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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   31463 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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I don’t think anyone will argue against the fact that women’s life outcomes tend to cluster around the averages while men tend to the extremes, however I do think you’re overstating the importance of those factors in the life outcomes of average people. Middle-class men in developed countries are already unlikely to be involved in crime, to have a blue-collar occupation, to join the military (the draft has been abolished in many places), to end up homeless, etc.

But the question is, what do you want to about it? Many of the issues are the “fault” of men in that they actively choose riskier lifestyles with a higher payoff, due to cultural and hormonal factors. Most lower class men, at the bottom of the totem pole and life outcomes, will even mock any attempts to fix those issues and take pride in their violent masculine lives, while they don’t really impact the middle and upper classes.

If you’re an individual man, you can absolutely bridge the gap by investing in a bigger social circle of people who care about you, being paranoid about your physical safety when going outside (as many women are, while I know many men who are completely oblivious), having a better work-life balance, not taking risks and choosing a stable boring career, be willing to go to therapy, etc. But a lot of men are unwilling to do those things.

But the question is, what do you want to about it? Many of the issues are the “fault” of men in that they actively choose riskier lifestyles with a higher payoff, due to cultural and hormonal factors.

Presumably make a "what's good for the goose" style attack.

Most obviously: this can easily be applied to the "gender pay gap" as well.

So we can either:

  1. Not care about either one.

  2. Care about both.

If we go with #2 your question can be answered in a similar way to "what are we doing about the pay gap?"

Presumably make a "what's good for the goose" style attack.

While such arguments are usually sound, when this is the whole point of the debate, it's akin to offering a gander a nice eggbox to lay in, or paid maternity leave to a man (not paternity leave).

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