Is There Anything Good About Being a Man?

[Vault101]

Well, we don't need tampons and bras to be able to function.

I reckon that's why men were in charge for most of history, when women started off with such disadvantages like not being able to run without crippling back pain and being rendered a lot less fit for hunting or working once a month.

Plus there's the fact that I don't have to always be worried about the danger of rape whenever I go out or I'm in a house with someone I don't know. I'd hate to live my whole life knowing I'm too weak to defend myself.

I dont think we "need" bras to function, they are just a nice extra

also your second point might have been a bit.....over dramatic, I dont freak out about rape everytime I leave the house or anything

plus "too weak to defend oneself"...weel sure men are stronger so the odds will be stacked in their favour..but it also depends on the induvidual situation

 

[emeraldrafael]

If you're white, Western, middle class or higher, and male; you've basically won the Cosmic Lottery.

To be sure, life can still get you down, and you might still lose the societal ratrace. But, damn, you've got a headstart on most others, boy!

hehe

OT: um... not that i can really think of in modern society. I mean, you still make more than a woman but tahts not really a good comfort. Both sexes have their advatages and disadvantages though tehy're all rather moot in the long scheme of things.

 

[sabercrusader]

Well, normally take emotional impacts much better. (Normally)
Also don't need to worry about clothes NEARLY as much.
Stronger, faster, and taller. (Normally)
No periods nor dealing with child birth.
Able to pee standing up.
Mostly stuff that has already been said.

 

[ShadowStar42]

DISCRIMINATION IS A TWO WAY PROBLEM! IF WE CANNOT STOP SEEING RACISM IN EVERYTHING IT WILL NEVER STOP!

Right, because racism, like so many other problems in human history, is best delt with by closing our eyes and hoping it will just go away on its own.

It doesn't make it a privilege it makes it history, the fact that you view it as a privilege is because you apply a correction based on skin colour and so are being intrinsically racist. There is nothing racist, at all, ever, about telling a truthful fact based history regardless of the origin of those involved. "IT" isnt racist. YOU ARE!

I didn't call it racist, I called it privilege. A white person in a white dominant country has a bevy of of role models who basically look like them. They have role models of in a variety of fields and with a variety of world outlooks. Those role models alone provided them with an advantage in life before everything else is factored in (and everything else is there). It isn't racist, it isn't even correctable in a practical way, but it is still privilege. Similar to how men having the advantage of peeing standing up (oft sited in this thread) isn't sexist, but it's still an advantage, privilege.

 

[Erttheking]

We don't get times of the month, it's acceptable to go out in public with nothing on our chest and we can piss standing up. Also no pregnancy.

 

[Soluncreed]

From observation, it seems that guys are alot less stressed in general. Plus we can pee standing up.

Guys tend to hide their distress more. But the peeing things is definitely right.

The advantage to being a man is the ability to happily be disgusting. Burping, farting, all those things seem to be much more acceptable for a man to do than a woman.

 

[Lightning Delight]

I was actually talking about this with some of my friends today. We discovered that all of the women I know are incapable of thinking about nothing. Men can just blank our minds and stare absently into space, but apparently women cannot do this. They are unable to not think. I like to think that's a plus.

 

[VladG]

Plus we can pee standing up.

Yep. Pretty much that.

Also as a guy I don't:

Concern myself with the size of my ass. If it's small, fine, I don't have to drag it around, if it's large, fine, I'm more comfortable sitting down

Concern myself with my hair. It's there, it lives a life of it's own, I leave it be in peace. Once in a while it gets trimmed.

Have to shave 97% of my body. Face gets a shave whenever I can be bothered. That's it

Have to worry about being assaulted by horny dudes in a back alley. All I have to worry about is being mugged, stabbed or shot.

Wonder what to wear for 2 hours. Shirt? Check. Pants? Check. Shoes? Check.

Also as a guy I can:

Be done with any bathroom task in under 5 minutes

Drink more with fewer consequences

Out-stare a goat

Have orgasms in much quicker succession

Write my name in snow. You know what I mean.

Die of testicular cancer.

 

[Talshere]

DISCRIMINATION IS A TWO WAY PROBLEM! IF WE CANNOT STOP SEEING RACISM IN EVERYTHING IT WILL NEVER STOP!

Right, because racism, like so many other problems in human history, is best delt with by closing our eyes and hoping it will just go away on its own.

It doesn't make it a privilege it makes it history, the fact that you view it as a privilege is because you apply a correction based on skin colour and so are being intrinsically racist. There is nothing racist, at all, ever, about telling a truthful fact based history regardless of the origin of those involved. "IT" isnt racist. YOU ARE!

I didn't call it racist, I called it privilege. A white person in a white dominant country has a bevy of of role models who basically look like them. They have role models of in a variety of fields and with a variety of world outlooks. Those role models alone proved them with an advantage in life before everything else is factored in (and everything else is there). It isn't racist, it isn't even correctable in a practical way, but it is still privilege. Similar to how men having the advantage of peeing standing up (oft sited in this thread) isn't sexist, but it's still and advantage, privilege.

