The American Culture Discriminates Against Men

See Also: Double Standards Part I and Double Standards Part II
References are listed at the bottom of the page.

• Infant boys are more likely than infant girls to be killed by abusers.¹


• When mothers hit their sons, they are more than twice as likely to cause injury as when they hit their daughters. ²


• Girls do slightly worse than boys in science and math.
  Much is being done to help girls in these subjects. ³
  Boys do much worse than girls in reading and writing.
  Little is being done to help boys in these subjects. ⁴


• Boys are constantly told that they must never hit a girl.
  A girl is permitted to hit a boy if she feels upset by something he said.


• Boys are less likely than girls to finish high-school. ⁵


• Teenage boys are four times as likely as teenage girls to commit suicide. ⁶


• While the media claim that men are "afraid of commitment" and claim that many married men are abandoning their families, in fact women initiate two-thirds of divorces. ⁷
  Women initiate even more divorces among couples with children. ⁸


• For every woman who is a victim of violent crime there are three men who are victims of violent crime.


• A woman hitting her spouse on a T.V. show is called a sitcom.
  A man hitting his spouse on a T.V. show is called a drama (unless its a gay couple).


• Many bars, lounges, nightclubs have what's called "ladies night" - women get in free or get free drinks.
  No night clubs have a "mens night" where men get in free or get free drinks.


• A woman yelling at the top of her lungs at a man is standing up against an injustice, or the man being a pig.
  A man yelling at a women, or even calmly talking to a woman is being manipulative, or a jerk.


• Greeting cards with images of man-hate-filled women are considered funny.
  A greeting card with women-hate-filled men would NEVER hit the store shelves.


• Its considered good manners for a man to hold the door open for a woman.
  Its woman's liberation to yell at such a man and tell him what a jerk he is for doing so.


• There are more men without health insurance than women without it.
  There are several federal offices for women's health.
  There is no federal office for men's health. ⁹


• When a women loses her cool, its her god-given right.
  When a man loses his cool, its because he is over-emotional (giggle giggle tee-hee).

---

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Child Maltreatment 2003, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.


2. Suzanne K. Steinmetz, The Cycle of Family Violence: Assertive, Aggressive, and Abusive Family Interaction. New York City: Praeger, 1977


3. U.S. Department of Education, "Trends in Educational Equity of Girls and Women", Washington D.C., June 2000.


4. Ibid.


5. Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000.


6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2005, Trend Table 46. www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus05.pdf


7. Margaret Brinig and Douglas Allen, "These Boots Are Made For Walking: Why Most Divorce Filers Are Women", American Law and Economics Review 2-1, 2000.


8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, "Advance Report of Final Divorce Statistics, 1987", Monthly Vital Statistics Report Vol. 38, No. 12, Supplement 2, 1990.
   Lynn Gigy & Joan Kelly, "Reasons for Divorce: Perspectives of Divorcing Men and Women", Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, Vol. 18, 1992


9. U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Health Insurance Coverage: 2000", Publication P60-215.