# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/141 "2012-04-10T14:38:26Z")
One instance that I’ve noted is the patronization of older women. Whenever an older woman is the victim of a crime or does something heroic like beating off an attacker, the headline will inevitably mention that she is a grandmother. You rarely, if ever, see a headline like “Grandfather, 75, Kills Intruder”. I’m not sure who is being discriminated against in this scenario but the differences are clear. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/142 "2012-04-10T14:40:46Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > It’s especially weird in a country that’s so insistent on women giving birth to babies whether they actually want them or not - apparently once you do, you’re on your own. Even before that, many medical insurance policies (and not everybody has insurance) do not cover pregnancy or delivery. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/143 "2012-04-10T15:43:01Z")
> [@phxjcc](#): > > She has not worked for 15 years, she brought exactly $2600 into the marriage, He had $50,000 equity in his house when they were married, $5000 in savings. > > What does she get? > 50% of the house equity > 50% of the retirement savings > 40% of his salary, until he is 62 > 50% of his SSA benefits > No kids. > > Who gave her this _ **RIGHT** _? Your brother, when he married her, agreed to let her stay home rather than working (and lets not quibble about his agreement - he stayed married to her for 15 years of not working - that’s agreement), benefited from her caring for his house, preparing his meals, paying the bills, arranging for the yard, booking his appointments, etc. And if she didn’t do any of those things he agreed to that too - again, by staying married to her for 15 years while she did nothing. Alimony is based on a basic mathematical formula - if you don’t like it, that’s perfectly fine, but it’s not sex descriminatory. Also, I’ll just leave this info here: > [@](#): > > Janet Jackson & Rene Elizondo > The pop star and her longtime music collaborator kept their 1991 marriage under wraps until 2000, when Elizondo filed for divorce. Elizondo sued Jackson for $25 million in spousal support, despite a prenuptial agreement. (He claims he signed it under duress.) In 2003, the couple settled. Press reports say he walked away with upward of $10 million. > [@](#): > > Jennifer Lopez & Chris Judd > Lopez met Judd on the set of her music video, “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” for which he was a backup dancer. Married in September 2001, the pair separated less than a year later. Judd is said to have walked away with as much as $15 million. > [@](#): > > Kirstie Alley & Parker Stevenson > The sitcom star with the throaty voice wed Hardy Boys actor Parker Stevenson in 1983. Their 1997 divorce became tabloid fodder when Stevenson sued for spousal support. Leaked documents detailed their lavish lifestyle, which included a full-time staff of housekeepers, chefs, nannies plus a full-time attendant for the 50 or so exotic animals residing on their 9,000-square-foot Encino, Calif., estate. Stevenson reportedly received a $6 million settlement. There are more of these here if you’re interested: > **[In Pictures: Celebrity Divorces--Women Who Paid](https://www.forbes.com/2007/04/11/celebrity-women-alimony-biz-cx_lg_0412womenpay_slide.html)** > > It's not always the men who suffer financially when stars split. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/144 "2012-04-10T15:54:07Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > benefited from her caring for his house, preparing his meals, paying the bills, arranging for the yard, booking his appointments, etc. It’s discriminatory that there is no deduction for the cost of hiring outside help to replace the lost household labor. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/145 "2012-04-10T15:55:15Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Lopez met Judd on the set of her music video, “Love Don’t Cost a Thing”…Judd is said to have walked away with as much as $15 million. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/146 "2012-04-10T15:57:45Z")
I only know of 1 In the Police in the UK. You can have the Police Officers Association - open to all You can Have the Women’s Police Officers Association - Women only. You can Have the Black Police Officers Association - Coloured Officers Only (both Male and Female) Bet you cant Have a Male Police Officers Association (or a White Police Officers Association) Not really saying you should but you should not be able to discriminate about colour or sex - either positive or negative. One leads to the other. But its the only example I know of for Men not being allowed or discriminated against. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/147 "2012-04-10T16:25:33Z")
> [@Hbns](#): > > It’s discriminatory that there is no deduction for the cost of hiring outside help to replace the lost household labor. But would be equally discriminatory if it was the woman working outside the home and the man being a house husband. Sorry - there’s lots of sex based discrimination out there, but alimony isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/148 "2012-04-10T16:30:05Z")
> [@Hogfather65](#): > > Bet you cant Have a Male Police Officers Association (or a White Police Officers Association) I bet you probably can, but beyond that: you do realize why those other groups were probably originally formed, right? Back in the day, it’s very likely that the black officers or female officers were intentionally not included in the outside of work activities and fun times that the white male officers had, so they created their own groups. Sure, in 2012 it seems a bit ridiculous, but in 1960 it was probably more necessary than anything. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/149 "2012-04-10T16:52:14Z")
> [@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. [You’re not wrong](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8057792.stm). I was one of the complainants. Not happy at all about this. > [@blindboyard](#): > > Eight times as much is spent on women, according to Yvette Cooper, the then-public health minister here in the UK. Is anyone still spouting the “If men got breast cancer they’d have cured it by now” line? I used to hear it a lot but not so much nowadays. Which is good, because it’s sheer idiocy because 1) men DO get breast cancer and 2) male-only cancers remain uncured. > [@Mijin](#): > > To add my own anecdote to the OP; while I was at uni I tried for a while to get secretarial work (temping). I went to an agency and they gave me test after test and kept asking me in dozens of different ways why I wanted that kind of work, and I could tell they didn’t quite know what to do. > I think they boxed themselves in by implying an interview would be arranged if I could pass the typing tests (and they had assumed I would fail). I once had an agency for secretarial temps tell me that they only placed women. I was not in a position to sue them at the time but instead went and found a better temp agency. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/150 "2012-04-10T16:58:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Is anyone still spouting the “If men got breast cancer they’d have cured it by now” line? Are thes the same people who claim that if women were the presidents of countries, there’d be no more war? ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/151 "2012-04-10T16:59:50Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > 1. male-only cancers remain uncured. Last I checked, all cancers lack cures at this point in time. It’s not like woman are all giggling and laughing at men and their prostate cancer, while we all go get the anti-girlie bits cancer vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/152 "2012-04-10T17:09:05Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Are thes the same people who claim that if women were the presidents of countries, there’d be no more war? Probably. I’ve heard that one in person too, usually followed by me saying “Two words: Margaret Thatcher”. > [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Last I checked, all cancers lack cures at this point in time. It’s not like woman are all giggling and laughing at men and their prostate cancer, while we all go get the anti-girlie bits cancer vaccine. I’m not saying women are hogging all the cancer drugs; I’m saying that people who think that breast cancer isn’t cured already because it doesn’t affect men are idiots. But again, this one seems to have gone away since the 1980s when I heard it most. Or maybe I just hang out with a better class of idiot these days. ---
**Author:** ![AqualungBats5th](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@AqualungBats5th](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AqualungBats5th)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/153 "2012-04-10T17:32:50Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [You’re not wrong](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8057792.stm). I was one of the complainants. Not happy at all about this.. Still waiting for someone to explain how the so-called discrimination against men here in these commercials leads to broad social consequences for men, or how it sets men back as a group in society. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/154 "2012-04-10T18:41:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Probably. I’ve heard that one in person too, usually followed by me saying “Two words: Margaret Thatcher”. Golda Meir. Indira Gandhi. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/155 "2012-04-10T18:42:56Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Last I checked, all cancers lack cures at this point in time. It’s not like woman are all giggling and laughing at men and their prostate cancer, while we all go get the anti-girlie bits cancer vaccine. You mean Gardasil? You might not be laughing, but you are surviving thanks to disproportionate health spending. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/156 "2012-04-10T18:55:11Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > You mean Gardasil? You might not be laughing, but you are surviving thanks to disproportionate health spending. [O Rly?](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/03/gardasil-protects-boys-and-men-from-hpv-too/) ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/157 "2012-04-10T19:06:59Z")
> [@AqualungBats5th](#): > > Still waiting for someone to explain how the so-called discrimination against men here in these commercials leads to broad social consequences for men, or how it sets men back as a group in society. I agree. Very little of what has been mentioned so far is actual gender discrimination, it’s mostly complaining about things that men don’t get the upper hand on. Paying to get into clubs? Having to pay alimony? This doesn’t negatively impact your gender in a social context. Nobody sees having to pay alimony as demonstrative of the deficiency of your gender. Disproportionate medical spending isn’t gender discrimination either, just because a lot of money goes towards funding breast cancer research (you can thank Susan G Komen for that) doesn’t mean those research discoveries don’t result in cross-application to other types of cancer. I think the refusal to hire men for positions that involve working with children is an unfortunate example of gender discrimination, because it does perpetuate the belief that all men are soon-to-be child molesters. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/158 "2012-04-10T19:14:15Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > You mean Gardasil? You might not be laughing, but you are surviving thanks to disproportionate health spending. > [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > [O Rly?](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/03/gardasil-protects-boys-and-men-from-hpv-too/) What she said. Plus, I was told by my gyno when Gardasil came out that I was too old/ had too much sex for it to really be a worthwhile endeavor for me. So, no, Gardasil isn’t helping me survive at all, but it is helping lots of younger girls _ **and boys** _ not have to suffer with HPV like some of my friends have had to. Perhaps if more money had been spent on Gardasil earlier on, I wouldn’t have just barely missed it and you’d have a point. . . except you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/159 "2012-04-10T21:16:51Z")
> [@AqualungBats5th](#): > > Still waiting for someone to explain how the so-called discrimination against men here in these commercials leads to broad social consequences for men, or how it sets men back as a group in society. The point is it is indicative about some people’s attitudes towards men. Just like many people cite TV adverts as indicative of attitudes towards women. As an aside (and I’m not saying this is offensive), I remember an advert where a woman stops time. They show the product and all that, and at the end she playfully pinches the bum of a male cyclist who is still paused. Think of that with the genders reversed! > [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > I agree. Very little of what has been mentioned so far is actual gender discrimination, it’s mostly complaining about things that men don’t get the upper hand on. Paying to get into clubs? Having to pay alimony? Those are both examples where men get worse treatment than women, not just “not the upper hand”. And there have been plenty of other examples: custody, some jobs, cancer spending. This is not to imply men have a worse time of things overall, but the thread doesn’t claim that. ---
**Author:** ![phxjcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phxjcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxjcc)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184/160 "2012-04-10T21:18:24Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > Uh, nobody has said that alimony doesn’t exist. What we are saying is that it’s based on income disparity, not gender, which your anecdote demonstrates. It is highly reflective of your mindset that you jump to this conclusion. At the time of marriage: She: HS Educated legal secretary, salary: 35K He: Graduate degree, salary 34K To be clear, the issue that I have with alimony is that IMHO it should be allowed in order to restore job skills for the spouse of no income. It should in no way provide for the “maintenance of lifestyle”, which is a de facto judgement of the courts today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-ways-are-men-discriminated-against/618184.md?page=9)