From a personal perspective, I think cutting is something that women are more likely to do. It seems like both men and women are commonly depressed which leads to self destructive tendancies. It just seems more common or women to aim it more inward and end up in something like cutting, while guys are more likely to start fights with strangers and try take it out on someone else.
I’ve actually known more male cutters than I have female cutters. When I was in treatment, there were at least 4 males to every 1 female.
Ok, I think that this may help a bit
i agree with Welfy that perhaps it is because they don’t have an outlet such as sports, etc. all the guys i know who have cut themselves or do cut themselves are actually more “effeminate”… that is, they are more introspective and emotional. i used to cut myself in high school, during my sophomore year. i did it do distract myself from my emotional pain. soon, i ceased to feel any pain at all from it and, being an artistic person, used this “advantage” to carve designs and pretty little hearts into my flesh, which have left scars only i can see (thankfully) i eventually stopped because my best friend found out and basically said, “gross - don’t do that!” sometimes, that’s all it takes. but another friend of mine (male, and gay) first cut himself from depression, then it turned into a sexual thing between him and his boyfriend. and it got much worse when they broke up. i never could convince him to stop. 
**
[/QUOTE]
My God! This sounds like somebody I KNOW! Now it makes sense! Of course, NOW what the hell do I do?
Lizard, check out http://www.bpdcentral.com/. It will tell you what to do and what not to do if someone in your your life is suffering from BPD. Another good site is http://www.mhsanctuary.com/borderline/.
My best friend in junior high did it, he was a guy and I’m sure that it’s not something that only happens to girls. Although it does seem that there are more girls than guys who do cut themselves.
Kitty
Sorry Chief Crunch, I should’ve been more specific. This person is actually not a friend of mine-at least, not anymore. We were getting along great when she started acting incredibly irrational and generally following those indicators I quoted above. Now I know it was because of BPD, or somesuch. She’s the one I mentioned earlier who hurt herself. I told all our mutual friends that something was wrong with her upstairs and she needed professional help, but they all took her side and said something was wrong with ME! (I should mention that we are on a foreign study trip, and at the time of our “falling out,” me and everybody else had know each other all of 3 weeks) Of course, as everyone got to know her better, she managed to alienate EVERYBODY, to the point that I have people coming up to me and apologizing. It’s really weird.
i don’t know if this has been said, but in our society, females are typically taught to internalize emotions, such as anger, and to not show them to others, unlike males, who are able to beat things up, and yell and stuff. so instead of attacking others, they attack themselves.
Yeah, it’s a lot easier when someone else is holding the knife.
ack, bad joke, bad joke, I know
Been hanging out with mental patients too much.
When I was a kid, the word `cutting’ referred to a game in which kids would insult eachother. As far as I knew, only boys played this game.
Men are taught to internalize their emotions too (far more, I would think, than women are). Indeed, they often do it to the point where they erupt into violence.
The scary thing is that this sounds like ME. But I probably shouldn’t diagnose myself, huh?
Mom always called me a hypochondriac. That’s why I’m usually in denial about my problems to avoid having her yell at me and just keep it inside.
I was really mad today because I messed up this scene at play practice. I wanted to cut myself but I had nothing to do this with so I just strolled outside and threw things, then I curled into a ball backstage and growled at people walking by who looked at me.
No offense to Chief Crunch or anyone, but (again, I’m an old hand at this), please be very careful about undigested diagnostic criteria. Borderline Personality Disorder is a very serious diagnosis; even professionals hesitate to hang that label on people. Consider depression, which shares many of the same symptoms, long before thinking of yourself as BPD.
Just my .02, and all that…