Why more men than women die by suicide — BBC

SpicyMarshmellow · 2025-08-09T10:42:17+00:00

It's such an easy question. Not reading the article.

It's because men are conditioned to feel that they are disposable, that their lives don't have intrinsic value, and that cries for help will not be answered. Most DO seek help before offing themselves, and the responses they get to seeking help usually reinforce these feelings instead of helping. So there is no motivation for weak cry for help attempts. The social circumstances teach them that if they're going to attempt, they need to commit. Besides the universal risk of a failed attempt having permanent medical consequences that reduce quality of life forever, they know the attempt will only get them further labeled as a danger or burden and make their social conditions worse as well. Whereas a woman's attempt at suicide will practically get the fabric of space/time warping itself to see to her well being. I've seen the disparity repeatedly first-hand.

Medical-Reindeer-882 · 2025-08-09T11:43:15+00:00

Succesful suicides are not counted as attempts. That is why females attempt more.

Apprehensive-Sock606 · 2025-08-09T12:06:36+00:00

Men prob don’t pretend to off themselves for attention seeking purposes at the same rate.

Poyri35 · 2025-08-09T06:25:43+00:00

It’s not a bad article imo, and I love that more articles are being written (even though this one is from 2019 admittedly)

But I wish they would choose a better question, rather than a comparison

The reasons given are the typical “Men have more intent, men have more capability, men don’t reach out as much”

And while these are true, they don’t really take the next step in my opinion. They haven’t answered why some men commit suicide, but why the number is higher than women

A more in depth analysis of the reasons, rather than a comparison, could have been more beneficial

And this kinda reflects on their solutions as well:

They mention how boys are conditioned to not talk about feelings, so we need to change the stigma around it. And they list out some organisations that do work on them.

This is very good, but they also miss other aspects because they haven’t mentioned them as a cause.

They don’t consider how improving working conditions, better access to healthcare, more equal laws (especially in the cases of sexual/domestic abuse and custody), easier access to shelters, economic stability and many many more things could also be used to improve the situation

As it stands, the article focuses on the emotional state and the inability to talk about stuff. Which is an important issue. But they fail to mention what it is that they can’t talk about.

(Sry for the scatter-brained comment)

Ok_Departure_8243 · 2025-08-09T13:03:26+00:00

It's not that we don't reach out, but from a young age we learn that if we do reach out we'll be punished for it or more often than not or just given lip service leaving us feeling more isolated and alone than ever before.

Electronic-Link-5792 · 2025-08-09T10:00:14+00:00

Glad this article doesn't just stop at the whole 'men choose more violence methods' response to dismiss the issue.

Altruistic-Hat269 · 2025-08-09T11:49:39+00:00

Tragically, the answer is in the fact that we are asking this question now and still don't have an answer. Suicide throughout history and culture has generally always been higher among men than women, and it's never really dawned on anyone to even ask "why" because asking "why" implies that it is a question worth asking.

Men being the disposable gender is simply the natural order of things, so why bother asking?

FatboySmith2000 · 2025-08-09T21:03:01+00:00

"Mothers talk way more to their girl children than their boy children... and they share and identify feelings” more, she says. “We almost expect women to be emotional.”

Starforce2005 · 2025-08-10T13:52:47+00:00

Men in general are easily isolated, lack emotional support, constantly being seen as toxic and predator for doing nothing, forced male gender role to sacrifice self interest, the list goes on.

Glass-Pain3562 · 2025-08-12T20:14:48+00:00

Male suicide is a problematic topic people don't like talking about because it pokes a major hole in the societal standard of men being expected to be emotional islands. By that, I mean many men are conditioned from birth to never, ever bother others with their emotions. Now, there are plenty of guys who make their emotions entirely dependant on others, namely their significant other, but that's another matter entirely.

The problem is people, other guys included, have absolutely no idea how to help a man when he's feeling low or suicidal. The expectation of strength and the taboo of male vulnerability create a knee-jerk reaction of shunning to not acknowledge the inconsistencies in male gender roles society as a whole teaches and expects. And because that man shows a significant weakness requiring community support, many will shun them due to a perception of being parasitic. After all, a lot of guys are viewed as beings valued for their utility rather than a personal or inherent value. And a man unable to provide something for others is generally negatively viewed and exempt from social aid.

EeerrEeer · 2025-08-13T10:15:00+00:00

While I do share concern that men are dying more by suicide than women, something just doesn't sit well with me because it somehow insinuates that the person who died ended up suffering more. There's plenty of people of both sexes, living in complete agony who don't want to live and are willing to go through with euthanasia if that was a legal thing. Unfortunately, even depression manifests differently in men as opposed to women. For men, it could unfortunately manifest as anger issues and that's enough to drive people away further preventing men from getting the help they need. Though, and I'm gonna get down voted for this, it still doesn't mean that one sex suffers even more from depression than the other.

Title	Why more men than women die by suicide — BBC
Author	KKirdan
Upvotes	125
Comments	42
Date	August 8, 2025 7:44 AM UTC (11 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/1mkp1kd/why_more_men_than_women_die_by_suicide_bbc/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/why-more-men-than-women-die-by-suicide-bbc.1559195 https://theredarchive.com/post/1559195

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