# Two examples of discrimination against men **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078 "2015-07-02T20:14:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/21 "2015-07-04T17:16:34Z")
Anorexia nervosa certainly occurs in men, but it’s [far, far less common than in women](http://www.anad.org/get-information/males-eating-disorders/). There’s some evidence that binge eating disorders occur about equally in men and women. Speaking of eating, something that could be viewed as discriminatory is the portrayal of obese people in editorial cartoons. These are heavily skewed towards showing fat white men, and to a considerably lesser extent fat white women. I can’t recall ever seeing fat black and Hispanic people portrayed in such cartoons, even though prevalence of obesity [is higher in these groups](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5827a2.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/22 "2015-07-04T17:16:38Z")
I don’t understand the discrimination against men angle in the anorexia one. (Well, I don’t understand it at all, but especially the anorexia one.) It says “often girls and young women.” It doesn’t say men don’t suffer. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/23 "2015-07-04T18:47:10Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > In all seriousness though, one thing that’s pretty messed up is America’s cultural attitude toward widespread prison rape. It’s seen as normal, even just. Like a form of extra-judicial punishment. Even among so called progressives it’s usually talked about in a jokey wink wink don’t drop the soap sorta way. How fucked up is that? If the genders were reversed they’d be tarred and feathered. When – not if – the gender is reversed, prison rape is treated as suitable fodder for dirty jokes, exploitation flicks, and pornography. The cultural attitude towards prison rape is pretty fucked up whether the prisoners involved are male or female. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/24 "2015-07-04T21:27:42Z")
I don’t think crimes against men should be reported under the umbrella or title of crimes against women. It hides and, in my opinion, minimizes that men are also victims of the same crimes. So, if that’s what happened, I think that’s problematic (without being catastrophic). ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/25 "2015-07-05T00:27:19Z")
The first reply to the OP, by AHunter3, is absolutely correct. Gender oppression, whether it happens toward men or women, cis or queer, eventually comes back to hurt everyone. When men label women as weak and beneath them and less than them, then find themselves suffering from a problem associated with women, is it a surprise when others think of them as weak, beneath, less? The problem isn’t just that men aren’t included in the statistics of traditionally women’s problems. It’s that men still think so poorly of women that any association between themselves and perceived femininity is treated as metaphorical castration. Hence it’s constant use in movies as humiliation comedy. It’s a discrimination of men, in that it’s men suffering from men’s discrimination of women. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/26 "2015-07-05T19:21:42Z")
> [@mrldii](#): > > As soon as _we_ get a handle on that _other_ 92%, my radar’ll ping. > Pinky-swear, and shit. It was actually 12%. Sorry that you can’t imagine helping both groups of exactly the same problem. ---
**Author:** ![mrldii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@mrldii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrldii)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078/27 "2015-07-06T05:49:30Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > It was actually 12%. > Sorry that you can’t imagine helping both groups of exactly the same problem. I wasn’t quoting the poster who did the math correctly. The 92% - or 88% - who make up the whole aren’t exactly suffering from “exactly the same problem” …unless, of course, numbers lie, _too_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-examples-of-discrimination-against-men/724078.md?page=1)