# In what ways are men discriminated against? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184 "2012-04-08T16:38:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/81 "2012-04-09T12:46:30Z")
A few I can think of: - If a healthy woman doesn’t work (for whatever reason), no one will say a thing. If a healthy man does not work, he is considered a lazy bum. - I don’t have a cite, but I once read that a \*lot \*less money is spent on male-related medical R&D (e.g. cures prostate cancer) verses female-related medical R&D (e.g. breast cancer). - I strongly suspect that, all else being equal, a woman has a better chance of getting a “warning” when pulled over by cop verses a man. - It’s not a problem for a girl in high school to not be good at sports, or not play sports at all. A boy will be ridiculed if he isn’t good at sports. - A short, single woman won’t have a problem finding a date. A short, single man \*will \*have a problem finding a date. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/82 "2012-04-09T12:53:03Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > I am questioning the idea that men are discriminated against in nursing Me too. My wife is an RN, and she says the hospital \*loves \*male nurses, because they usually don’t need help maneuvering a patient. If anything, I wonder if there is a bias \*for \*male nurses. As for generous maternity leave, I think such laws can actually backfire against women. If I were a business owner, and the law said I must provide 12 weeks of paid maternity leave (or whatever), I would think twice about hiring females. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/83 "2012-04-09T12:53:17Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > Another example is a teacher I had for 5th year. > Now, to put this in context, the Leaving Cert is the secondary school final set of exams - it determines what college you get, where you go in life - it’s crucial. You sit the exams at the end of 6th year, but it is a two-year course. > The teacher in question was teaching a group of 6th years also. > > She got pregnant at the start of the year, left, leaving us with an absolutely useless replacement, then timed her return so that she was just in time to get paid for the Summer break. > She screwed over about a 100 students by timing her pregnancy for the most beneficial period for her. Did she screw the kids or did the system screw the kids by not providing a decent replacement? ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/84 "2012-04-09T13:19:44Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Did she screw the kids or did the system screw the kids by not providing a decent replacement? Both - she chose to leave at the most crucial time in our education but the school should have gotten a better replacement, if one was available. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/85 "2012-04-09T13:28:47Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > When can also show more skin then men at beaches and public pools then men. I work in an office; nobody’s allowed to wear shorts, but women can wear skirts (knee length) without having to wear stocking or panyhose. Usually it’s the same women who are constantly complaining about how cold it is. :smack: Hardly a huge discrimination but this has been an issue in my government office. I see women wearing flip-flops, shorts and T-shirts all the time, even executives, but I had to try to explain to one of my male staff why he wasn’t allowed to wear sandels to work. Shorts are absolutely forbidden on men, not women. If a guy wore a tank top to work I would send him home to get dressed else I would end up in trouble from my boss. If a women wore a tank top I better not say anything else I might find myself in a sexual harrasment situation. The thing about being cold I have encountered a few times. It is not advisable here to suggest a women might want to cover her arms or legs if she finds the office cold. Like I said, hardly a serious discrimination but it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/86 "2012-04-09T13:32:38Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > Now you do. I’ve had custody of my daughter for 9 years and her mother hasn’t paid a dime. Did you A Not request support when you obtained custody B Requested support but the court didn’t order it or C had a court order for support but the mother was a deadbeat? Only B might be discrimination by the court. I suppose C might be discrimination if your state has an enforcement mechanism that actually works for women but not for men. I’ve known a couple of men who had their kids living with them and not only didn’t get child support, but was actually paying support to the ex-wives. No discrimination on the courts’ part- in both cases, the ex-wives were granted physical custody and child support , the kids more or less gradually ended up living with their fathers, and the men never went back to get the court orders modified. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/87 "2012-04-09T13:32:47Z")
[Televison, especially commercials](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=misandry+in+the+media&oq=misandry&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube-psuggest.1.1.0l10.1124.2508.0.6761.8.8.0.0.0.0.211.958.4j3j1.8.0.) Men, especially white men are portrayed more ofthen than not as buffoons, neanderthals, dumb animals. If the roles were reversed there would be howls of protests. Not long ago a car commercial was running where where two men where so enthralled about a car that neither of them didn’t acknowledge a pregnant women in the background who was going into labour, because the car was that cool. A couple of women in Toronto complained about it, and the add was pulled. The level of misandry currently taking place in media is obscene. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/88 "2012-04-09T13:43:44Z")
