In my last post I talked about some of the issues facing women in today's society, specifically issues perpetrated by men.
Today however it's time to look at some of the issues faced by men in society.
Both genders have their problems within society, while women's issues seem to be getting more and more attention (as they should) it seems men's issues are being left behind. If we want equality, it goes both ways.
Australian men commit suicide at a rate 3 times higher than their female counterparts. They are blatantly prejudiced against within the legal system when it comes to custody of children, and the rate of male workplace deaths is staggeringly higher. Though I was unable to find specific statistics for Australia in the U.S 93% of all workplace fatality's were male.
In Australia men commit suicide at a ratio of 3:1 and this statistic has not changed in almost 2 decades. Sadly enough this is an improvement on past statistics. The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) shows the ratio being as igh as 4:1 in the 1990's before settling at it's current rate in 2000. This rate is consistent across every state and territory of our nation and in 2016, suicide represented 2.6% of all male deaths and 0.9% of all female deaths.
Whilst many factors contribute to this one of the biggest is our utterly woeful way at dealing with depression and mental illness. We often refuse to seek help due to a myriad of things, social stigma, our own fragile ego or simply just not understanding what is going on and not being emotionally able to deal with it. Another saddening contributor is the way our legal system treats men in custody battles.
21 men in Australia commit suicide every week because they are refused access to their children. Let's be real here for a minute, if you keep your children from their father and he is a good father, then you are a bad mother. You may hate his guts, you may wish he was dead, maybe he cheated on you, maybe he hit you. But if he is a good father that's whats relevant here. If he wont hurt his children, if he will provide for them, if he will love them and care for them, then whatever it is that happened between you should stay just that. Because this is about your children not you, sorry.
This statistic is not only heartbreaking but avoidable. Mothers by all means if he's an abusive shitty father, if he does drugs in front of his children if he neglects them. Keep those kids away. But don't let your prejudices towards him affect your children's lives. Some of this stems from sexism, a lot of older male judges still hold the belief that a woman should stay home and raise the children, this is not only unfair on women but also on men as it somewhat automatically projects them as being bad fathers, unable to look after children.
As good as it is to see women's issues being brought into the front line an unfortunate and unnecessary side effect is mens issues being left in the dark. Equality means fair for all of us. If you don't fight for that then you don't deserve anyone else to fight for you. Men with depression struggle everyday and societal issues compact this and magnify it, unfortunately that doesn't translate to more exposure.
If you or anyone you know suffers from depression or suicidal thoughts please seek help
Australia
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
Lifeline: 13 11 14
U.S
Suicide hotline: 800-273-8255 http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.healthyplace.com/suicide/suicide-hotline-phone-numbers/
Canada
https://suicideprevention.ca/need-help/
Almost all suicidal thoughts are temporary, if you need help never be ashamed to ask for it. We all need help sometimes and you're never alone.
Steem on Steemians
Resources
http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/reporting-suicide/facts-and-stats
https://www.lifeline.org.au/about-lifeline/lifeline-information/statistics-on-suicide-in-australia
https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/how-come-nobody-talks-about-the-gender-workplace-death-gap/