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Notes -
I think the sorts of men with bad enough mental problems to be willing to hurt themselves for a political cause are probably also the sorts of men who believe no one cares about their suffering. They dont anticipate the same sort of sympathy women expect, so their self-destructive tendencies are either channeled outward as spree killings/assassinations and/or channeled inward as flamboyant suicides (think self-immolation protests).
This would be consistent with the gender suicide paradox, where women are two to four times more likely to attempt suicide, but men are three to four times more likely die from suicide:
I imagine "for sympathy and attention" was the next phrase that went unsaid. Calling women's suicide attempts "suicidal gestures" is unintentionally hilarious to me.
It's the term for it.
Two additional factors -
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