as a subset of our society) are great, why "Women are better than men", "Why women make better leaders than men", "Why women (...insert positive superiority attribute here). Do we ever make the same assertions about men - about "Men" as a subset of our society?

"But men make up 95% of CEOs of the fortune 500!" Seriously? We engineer our STEM programs and initiatives based on a mere 400 or 500 men (out of a world population of 3 billion). Reality is that the relatively small handful of white men in top CEO jobs are edging closer to retirement. In ten years perhaps 20 years from now we'll find that half the top CEO jobs are women. But in 40 years from now we'll be asking why only 20% of top CEO jobs go to men. As Hanna Rosin noted in her book - men are not trending very very well. Today only 40% of boys go to college. Yet do we acknowledge this? No. We simply celebrate the fact that girls are coming ahead. Girls in Canada win 80% of all the valedictorian awards and outnumber boys with the highest marks. And things are getting worse:

 

[Gandhi]

Girls have always gotten better grades, I am supposed to cry about this?

 

[Leagon]

Huge issue, indisputably. And something that doesn't get addressed enough because some people are obtuse and don't believe anything that conflicts with their worldview.

However, since this forum is mainly white guys, I feel it necessary to point out the irony in that first line. The "acceptable hatred" of white males bit. This is a new phenomenon and i've posted in several threads about how it is bullshit and academia (the chief instigator) needs deep reform. But it is a recent thing. We live in a country where it has been socially, and at some points LEGALLY acceptable to hate other groups. This is literally the first time in our nation's history that white men (and maybe men in general) have had to deal with what all other Americans have had to deal with. Again, it sucks and I sympathize with you guys and have even put my career/reputation on the line defending you guys. I'm just hoping that being treated like scum for no reason will help some of you realize that maybe its a really shitty thing to do to trash Muslims (which I've seen from you specifically, Atheist) or ignore/downplay/justify cops killing and raping black people.

Life is hard and society is unjust and we're all in this together. There's no reason anyone's struggles should be diminished.

 

[panamaican]

Reposting from the other thread:

I've been referencing this story for months now.

I'm actually shocked that it hasn't become a legitimate part of the conversation. And it's not just the suicide thing.

Everyone talks about the end of the American Dream but recent study shows that the only group who feels strongly about that are white Americans. The other ethnic groups think it's pretty much the same. But because white Americans are the largest demographic, their decline in belief is enough to shift the entire perception. What's really interesting/informative/whatever, is that white America's loss of faith in the American Dream is bringing it down to the same levels that minorities have had for 30 years. This is despite the fact that the opportunities available to them haven't really changed.

We talk a lot about race issues in this thread but there is a real emotional crisis in white America right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...are-losing-their-faith-in-the-american-dream/
http://fusion.net/story/238297/does-american-dream-mean-anything-young-people-saying-no/

 

[Devout Pessimist]

Huge issue, indisputably. And something that doesn't get addressed enough because some people are obtuse and don't believe anything that conflicts with their worldview.

However, since this forum is mainly white guys, I feel it necessary to point out the irony in that first line. The "acceptable hatred" of white males bit. This is a new phenomenon and i've posted in several threads about how it is bullshit and academia (the chief instigator) needs deep reform. But it is a recent thing. We live in a country where it has been socially, and at some points LEGALLY acceptable to hate other groups. This is literally the first time in our nation's history that white men (and maybe men in general) have had to deal with what all other Americans have had to deal with. Again, it sucks and I sympathize with you guys and have even put my career/reputation on the line defending you guys. I'm just hoping that being treated like scum for no reason will help some of you realize that maybe its a really shitty thing to do to trash Muslims (which I've seen from you specifically, Atheist) or ignore/downplay/justify cops killing and raping black people.

Life is hard and society is unjust and we're all in this together. There's no reason anyone's struggles should be diminished.

Great Post:


That is a fair criticism. I am guilty of being unreasonably cruel towards women, blacks and Muslims in my posts :icon_cry2. I am probably the biggest hypocrite on Sherdog. It is something I really need to work on. I ought to seriously heed the words of MLK:

 

[Cayenne]

The accepted explanation amongst researchers is that suicidal men don't seek help because they feel it's weakness and they use more lethal(effective) methods of killing themselves. Women are more likely to seek help and have stronger support networks of friends/family to help them through the crisis. If a guy wants to go quietly, or his pride is too big to ask for help, that's on him. People can't guess what's going on in your head. If you don't ask for help, you won't receive any, it's pretty simple. Unsurprisingly in your twisted mind this is somehow all the feminist boogieman's fault.

