White Men = Bad Health

White men should be the ones who live the longest. They are the richest so therefore can afford the best health care, they are over-represented in health studies so therefore the results should apply best to them, and they are highly educated. Yet they die younger than almost every other demographic with the notable exception of black men. 

Conventional wisdom holds that social standing and economic stability tend to manifest as long life, good health and optimal wellbeing. In the U.S., the subpopulation holding the most such power and footing is White men. Therefore, White men should evidence longer lives, better health and superior wellbeing compared with all other subgroups. 

As it turns out, the syllogism isn’t even close to being reflected in reality. 

Why? According to the article maybe because:

1. White male bodies have been the (often unnamed) standard in biomedical research, but this approach fails to consider how gender and other structural factors affect White men’s health.
2. Related to well-being, White Americans report less satisfaction with their number of friends than do Black and Latino Americans.
3. In a nation that has yielded them myriad political, economic and social advantages, it is paradoxical that White men do not experience the best health relative to women and minoritized racial and gender groups. 
4. There is a potential health penalty associated with being in the most socially dominant racialized and gendered group in a nation where structural inequality thrives. 

Or maybe it is because men are stressed out from having to live up to the gendered stereotype of being a "good provider" and over pay when it comes to divorce. The later is no doubt at least part of the reason their suicide rate is so high. 

Selective Service Uses Free Ice Cream Registrations

A few weeks ago I posted about military draft becoming automated soon. One good thing about this is now the government will have less incentive to use our tax dollars to pay for and use commercial mailing lists to notify men they have not registered. Lists such as ones gathered to get free ice cream. Really. This is somewhat humorous -  or disturbing if looked at another way.

A few years after a couple of kids used a made-up name to sign up for a free yearly ice cream cone, they received a Selective Service registration notice for their non-existent friend.

Marriage On The Decline

 From the New York Times in an article on Why Marriage, for So Many, Is Less Appealing Than Ever. 

From Gen Z to Gen X, a pause in the march to the altar, or a decision to skip it altogether, is becoming more common.

The growing number of U.S. singles indicates she’s in good company. As of 2023, the last data available from Pew Research Center, there were about 111 million single adults ages 18 and up in the United States. That was a sizable increase from 70 million in 1990

The reasons, in my view, are mainly due to women not feeling societal pressure to be married and have kids and the inequities of the divorce process. People who have going through a difficult divorce or have seen others go through one, want to avoid being in a similar situation. 

Male Ineqaulity

Richard V. Reeves was interviewed on Big Think about his book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. 

Boys and men are falling behind. This might seem surprising to some people — and maybe ridiculous to others — considering that discussions on gender disparities tend to focus on the structural challenges faced by girls and women, not boys and men.

But long-term data reveal a clear and alarming trend: In recent decades, American men have been faring increasingly worse in many areas of life, including education, workforce participation, skill acquisition, wages, and fatherhood.

Gender politics is often framed as a zero-sum game — that is, any effort to help men takes away from women. But in his 2022 book Of Boys and Men, journalist and Brookings Institution scholar Richard V. Reeves argues that the structural problems contributing to male malaise affect everybody, and that shying away from these tough conversations is not a productive path forward.

Too often people view past realities as current ones. 

Draft Registration Now Automatic But Still Men Only

In the category of seems like it should have been done a long, military draft registration will now be automated. I remember doing this when I turned 18 which was not much of a chore given that I went to a military high school. They facilitated it quite well. Unsurprisingly. 

My sons also registered when they turned of age.

What did surprise me is learning the penalty for not registering 30 days either side of your 18th birthday can be up to $250,000 or five years imprisonment. Wow. And many apparently do not bother. 

So it is now being automated. Which, if we are to have draft registration, is a good thing as it is far more efficient,  less costly (one would presume), and less error prone. 

What I fail to understand is why draft registration is still male only. There have been several court cases over the years but none have gained traction. It is one of the few blatantly sexist and discriminatory laws still on the books. Furthermore, it make no sense from a military standpoint. Indeed, it is reduces military effectiveness as it cuts the pool of talent available in half. 

When The Victim Is A Man

No surprise here but people view coercive control in relationships as less harmful when the victim is a man. Although with the usual caveat that social science studies are only 50% reproducible. But it does make sense. When a man commits violence against a woman is is an outrage but when a woman commits violence against a man it is often comedy. 

A recent study published in Sex Roles suggests that the general public often underestimates the dangers of controlling relationship behaviors when the victims are men. The research provides evidence that people tend to take emotional and psychological abuse more seriously when it is directed at women, leaving men and LGBTQ+ individuals at a higher risk of being overlooked. These findings indicate that societal stereotypes continue to shape how people perceive and respond to unhealthy relationship dynamics.

It is also true as my divorce case demonstrates, that women often get way and sometimes are even rewarded for crimes which would put men in prison. 

I do not mean to minimize the amount of discrimination and violence against women - which is huge, but certainly there far more discrimination and violence against men than most people realize. 

Writing Really Is Theraputic

Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli is a study published at the National Institute of Health which determined writing down your feelings really does help manage negative feelings. 

Abstract

Putting feelings into words (affect labeling) has long been thought to help manage negative emotional experiences; however, the mechanisms by which affect labeling produces this benefit remain largely unknown. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest a possible neurocognitive pathway for this process, but methodological limitations of previous studies have prevented strong inferences from being drawn. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of affect labeling was conducted to remedy these limitations. The results indicated that affect labeling, relative to other forms of encoding, diminished the response of the amygdala and other limbic regions to negative emotional images. Additionally, affect labeling produced increased activity in a single brain region, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC). Finally, RVLPFC and amygdala activity during affect labeling were inversely correlated, a relationship that was mediated by activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). These results suggest that affect labeling may diminish emotional reactivity along a pathway from RVLPFC to MPFC to the amygdala.

I have often thought this site is for me therapeutic. It helps me cope, although I am sure others would tell me I should just move on. Just let it go. Just accept. 

I still sometimes get a sinking feeling in my gut due to the money I have lost, lost due to criminal fraud not just by my ex-wife but more significantly the lawyers and justice system. I am even more upset by the open corruption prevalent within our legal system. 

It is not, however, just about me and the money I lost and the harm done to my kids. It is about the continuing harm done to others which I have no doubt has caused and continues to generate violence, crime, self-destructive actions, and misery to many innocent victims. 

Moving on is meaningless unless there is an end to the trauma. Although the acute trauma has ended for me, it continues for others which is in fact a type of trauma for me as well. Not only is it an obligation for me to speak up but it is good therapy for me as well.