> [@](#): > > I worked for some time with children with extreme behavioural problems. The girls had often been receiving attention for exhibiting sexual behaviour towards men. It would be the most heartbreaking thing to see a 7 y/o girl trying to give one of my colleagues a lap dance. Our solution for a time was to make it a rule that the girls could not sit on the laps of men or be cuddled by them. It was awful, the guys I worked with cared so much for these children. And they are just children. When they do something like that, it breaks your heart, you want to put your arms around them and tell them to stop, that they don’t need to do that to get love and attention. Instead these guys had to get up and walk away. It was really hard, and seemed to me to treat the men unfairly simply for being men. They had the same caring instincts that we all had, but were forced to react differently. Eventually we found different ways of dealing with these situations with the help of a psychologist. This was bad for both the male workers AND for the little girls. The male workers had to suppress their affection, and the little girls desperately needed to learn that some males will give affection without the girls having to be sexual. > [@](#): > > I don’t have a cite, but I once read that a \*lot \*less money is spent on male-related medical R&D (e.g. cures prostate cancer) verses female-related medical R&D (e.g. breast cancer). Generally, until very, very recently, medical research has been done mostly or ONLY on males. And on male medical students at that, which means, in the US, mostly WASP males. When men and women have the same problems, and present the same symptoms, well, this isn’t terrible. However, when women present different symptoms than men, or when there are different problems for non white patients, then there’s a big problem. Hell, it tells you something when the preliminary [study](http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3562720?uid=3739920&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=47698857437357) of the impact of obesity on breast and uterine cancer is based ONLY ON MEN. Now men do occasionally get breast cancer, but I’ve NEVER heard of one getting uterine cancer. You know how that “studies have shown that an aspirin a day can help prevent heart problems” is going around? Those studies were conducted ONLY on men. Is the aspirin regimen effective on women? Who knows? Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Maybe it causes problems for women. Nobody knows, because nobody conducted studies on women. And despite the NIH’s push to include more women and non-whites as research subjects, those subjects still tend to be overwhelmingly white and male. Yet we do know that sometimes, race and sex will have an impact on how something works, or doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/89 "2012-04-09T14:06:08Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > This was bad for both the male workers AND for the little girls. The male workers had to suppress their affection, and the little girls desperately needed to learn that some males will give affection without the girls having to be sexual. Absolutely. As I said, we did change the way we handled it with the help of a psychologist pretty soon. But the decision as to the way my male colleagues should handle such situations came from management in the first instance. What made me sad about it was the way it seemed to make general bad guys out of men. Sometimes children would exhibit the same sexualised behaviour around me and I would not be required to act that way. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/90 "2012-04-09T14:24:11Z")
> [@Ibanez](#): > > [Televison, especially commercials](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=misandry+in+the+media&oq=misandry&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube-psuggest.1.1.0l10.1124.2508.0.6761.8.8.0.0.0.0.211.958.4j3j1.8.0.) Men, especially white men are portrayed more ofthen than not as buffoons, neanderthals, dumb animals. If the roles were reversed there would be howls of protests. Not long ago a car commercial was running where where two men where so enthralled about a car that neither of them didn’t acknowledge a pregnant women in the background who was going into labour, because the car was that cool. A couple of women in Toronto complained about it, and the add was pulled. > > The level of misandry currently taking place in media is obscene. If it makes you feel any better, women in commercials playing the wife character are more often than not the Shrill Nagging Harpy, or the Parent of a Man Child. Commercials generally only have enough time to reinforce negative gender stereotypes. And try to sell you cars. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/91 "2012-04-09T14:36:40Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > This thread is too funny! In 1996, after my wife beat up our daughter in a drunken rage, I had a very tight time convincing the police whom I’d called at the ER to which I’d taken her to that I wasn’t the one who’d done the damage. Luckily, despite her emotional trauma, my six-year old girl was able to counter what a bunch of adults’ TV-movie-of-the -week midset led them to expect. The police took my report, but no further action was taken. In 2005 my wife attacked our daughter, and I pulled her off. Having had several experiences like the one above over the years, I didn’t bother reporting it, but my wife did wait until 2AM when she’d sobered up and then called 911. The police looked at the tumbprint bruise on her forearm, then at the claw-marks on my face (“obvious definsive wounds”). Again my daughter supplied the credibility that I was denied as a male. But in the name of " he-said/she-said cooling-off period," I was the one who spent a weekend in jail until the DA cut me loose Monday morning. I was just glad to find my daughter unharmed when I got back home. There’s nothing unique or heroic about me. This happens all the time to a lot of working-class fathers. Too funny, huh? ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/92 "2012-04-09T14:46:00Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > In 1996, after my wife beat up our daughter in a drunken rage, I had a very tight time convincing the police whom I’d called at the ER to which I’d taken her to that I wasn’t the one who’d done the damage. Luckily, despite her emotional trauma, my six-year old girl was able to counter what a bunch of adults’ TV-movie-of-the -week midset led them to expect. The police took my report, but no further action was taken. > > In 2005 my wife attacked our daughter, and I pulled her off. Having had several experiences like the one above over the years, I didn’t bother reporting it, but my wife did wait until 2AM when she’d sobered up and then called 911. The police looked at the tumbprint bruise on her forearm, then at the claw-marks on my face (“obvious definsive wounds”). Again my daughter supplied the credibility that I was denied as a male. But in the name of " he-said/she-said cooling-off period," I was the one who spent a weekend in jail until the DA cut me loose Monday morning. I was just glad to find my daughter unharmed when I got back home. > > There’s nothing unique or heroic about me. This happens all the time to a lot of working-class fathers. Too funny, huh? As a fellow victim of spousal abuse, I’m not going to make a joke at your expense. But in general, yes, the thread is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/93 "2012-04-09T15:15:26Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > As a fellow victim of spousal abuse, I’m not going to make a joke at your expense. But in general, yes, the thread is hilarious. What parts, specifically, do you find hilarious? ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/94 "2012-04-09T15:16:26Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > If it makes you feel any better, women in commercials playing the wife character are \*\*more often than not \*\*the Shrill Nagging Harpy, or the Parent of a Man Child. Commercials generally only have enough time to reinforce negative gender stereotypes. And try to sell you cars. Why would negative sterotypes make me feel better about any sex ? As well, I disagree to your assertion that women are denigrated more than men in commercials, you’re probably not paying attention or it’s become so normal that you don’t even notice it, or chuckle about it and see no harm . If you spent anytime looking at the examples I provided, then reversed the roles in these examples you know as well as I do these commercials would be pulled. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/95 "2012-04-09T15:21:50Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > As a fellow victim of spousal abuse, I’m not going to make a joke at your expense. But in general, yes, the thread is hilarious. Obviously you feel that men aren’t discriminated against, or that women are discriminated more and because of it and men shouldn’t be bitching about it. Ever. Either way you’re not helping your case by just stating you find this thread hilarious, and providing nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/96 "2012-04-09T15:54:22Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > How’d that work out for you? Well, I didn’t get drafted, so, pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/97 "2012-04-09T16:06:52Z")
> [@Ibanez](#): > > Obviously you feel that men aren’t discriminated against, or that women are discriminated more and because of it and men shouldn’t be bitching about it. Ever. Either way you’re not helping your case by just stating you find this thread hilarious, and providing nothing else. I don’t have a case, I’m just here to point and laugh. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/98 "2012-04-09T16:10:01Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I don’t have a case, I’m just here to point and laugh. > 😛 At what? ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/99 "2012-04-09T16:27:30Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I don’t have a case, I’m just here to point and laugh. > 😛 Noted. Troll on. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/100 "2012-04-09T16:28:50Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > - Women get hired for jobs they aren’t qualified for and don’t belong in over more qualified male applicants in the name of “equality”. I don’t think it’s so much “the women aren’t qualified” as it is “the women aren’t as qualified as the men,” in which case, you have to ask, “Why are the men more qualified?”. Case in point: firefighters in California. At one time (and this may still be true), strength tests were declared illegal since men as a class were stronger than women and thus were more likely to pass, and never mind that strength is a key component in being able to fight fires (here’s one for TSD to look into: “I heard once that” a house burned down in part because a firefighter (whom I think was male) wasn’t strong enough to hold the fire hose as water was going through it because of the aforementioned lack of a strength test). The real problem was, not enough women were being promoted into executive-level positions. > [@DMark](#): > > Here in Las Vegas women get into nightclubs free while men have to pay a hefty fee just for admission. I am not stupid and know the financial/social reasons why; more women = more men who will go there. Still, it can cost a nice chunk of change to get into those clubs if you are a guy. Never mind nightclubs - look at the disparity in getting into a Vegas pool. > [@Rigamarole](#): > > Yet it overwhelmingly and systematically favors women. That’s like saying “hey, poor people only pay 15% tax on their capital gains, just like rich people!” And that’s why it’s not “preferential treatment”. > [@hajario](#): > > Also, women only gyms are prevalent but not men only gyms. For some reason, quite a few women feel pressured, or at least uncomfortable, if they have to share a gym with men. It reminds me of an episode of _Married…with Children_ where one of the plot points was that a bowling alley didn’t have a “females only night” every week. I’m a little surprised nobody brought up college athletics, although you only really notice it at the Division 1 level when a school has to drop men’s sports (you rarely hear of a top-level school dropping a women’s sport, although Cal-Berkeley dropped women’s gymnastics and lacrosse one or two years ago because of budget problems), usually because they need to balance the number of women’s and men’s scholarships, and almost 100 men’s scholarships go to football and basketball (and since there are, except for a very small number of schools, the only sports that make a profit for the school, in no small part because of the TV money for the BCS games and NCAA basketball tournament, they aren’t about to reduce those). Not that Title IX isn’t necessary - especially at Division 2 and 3 schools, which make up over 80% of the NCAA membership - but the average person isn’t particularly interested in what happens at the “small schools”. Speaking of athletics, there is still preferential treatment for girls over boys in athletics at the high school level, but when you think about it, it’s necessary: in California, girls cannot be prevented from playing baseball or football if they’re good enough, since there are no girls teams, but boys can be prevented from playing softball or field hockey even though there are no boys’ teams in those sports - but you put a hockey stick in the hands of a boy who’s even a halfway-decent athlete and put him onto a field of girls, and the ball is one slapshot away from being a seriously dangerous weapon. (Up until the early 1980s, it was worse for the boys; there was no such thing as, say, “boys’ basketball”, but only “girls’ basketball” (open only to girls) and “student basketball” (open to boys and girls). Apparently, at one point, somebody complained that, if the last spot on a “student team” came down to a boy and a girl, if the boy was chosen, the girl could still play basketball on the girls’ team, but if the girl was chosen, the boy was deprived the opportunity to play basketball at all _because of his gender_, which is discrimination.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184.md?page=6)