# Women are more privileged than men (At least, in the West) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076 "2016-07-16T21:59:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/41 "2016-07-18T01:26:53Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Mothers Day church services are held to heap praise on good mothers; Fathers Day church services are held to shame bad fathers. Ehh…while I don’t doubt that some churches scold bad fathers on Father’s Day, the vast majority still seem to be about praising good fathers and their impact on their childrens’ lives. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/42 "2016-07-18T02:30:01Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > 60% of black women in the US are raped before their 20th birthday. 33% of white women in the US are raped in their lifetime. I’m usually not the “Cite please” type of person, but…cite a source, please. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/43 "2016-07-18T02:47:52Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > …glass-ceiling in the workplace,… So men can see up the skirts of the skirts on upper floors? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/44 "2016-07-18T03:44:49Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > and are much more likely to be victims of violence in general. From other men. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/45 "2016-07-18T03:58:14Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Mothers Day church services are held to heap praise on good mothers; Fathers Day church services are held to shame bad fathers. I understand that anecdote \<\> data, but I’ve attended church services almost all of my life (I’m 53) and I have **never** seen this. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/46 "2016-07-18T12:21:59Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think having to go through menstruation for decades, once a month (that adds up to several hundred times in a lifetime) is a pretty big inconvenience. By the time I’m dead I will have shaved my face about 23,000 times. So who’s got the bigger hygiene burden? Hard for me to say, but [Squeeze thinks they know.](http://www.metrolyrics.com/she-doesnt-have-to-shave-lyrics-squeeze.html) ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/47 "2016-07-18T12:41:44Z")
Are we having this argument again? Both genders have pros and cons, in most areas (health, society, etc). Some we can change (and should be working on changing), some we can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/48 "2016-07-18T13:01:30Z")
Shaving isn’t a burden, because you can choose not to do it. I don’t know what the consequences would be for a women who chose not to do anything about menstruation, but I can guarantee that it would be a heck of a lot more gross than a beard. And yes, I know that there are medical ways to prevent menstruation, but even then you’ve at least got the burden of taking the pills. And what’s really prompting the OP is that women _are_ still underprivileged in many ways. There are many people fighting for women’s rights because they still need people fighting for that. There are few people fighting for men’s rights because we don’t really need that. But then people like the OP come along, see that there are more people fighting for women than for men, and conclude that that in itself is an injustice, rather than being the result of an injustice. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/49 "2016-07-18T13:10:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > [The Lifetime Distribution of Health Care Costs - PMC](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361028/) > > Those were in 2000 dollars. In 2016 $ those numbers are pretty much doubled sadly. So a woman may get 720k in health care costs while a man may average 538k over a lifetime. > > A woman earns on average about $400,000 less over a lifetime than a man (in large part due to working shorter hours at less lucrative jobs). So she will pay less in premiums, and less in taxes to cover medicare and medicaid. > > So it is a net benefit about being a woman, irrelevant of whether it fits the popular narrative or not. Women probably pay 100k+ less in taxes and premiums to fund health care and probably get close to 200k more in health care over their lifetime. > > Health care costs do need to be fixed in this country. I have no idea if that is politically possible though. Neither party wants to do what needs to be done to fix this issue. Obviously we need to pay them more (funny how you’ve managed to twist an inequality against women into an inequality for women), forbid them from giving birth, and put them down at 78. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/50 "2016-07-18T13:33:04Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > By the time I’m dead I will have shaved my face about 23,000 times. So who’s got the bigger hygiene burden? Hard for me to say, but [Squeeze thinks they know.](http://www.metrolyrics.com/she-doesnt-have-to-shave-lyrics-squeeze.html) Oh come on. Nobody ever put you in a special shaving hut for four days out of the month. No one ever reacted like you were gross because you said you shaved. No one ever forbade you from temple or church because you were shaving. No one ever disbelieved you when you said your shaving cuts hurt, or told you just to get over it, or maybe even told you it was all in your head. No one ever told you you’d lose your virginity if you used one type of razor (tampons) instead of another (pads)! No one ever made stupid jokes about something that “bleeds for four days and doesn’t die”. How you can even think these things are comparable is behind me. ETA: I also glanced at that Squeeze link. Does it not know that women shave too? I may not shave daily but that’s because my hair has lightened in quantity considerably over the years. I still shave a couple of times a week, and many women do so more often. Or get tweezed. Or threaded. Or waxed. It’s like it never even heard of the myriad of things women do. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/51 "2016-07-18T14:11:18Z")