Point 1:

Right, so Im so paranoid that Im might say something racist accidentally that I examine every word I utter. My paranoia by default passes to my children and relative and really anyone I interact with regularly. So by being unable to just ignore little comments that likely mean nothing I perpetuate racism because I never forget it. Because at its core I SHOULD be able to make a racist comment without thinking. Bare with me here Ill use an analogy for distance to make my point easier to say.

If I call people cripples when they do something stupid. Not aggressively but someone accidentally walks into a door or a lamp post and I say, "bob your a right cripple" and say I do this all the time. So I meet a guy who intermittently needs crutches ikd because he has hypocalcemia or something. If he does something stupid and I DONT call him a cripple when I would have with anyone else I am now treating him differently because of his disability. This by its very definition is discrimination. Because I can never forget the fact his is different I am treating him different. So by being politically correct I am in fact breaking the first tenet of equality. It took me a long time to get my head round this but this is logically the only way it can end. As long as we all see racism in everything and look for it we will never achieve equality. Because intrinsically I should be able to make any comment and NOONE myself or others sees it as discrimination. THAT is equality.

Shutting our eyes you say never solves any problems, Europe used to consist of some 40 odd nation states. These people have closed their eyes to the people who conquered them and now affiliated with them to give a more united Europe than at any time in history outside of the Roman Empire. Ultimately we must eventually shut our eyes.

Point 2: But if we are all equal and skin colour doesnt matter then....Why does it matter what racial origin they are? They are just adults. Your very perception on the problem in and of itself perpetuates the problem. Because YOU, presumably a white American say they have no role models then THEY fail to identify with these people because YOU are teaching them not too.


EDIT: Im off to be its nearly 4am. Ill happily continue this convo tomorrow

 

[Donnie Restad]

Obvious ones out of the way: Our junk never bleeds (unless something is awfully wrong)
We can pee standing up (Although I've never really cared for it)
And we never have to shove an infant through any orifice (Shudder)

However, have you also considered how many hours it takes most women to become "presentable" in the morning? Hair curling, hair straightening, hair washing, leg shaving makeup, perfume, bottom, top, shoes, etc. etc. Certainly not all women participate, but could you imagine how stressful and time consuming it is to those who do? Especially while the majority of men can wake up, step in the shower, quickly brush teeth and shave (sometimes) and be good to go in less than fifteen minutes? Faaaarrr more convenient.

Not offering any comments on views of outer/inner beauty, though. You can decide that for yourself.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Child Birth. Thank God! Though even if i was a woman I have a feeling my indiscriminate loathing towards each and every child in the world would be unchanged. So i don't have to put up with it either way.

Anyway fuck society, we're all equal aren't we?

]

Should be. Nowhere near that yet, sadly...

And to go along with many people on this thread, you get a headstart in life if you're a guy. Not equal or fair, but that's how it is.

 

[Maxtro]

The only real advantage I see is having more strength than women. Though women are now doing much better in school than men are so it evens out. Brains vs. brawn.

As for the major female disadvantages, periods and chilbrith, they are easily compensated for being able to control relationships, sex and dating.

As for women having to look good. So do men, that is if we actually want to date.

 

[spartan231490]

Less stress. Fewer mood swings. No menopause. No menstruation. No pregnancy. easier to get dressed. No makeup. just a lower maintenance body in general.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I was listening. You were failing to understand. There is no point teaching vastly different cultural histories to children. They will not understand. These other cultures are based on entirely different founding principles and beliefs.

If I got you to sit down and study, in depth the works of Tolkin and all cannon related fan fic in depth to the point you even learnt the languages, then asked you to write a book on the history and lore of Fiest's elves. Could you do it? I mean they are both elves right? They live a long time and are magical right?

No because while they are the same race technically their story and background their origins are vastly different you wouldn't be able to understand the reasoning behind even their most basic actions because you have no founding in it. This is similar to asking a child to learn the history of a vastly different culture. Even at 12 some children have not fully developed a theory of mind, there ability to rationalise the idea that other people dont think like they do, they dont rationalise like they do, they can commit a terrible act unknowingly and its not their fault because they could never have known. Its also irrelevant. It teaches nothing about THEIR world, because unless you have an exceptionally well travelled child the chances are their experiences with the world will be in their own country, a few identical culture neighbouring ones and possibly a few sudo-home nation holiday resorts in somewhere hot that is so trailered to their own countries culture that it might as well be to a child's eyes.

Learning about the War of Roses, WWI, WWII, Rome, 1066, William Wilberforce, Cromwell. This teaches the child about their immediate surrounding, helps them understand their OWN culture. Once you because sure in who you are, your ideas, your morals THEN you explore cultures that are alien to you because you now have a reference, something to relate to, you have developed that you can RATIONALISE their behaviours even if you dont agree with them and this breed understanding. Like it or not by living in the UK outside of an isolated cultural getto they have adopted UK culture and history, it must be their ground, we are not equipped to teach tribal African culture and they have no grounding in it anyway BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT TRIBAL AFRICANS THEY ARE BRITISH!

I will assume for the argument of this that you are a manga fan. Most people here are to come degree. So, this makes you more suited than almost all European and American people to understand Japan.

