This rant was inspired by a post featuring IMHO bit silly list of female privileges, with longer life expectancy mentioned in passing reference between free drinks and always spotless public restrooms.

Let us really talk about the gender life expectancy gap.

ℹ️ While some biological factors are theorized, the great variance between countries suggests that the main factors for the gap are social. Among highly developed countries the gap ranges from 2.7 years in the Netherlands to 6.1 years in Germany. [1] (And apparently only 1 year between certain monks and nuns [2])

ℹ️ Traditional arguments go by saying that men consume more tobacco, alcohol and drugs than women and are more likely to die from associated diseases. While this is almost certainly true, we are surely not going to blame the victims, right? Why do men drink more alcohol? And what has society done to address this problem, at least on par with popularizing the gender STEM gap? The same goes for car accidents, diet, homicides and other factors that are "men's own fault".

ℹ️ Yet other known factors are undoubtedly the results of the inherent sexism in our society. Men suffer more work-related accidents, men suffer higher stress due to various societal pressures (to be successful, to a breadwinner etc), men receive inferior mental health care. Feel free to finish the list.

⚠️ Consider this: the Covid pandemic reduced the life expectancy of the US population by estimated 1.13 years [3] and we eventually turned the world upside-down to stop it. But half of the world population dies 5 years early and nobody bats an eye? Counting the potential years of life lost (PYLL) [4] the issue is comparable to the loss of life during the First World War.

(My napkin calculation - let me know if I made a mistake. Ca. 60 mil. people die every year, half are men, each dies ca. 5 years prematurely = PPYL 150 mil. per year. WW1 death toll, military + civilian, ca. 20 mil. over 4 years, each dies ca. 30 years prematurely = PPYL 150 mil. per year.)

The title of this post is clearly a hyperbole; But is it really? Just think about it, the First World War going on, forever. But affecting only one-half of the population. And nobody seems to really care - there is not even a dedicated Wikipedia page about this topic, unlike, for instance, about the gender pay gap. Don't get me wrong, I believe that all topics of social and legal equality are important, but this colossal loss of men's life should clearly become the PR emblem and a battle cry for the Men's Rights community.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/rbomi/wiki/main#wiki_5._life_expectancy_gap

[3] https://www.pnas.org/content/118/5/e2014746118

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_potential_life_lost