In Japan, a suicide by cutting your own abdomen, called "Harakiri", was once considered to be a noble act of Japanese warriors. Nowadays in our society, suicide is being considered a severe problem.
According to BBC News' article "Fatal silence: Why do so many fortysomething men kill themselves?" (2015), surprisingly, British men in the age of 20-50 have a 4-times higher chance to attempt suicide than women of the same age and the most important factor which psychologically drives men to come up with a suicide as a last measure is claimed to be social expectation, that men must be able to cope with their life problems by themselves. In addition, unlike women, most of the males tend to not express about their problems with their friend or even their close one.
After I have finished reading this news article, I started to recall the past news of suicide in Thailand and, unexpectedly, most of them tended to be males too. The most recent one that I still remember until now is a suicide of an old man in his fifties. From the news report, he and his family were having financial difficulty and, unknowingly to his family, he suddenly decided to end his life just to let his family receive a death gratuity. His family deeply grieved when they had read the letter left by him, urging them to use the money to solve their problems. Whether his family is entitled to such payment or not, they agreed that the money does not matter anymore.
I totally agree with the author of BBC New's article that the sole reason which compels the previously mentioned old man and other men to take their lives is a belief that men must be mentally strong and capable of taking care of themselves and their family. However, some people do not think so. In my opinion, mental capability is the same as physical capability and both are different from each person to each person. For example, some people can run a full marathon with no sweat at all but some cannot even finish half of the marathon. Similarly, some people can handle daily stress from work well but some cannot. Also, the mental capability is not related to gender in the slightest. In this way, it can be said that some of the men might have lower mental capability or perseverance than some of the women.
The question that should be asked next is how to correct this false belief in our society. Since we all are parts of the society, shouldn't we start with ourselves first?
The question that should be asked next is how to correct this false belief in our society. Since we all are parts of the society, shouldn't we start with ourselves first?
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Like Tin, this BBC News also caught my eye, but then the fake art one won my interest.
ReplyDeleteI like Tin's clear statement about how men and women differ individually in every way. I'm not sure that there aren't any sex related average differences, but even if there were, that could not justify discrimination since many women will be higher than many men on any (most?) measures.
The line that did catch my eye was the comment by the family of the dead Thai man Tin mentions "that the money does not matter anymore." I'm sure that they were sincere in their statement, but if the money really did not matter, he would not have died in the hope that they could get it to solve their financial problems. If they really don't think the money matters, they will be disappointing his dying wish. I also think that human beings are complex, and that we don't always know exactly what might be motivating us.
I remember reading an interesting study on women: when asked how important sex and sexiness was in a male partner, most said not so important, but in fact, they behaved as though it did matter, and the more likely they were to be able to come pregnant, the more physical attractiveness mattered. Also, looking like a "bad boy" helped.
I do agree with you that human beings are very complex. Even if scientists finished studying with the human's body, I dare say that the mind will still be an unsolved mystery for them.
DeletePerhaps, the most thoroughly study of our minds might already been done by the Buddha. To the best of my understanding, he came to understand his mind and its mechanism by meditation which focuses on keeping track of what he is thinking at the moment. (Surprisingly, his method is very similar to the concept of meta-cognition in the present days.) One of his discovery, which is very fascinating, is that our mind is actually a series of distinct minds that come into exist and cease very quickly, and there are 121 states of mind that he can classified according to their causes of each mind. I wonder how scientists are going to prove that.
I think the name of your article is very good, it persuade me to read it because I wanted to know why men are stronger than women.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read it, it made me know that more hope will make more pressure and it will make you do a stupid thing such as suicide in Japan.
I like your opinion that every people have their own strange and weakness, and it not relate to gender at all.
Thanks for your feedback. I intentionally put the double quote there to say that this is what the others think, not me.
DeleteI remember that one of my friends, which is a man, is very easily pressured by the surrounding. There were many times that he couldn't sleep and always vomit every morning and night. When he was dumped by his girlfriend, I'm really worried that he was going to suicide! I do hope that he is doing well now.
I'm very interested with your title and it lead me easily to read and think carefully with the article.
ReplyDeleteI pretty like this topic because it shows the different aspects from the men ,but I think the female is strong too, but it's not about the physical capability. Woman has a spirit to do something, she can endure the trouble well.
However, suicide is a serious problem in every countries.It make me know that you have to try to relax yourself and don't be strain too much so the life will be happy.
Thanks for your comment! I agree that we should learn to relax. Everyone should have proper work-life balance too. I'm not sure how it was for the others, but from my experience, the company do not care much for your health even if we do work for them really hard.
DeleteI'm a bit confused because in the first paragraph you mention the Japanese then in the second part(the summaries) is about British men's suicide.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I agree that this is a serious problem and no one cant help it but yourselves. I think both men and women are weak, I'd say human beings are equally weak, but men have a bigger pride which make them weaker.
Frankly speak, after i have read this article made me stunned.
ReplyDeleteSuicide is the bad choice to pick when we are facing a
problem.
Like you guys said earlier, human being is complex and also we want to be accepted from our society , being proud of ourselves ,want to success in our lives and so on.
I heard the news that you referred earlier. Thai old man suicided because he needed money from life insurance for solving unstabled financial of his family.
From my view, i think he used to be success in his career and one day , it failed or it did not be the same as he expected. He can't accept the way it is. He did not think clearly that every problem can be solved even if it has to take more time. That is why he decided to suicide for avoiding the problem.