Saturday, March 29, 2008

Yay for unwinnable arguments

Arguments about who has it better males or females always amuse me. Most women have been fed enough feminist doctrine over their lives to make the answer obvious to them. Guys have an unfair advantage. Just being male allows them to get ahead when women wouldn’t.

This argument seems pretty easy to support. The average feminist looks at the number of female CEOs, Congressmen, Noble Prize winners and comes up with the obvious conclusion. Society favors males.

The real answer is far more complicated. Yes, being a male at the top of the totem pole is probably the best position in society. It does not however come without great cost however.Males are also far more likely to end up at the bottom. Examples include the following:

A white male is 4 times as likely to commit suicide as a white female(even more shockingly they are twice as likely as a black male, but among every race men commit suicide more)

Ten times as many males than females are in prison


Three out of four murder victims are male. Interestingly here, both males and females are more likely to murder males. Women being 5 times as likely to murder a male than a female, males being 3 times as likely to murder a male than a female.

One out of every fifty U.S. Deaths in Iraq were female.

Men historically have been half as likely to have children. In modern America the effect is smaller because of the lack of polygamy. But a small number of men still have a large percentage of children.(that linked article is a masterpiece)

And of course women average living 5+ years longer than men. If memory serves me correctly the difference is about 7 years in America.

Essentially life as a male is more precarious. You have the ability to rise farther, but you also have the ability to fall farther and harder. Life is forced to be more of a competition. Is that good or bad on a whole? It is neither. It totally is a matter of preference.

Some of the commonly argued reasons it is better to be male have no basis in reality. Women love thinking they work more hours than men for example. Just about every study that has looked at this subject has found them to work equal hours, at least in America.

Women of course will quickly, and rightly, point to sexual violence, periods/pregnancy, a "glass ceiling" and so on. These are legitimate reasons why being female isn’t ideal. However saying that one sex has it better than the other, or has any real advantage remains impossible. It is totally a matter of preference. No matter how many feminists try to beat the idea that males have it easy into your head. As a male at the top of the totem pole I am in a damn good position. However if I had worse luck in life I might be thinking being female would be superior. When I am 75 and dying, I know ill sure be wishing for those extra 7 years.

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