Women Live Longer Because Men Are Dumb

stevesliva writes "CNEWS Canada reported on Sept. 30th that, 'If men dropped their risky ways and bad habits they would live just as long as women.' The story was an interesting spin on a study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which spun the study very differently. (Thanks to ThisIsTrue for bringing the respun spin to my attention.)"

Comments

Re:The brain-dead do the rest of us a favor...

[ctr2sprt]

You know what? You're right, it is brain-dead to smoke and drink, and to a lesser extent to drive. But you can live your life in such terror of death that you don't live a day at all. I'd rather die at 75, having lived a good life, than live to 85 and never having done anything. Part of having a good life is having a full life, both the ups and the downs.

I expect you won't take me very seriously. Five or six years ago I would've agreed with you, but my father really taught me this lesson by his example. All I hope is that you stop living your life in fear of death and start living it in delight of life, before it's too late.

Skewed perspectives

[radtea]

Isn't it interesting that when women die or have poor health it's viewed as a societal problem and when men die or have poor health it's viewed as our own damned fault?

Men die because our lives are less valued than women's, and we are brought up to value our lives less. We are surrounded by cultural propoganda dedicated to the proposition that the gruesome death of a young man is, literally, glorious.

Until we value the lives of men as highly as we value the lives of women, men's lives will continue to be shorter and poorer than women's.

The data reported in this study contain many subtle cues as to how men routinely mistreat themselves: for example, men take fewer disability days than women. This is not because men suffer from fewer hurts and harms, but because we are taught from birth that it's more important to sacrifice ourselves than take to care of ourselves. And sacrifice ourselves we do.

--Tom