Is it time we talked about male heroism?

Zaronax · 2022-10-05T15:16:34+00:00

People will raise the counter that: "Well that's because women's heroism isn't acknowledged!!"

Forgetting that even the press doesn't talk about it.

They'll probably also claim that "Women sacrifice everything constantly and no one thinks it's heroic!", comparing stuff like a stay-at-home mom (by choice), to someone who jumped into a fire and saved 5 kids before ending up in a hospital, in a coma, due to the burns.

They'll also probably claim that "It's only right that men sacrifice their lives when they're the ones that are ruining everyone's lives!".

TheTinMenBlog · 2022-10-05T12:53:06+00:00

Yes, men perform the majority of violent crimes, but we should also acknowledge they perform the majority of bystander rescues too.

More likely to run into the fire, more likely to scale the building, more likely to jump onto the rail tracks, more likely to wade into the river and more likely stand in the way of an assailant.

Not only are men the most likely to perform bystander rescues, they are also the least likely to be the recipient of one – and will have to wait until the age of 75 before they can expect the same assistance in a life threatening situation that women have enjoyed their whole lives.

So yes, whilst ‘men’ are framed as society’s great villain, should they not also be acknowledged as the hero too?

Society constantly points at ‘male violence’, but ought mens’ innate propensity to risk their lives for a complete stranger, be spoken about in the same way?

And why is the male sex so often erased when reporting on these matters – why do these men become ‘bystanders’, ‘good samaritans’ or ‘vigilantes’, and yet on the flip side of male criminality their gender is front and centre with ‘gunman’, ‘knifeman’, or ‘mad man’.

What’s so wrong about acknowledging the good side of men?

Is it time we spoke of men’s heroism?

~

Carnegie Award

90% of winners are men

deusdeorum · 2022-10-05T13:47:51+00:00

While I can appreciate this some, I believe this is also the result of enforced gender roles.

Men are encouraged to sacrifice their life for others, whether it's by giving up their dreams to work the highest paying job they can find to support a family, using their body as a shield for a woman or child they don't even know or dying in a war - "it's the brave and honorable thing to do".

edit: to add to this, it contributes to the problem that is men being valued by what they can provide compared to women's intrinsic value for just existing. It teaches women to expect this of men and to NOT do it themselves.

palescope · 2022-10-05T16:59:27+00:00

Also notice how women are never called “cowards” or “pussies” whereas men are overly described as such, which can be devastating to their self-esteem.

Beljuril-home · 2022-10-05T21:29:41+00:00

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially in terms of phenotype plasticity as it relates to height, IQ, and empathy.

basically: males are more frequently represented on the highest and lowest parts of a trait spectrum than females.

Men and women have the same average IQ's, but there are more very intelligent and very stupid men.

It is also likely that the same applies for empathy, and it's absence - psychopathy. There are problably more male heros and villains than female ones. Men are more likely to shoot up a school, but also to sacrifice themselves for a stranger. People who love to point out that most shooters are men are reluctant to admit that most heros are men too.

It's worth noting that even though the average female is shorter than the average male, the shortest man ever is shorter than the shortest female ever.

Why? Gender differences in phenotype plasticity.

RockmanXX · 2022-10-06T11:01:14+00:00

I have mixed feelings on this, on one hand its good to recognise Men's invaluable contribution to Civilization but on the other hand, its promoting Male Disposability to glorify male sacrifice.

I am reminded of that incident where a 7 yr old boy got mauled by a dog to save his sister, everyone called him a "hero" but i am disturbed by the fact that boys are conditioned to sacrifice that early in life. A 7 yr old boy doesn't even have the advantage of testosterone, boys are physically not stronger than girls until they reach puberty.

CR9_Kraken_Fledgling · 2022-10-05T19:38:47+00:00

I think this is at least in part the "human beings vs human doings" thing. Women have a baseline respect in society just for being people, but men are only respected for their actions.

Of course, this means a woman can never really be invisible, even if she wants, and she has a harder time being valued only for her own merits, (glass ceiling) but men have no way of being valued for anything else.

Just look at the stories we tell kids. What you can explain as damsel in distress, you can just as well explain as the men having to risk life and limb, and fight with nature, monsters, whatever, to be "worthy of love", while the woman just has to... exist.

another-cosplaytriot · 2022-10-06T01:00:08+00:00

Right now, 10x as many men as women are being arrested in Iran on behalf of a legitimate feminist issue. You wouldn't know that if you read the hyperbolic man-hater subreddits, or even regular journalism.

Even the most credible news sources de-emphasize this point by asking feminists to do the one thing they cannot do: Math.

Example: "Over 700 'people' arrested including 60 women"

Trizkit · 2022-10-05T20:03:33+00:00

I've always found the thought process that ending something with -man seems to indicate that it is inherently masculine to be quite odd. I once dated a girl who was vehemently against being labeled as a woman because she thought the word was degrading given that it had -man at the end. I think people just superimpose their beliefs of how we see the world today as to how things were thousands of years ago which is obviously proposterous.

The same can be said about the words mankind or human, I had an argument with her about these words given that she took them to be antagonistic. Her thought process was that by saying mankind or human we are thereby excluding women from the equation which is ridiculous given that clearly we are just talking about all peoples. Another term she disliked was common-man as in essentially referring to who we are today as humans.

To some extent I could see what her thought process was within the argument but realistically speaking I don't think I would take every single word with -man to be masculine.

The English language is odd given that it is a germanic language and was heavily influenced by the French (and less so of others). So it pseudo-devloped within this "gendered language" format but evolved to not be relevant in any regard. There's a lot of examples of this with lots of different words, some to keep their alignment and some don't but that's really just how things have developed.

So as for this argument of should we try to use more gendered-centric language in describing people in acts of valor, I'm not so sure that it is necessary. I understand where its coming from but would it actually accomplish anything? Why can't any one person or persons who act bravely be recognized on the same grounds? Why would we need to be more exclusionary within our language?

jesuswashere1989 · 2022-10-06T05:31:09+00:00

I know this doesn't add anything to this conversation but I am really disappointed in my self that I had no clue this organization existed and to be completely honest with you all I'm dame proud to be a man after learning of it's existence.

CalifornianDownUnder · 2022-10-05T20:47:08+00:00

The fact that the Carnegie Award has been around for 116 years and has given 90 percent of its awards to men means that for 116 years, male heroism has been acknowledged. Given the percentages, I would imagine it’s much more likely that women heroes were unrecognised during that time than it is that male heroes were ignored.

While I take your point about some of the gendered language, hero itself is a male term - we don’t talk about the heroine’s journey at all. There’s nothing wrong with having gender neutral witnesses, good samaritans, etc because those can be men or women. And most of those negative terms have female equivalents. There are madwomen and henchwomen. Gunwoman isn’t common if it’s even a word - but then again, in 2017 men were responsible for 88.1 percent of gun homicides where the killer was known. And I’ve never heard anyone use the word “knifeman”!

EDIT: and to add, just because the Carnegie Award has predominantly recognised men, doesn’t mean that men actually perform the majority of heroic actions such as saving people from fires etc. We’d need to see actual statistics on that, rather than basing it on awards….

SexEleven · 2022-10-06T13:00:30+00:00

Anyone else remember the NY subway hero? He jump on the tracks and covered the body of a woman having a seizure as the train barreled over them. They both survived. I’m glad he got huge recognition and he was also super humble about it.

ChimpPimp20 · 2022-10-08T11:33:41+00:00

“You’re parents death was not your fault.”

“It was your father’s.”

Gets me every time.