"I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there." - Fred Allen

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Facebook | Singapore Men's Rights Watch

"The Singapore Men's Rights Watch was set up with the following goals:

1) To increase awareness of the lack of national-level support for men's health in Singapore.

2) To highlight that, in Singapore, prostate cancer fatalities rival cervical cancer fatalities, but most campaign sponsorship goes towards cancers that affect females only.

3) To highlight the lack of specialised health facilities and medical professionals for men. As opposed to personal gynaecologists, men typically have to be content with generic urologists.

4) To discuss the issue of equal pay for men and women in Singapore.

5) To increase awareness of the damaging (mis)representation of men and fathers in mass media. From The Simpsons to Night at The Museum, men and fathers are increasingly portrayed as lovable but emotionally-impaired, bumbling idiots.

On the other hand, it's very fashionable in Hollywood to represent most women/wives as strong, independent women who are morally and intellectually superior to men.

This has spilled over into everyday life, and into the dynamics of today's male-female relationships.

The long-term mispresentation of men could result in the undermining of the value of fathers, leading to the breakdown of families (like in the West).

6) To ask why violence against males in mass media is called PG humour, while violence against women gets an M18/R21 rating.

7) To increase awareness of the suicide rate of males. Studies show that males are four times more likely to die from suicide than females, although women are more likely to attempt suicide than men.

8) To raise awareness of the fact that substantial public money is spent on women's campaigns, while little is reserved for men. In other countries, this is the result of having a female vote-bank. In Singapore, the reason is not clear.

9) To discuss about the increasing pressure on males to fulfill traditional roles as good 'providers' - while taking on new roles as home-makers and caregivers in the family.

10) To raise awareness about the lack of protection and the lack of avenues to turn to for help in cases of marital disputes.

11) To discuss about the falling standards of men's tertiary education in developed countries. In the U.S., females significantly outnumber males at college level."


This wasn't really new to me, except for this point:

7) To increase awareness of the suicide rate of males. Studies show that males are four times more likely to die from suicide than females, although women are more likely to attempt suicide than men.

2 possible explanations for this (which are not mutually exclusive):

i) Women are trying to attract attention
ii) Women are so incompetent they can't even kill themselves successfully

Someone suggested an alternative explanation, that "once embarked on a stupid course of action men are less likely to reconsider their actions".

I rejected this because I doubt you are counted as having attempted suicide if you reconsider your actions and stop trying to kill yourself.

For example if, a minute before you fling yourself off your balcony, you come back into the building, that's not called attempted suicide.

Similarly if, 5 minutes before I slit my wrists, I change my mind and climb out of
the bathtub, this is not counted as a suicide attempt either.

Having suicidal thoughts or plans or fantasies does not count as making a suicide attempt.

The only way this explanation would be valid is if most women try to kill themselves but, once having undertaken the deed, try to reverse it. Some examples would include calling 995 after slashing their wrists or inducing vomitting after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills, but this doesn't seem intuitively plausible to me (at least not more so than explanation #1).