The OP is absolutely right! In my workplace (I’m a guy) I have to wear long pants and a collared shirt but those lucky attractive women can wear sundresses or short skirts that expose their long legs and…oops. I shouldn’t complain:) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/52 "2016-07-18T14:28:12Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > How you can even think these things are comparable is behind me. I had the impression that **Velocity** was only referring to the universal physical/logistical inconveniences of menstruation, not the cultural baggage. > [@Anaamika](#): > > No one ever reacted like you were gross because you said you shaved. My wife gives me grief when I _don’t_ shave. 😃 Also, IANABM, but AIUI, [black men have it particularly bad when it comes to shaving.](https://getbevel.com/get-advice/basics/why-do-black-men-get-razor-bumps) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/53 "2016-07-18T14:42:04Z")
I’m a guy and I live in the western hemisphere. While I enjoy being with women (I married one!), I have no desire to be one. I _like_ being a male in western society. I know when I have a good thing going. I can’t imagine why, given a choice, anyone would choose to be female. > [@Dangerosa](#): > > Plus, we can wear fuck me heels in a bar and spend all night turning you losers down. And still find someone to screw us silly. Well, ok, there is that! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/54 "2016-07-18T15:05:41Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I had the impression that **Velocity** was only referring to the universal physical/logistical inconveniences of menstruation, not the cultural baggage. > > My wife gives me grief when I _don’t_ shave. 😃 > > Also, IANABM, but AIUI, [black men have it particularly bad when it comes to shaving.](https://getbevel.com/get-advice/basics/why-do-black-men-get-razor-bumps) Oh, trust me when I say that you do not want us to detail the physical/logistical inconveniences of menstruation, but there is no comparison. Even if you’re married, you have no idea. And many women shave every day as well, sorry guys. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/55 "2016-07-18T15:08:27Z")
Women have to shave too unless we want to wear nothing, but long pants and skirts with very thick pantyhose. There’s a lot more room on any woman’s legs than on a man’s face. We also have to shave our armpits (at least in the United States) if we wear sleeveless clothes. Once again that’s a lot more shaving than a man has do with his face. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/56 "2016-07-18T15:19:09Z")
I always wondered why women, with so much more skin area to shave than a man, use those tiny little pink girl razors. Unless they don’t any more. I’m thinking Cary Grant shaving on the train in _North by Northwest_ with Eva Marie Saint’s leg razor. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/57 "2016-07-18T16:22:05Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I can’t imagine why, given a choice, anyone would choose to be female. Multiple orgasms. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/58 "2016-07-18T16:44:01Z")
It’s the relevant question, though. Which would you rather be? Personally, I feel extremely fortunate I was born a man. I think that’s the luckier break. The OP is full of the most bizarre claims. Women and children are called up first at… meals? What? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/59 "2016-07-18T16:48:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s the relevant question, though. Which would you rather be? > > Personally, I feel extremely fortunate I was born a man. I think that’s the luckier break. > > The OP is full of the most bizarre claims. Women and children are called up first at… meals? What? Meals, no, but growing up I did encounter “Ladies first” when it was rules about who should get out of an elevator first, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076/60 "2016-07-18T17:06:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But I do invite the OP to try the following thought experiment: Suppose you had to be reincarnated as some other person somewhere in Western society. You get to choose whether you will be male or female, but all other details (race, socioeconomic status, location, physical appearance, etc.) will be determined randomly. Which sex do you choose, and why? Male, because I think it’s easier. Once you start adding in the other factors, it’s still generally true, IMO, but starts to get more complicated, especially when you attribute the influences of socioeconomic and racial factors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-more-privileged-than-men-at-least-in-the-west/760076.md?page=4)