 

[panamaican]

Another graphic that speaks to the emotional crisis.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/24/news/economy/race-american-dream/

I don't subscribe to the idea that things are worse for white America (the general data seems to indicate that opportunity for them is roughly the same as 30 years ago). But their perception of that opportunity has certainly changed. And more importantly, it's not being handled well emotionally.

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

Can't see the OP's posts but seems like Canada isn't immune either:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suicide-rate-alberta-increase-layoffs-1.3353662

 

[Thunderflash500]

Maybe men are killing themselves because it makes sense to kill yourself sometimes. Sometimes things don't get better.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

What is the exact number of men killing themselves before we say it actually is a HUGE problem?

 

[panamaican]

What is the exact number of men killing themselves before we say it actually is a HUGE problem?

The raw numbers aren't the huge problem.

The problem is that there's an increase. In the developed world, suicide rates have been going down across the board. So when a single demographic reverses that trend in a significant way (significant compared to the previous numbers), then there's a problem within that community that is leading to outcomes that the other demographics aren't experiencing.

In terms of pure numbers, suicides aren't that big a deal for the general population.

 

[andnowweknow]

Maybe men are killing themselves because it makes sense to kill yourself sometimes. Sometimes things don't get better.

something is better than nothing.

 

[Ayin]

Can't see the OP's posts but seems like Canada isn't immune either:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suicide-rate-alberta-increase-layoffs-1.3353662

Indeed. We're coming off of nearly a decade of economic downturn where graduates see little prospect for working in their fields despite accruing huge debt to achieve their education. Somehow I don't find it shocking that the largest percentage of the work force is feeling depressed.

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

Indeed. We're coming off of nearly a decade of economic downturn where graduates see little prospect for working in their fields despite accruing huge debt to achieve their education. Somehow I don't find it shocking that the largest percentage of the work force is feeling depressed.

Yea. Still I'd like to look more into how suicide becomes a go-to option there. People starting young families and not being able to support them, maybe? That's a situation I could see myself feeling pretty crushed by.

 

[NelmarksGhost]

I would like to see numbers for veteran status of these middle-aged white men.

 

[Amerikuracana]

The law, the media, and their own women are working against them through aggressive feminism.. That's just the truth.

 

[Ayin]

Yea. Still I'd like to look more into how suicide becomes a go-to option there. People starting young families and not being able to support them, maybe? That's a situation I could see myself feeling pretty crushed by.

I have no doubt that if you were to do the math that the majority of suicides (most especially by the above group) are committed by people who are "alone", those who don't have spouses/live in children.

Generally people feel the most helpless/despondent when they in fact have the greatest number of personal options (that is, are free to make whatever decisions they want personally, as they are not constrained by how their decisions will effect dependents). That's not to say the world is wide open and waiting for them to decide between colleges or waiting jobs or inclusive social groups, but that they often could very well pack up and start walking any day they want. This is when people often feel the most lost/alone, and it's also the worst situation for someone who is depressed to be in, because though it's easy to say they aren't beholden to anyone, to that person it simply feels as if they aren't important to anyone/everyone.



The above statistics are also very interesting, showing the drop in opinion among this group while seemingly all other polled groups retain the same numbers, and the new numbers attained by the group seem to have simply dropped down to match other groups.

I didn't actually see the information above (though it very well could be in there, so if I overlooked it feel free to point it out to me), but I wonder how this rise in the changed opinion groups suicide rate matches up to the previous rates of the other groups. It would be VERY interesting (and likely, in my opinion) if it was just "normalizing" with the rest of the groups, the same way the polled opinion seems to be.

 

[Snackbar]

Can't see the OP's posts but seems like Canada isn't immune either:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suicide-rate-alberta-increase-layoffs-1.3353662

The spike in suicides in AB is directly tied to the slump in oil. It is standard fare in our bust cycles. I dont think it is an indication of any larger overall increase, but Ayin makes a good point about the tough economic landscape which recent graduates with heavy debt loads face. I think that is an issue that extends beyond most borders as well as gender and race however.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

Would some of the stats posted also depend on how you define the "American Dream".

People could be expecting more and more and getting upset when they don't get it.