So tell me:
What throwbacks have the Samurai ways impressed on modern Japan.
What were the impacts of WWII socially.
What is the primary religion? How does this relate to their belief of spirits.

These are INCREDIBLY complex questions, one that are so difficult to understand because we approach life differently. Most people would have to research extensively to answer these questions. Yet they are intrinsic in understanding why Japan is what it is and you want to try and get CHILDREN to understand this!?

High School students are children now? Since when? And how exactly is it pointless to discuss the Gupta Empire, the Han Dynasty or even the Egyptians?

The Gupta Empire were leaders in Math and Science, they're believed to be the first to come up with the concept of Zero and the Helios-Centric Theory, and had massive effects on modern day India, which several of these 'children' will need to be able to understand seeing as how a large number of them will have to work with countries like India and China in the work force.

I shouldn't have to explain anything about the Han Dynasty, as it was easily the largest and most well known of the Chinese dynasties.( But mostly because my hands hurt from writing all day and I don't wanna type another 5 mile long paragraph on them.)

The Egyptians expanded human civilization into Africa and eastward, allowing more civilizations to emerge east of them and would forever mark the world with their culture.

These civilizations marked large periods of innovation, cultural changes and created empires. How is it pointless to teach them of this stuff?

We are not speaking of 12 year old middle schoolers. We're speaking of 14-18 year old high schoolers, as I have stated over and over again. I didn't say 'in High School' again and again and again for nothing.

Manga fan? What the bloody hell are you talking about? I'm a Historian, I make it my duty to know the history of other cultures and I have yet to even mention Japan once. While Japan is certainly interesting, that's not the point. All cultures worth mention in history have definitly done a lot more for the world then US ever would, but focus never shifted, even after I studied all the way up to the Civil War in the 8th grade, my damn High School made me do it again despite the A I got in it.


Allow me to explain what countries our history teachers focused on.

1st Grade: Greece
2nd Grade: Rome
3rd Grade: Egypt
4th Grade: Back to Rome
5th Grade: Rome again
6th Grade: America, finally, something outside of those 3.
7th Grade: I transfer schools and its back to Rome for me.
8th Grade: America again.
9th Grade: A Combination of Egypt, Greece, Rome and some Feudal French and English with about a week dedicated to feudal Japan as well.
10th Grade: America.....again...
11th Grade: America 1865 and on.
12th Grade: AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!

Seeing a pattern here? I spent 12 years of my life studying the same four civilizations and they don't even do Egypt anymore in most grade schools in my area. Do you know how many times the damn school system forced me to learn the Pax Romana? About Socrates, Plato and Aristotle? About pyramids that the Egyptians stopped building during the Old Kingdom?(but apparently my teachers never got the memo!) I spent even more time learning about the Revolutionary War and Abraham Lincoln, and the fun fact is that the school could have let me graduate without knowing the Reconstruction era, the WWI and WWII eras, the great depression, the 50s, 60s, 70s and onwards? America is 200 years and I could teach it to a person in 4 months, I don't need 5 years like the Public School System does. Why do they do that? Because they skew it to that, they keep most classes focused in Europe and the Middle East before moving to America with very limited interaction with the Far East and the Southern Hemisphere.

And no, I don't expect children to learn this, I do expect a 14 year old to be able to though and I expect a 15 year old to do the same. History is about pointing out the importance of all civilizations on the human race, not just a handful we deem as the easy ones.

Why should we study Africa? because our entire economy during our development years was built using Africans. Why should we study China? Because numerous amounts of Chinese immigrants flooded the country in search for gold. Why should we study Mexico and other South Americans civilizations? Because we fought two wars with them that ended up ceding us one of the largest land claims in U.S. History. Why should we study the French, because they sold us the largest land expansion in our history and aided us during the revolution. Why should we study England? because we use to be a British colony.

There, I just came up with justification to study those civilizations and I could come up with more for several others.

 

[ShadowStar42]

Point 1:

Right, so Im so paranoid that Im might say something racist accidentally that I examine every word I utter. My paranoia by default passes to my children and relative and really anyone I interact with regularly. So by being unable to just ignore little comments that likely mean nothing I perpetuate racism because I never forget it. Because at its core I SHOULD be able to make a racist comment without thinking. Bare with me here Ill use an analogy for distance to make my point easier to say.

You know what would keep you from being paranoid about saying something racist? Not being racist and therefor not being tempted to say racist things.

If I call people cripples when they do something stupid. Not aggressively but someone accidentally walks into a door or a lamp post and I say, "bob your a right cripple" and say I do this all the time. So I meet a guy who intermittently needs crutches ikd because he has hypocalcemia or something. If he does something stupid and I DONT call him a cripple when I would have with anyone else I am now treating him differently because of his disability. This by its very definition is discrimination. Because I can never forget the fact his is different I am treating him different. So by being politically correct I am in fact breaking the first tenet of equality. It took me a long time to get my head round this but this is logically the only way it can end. As long as we all see racism in everything and look for it we will never achieve equality. Because intrinsically I should be able to make any comment and NOONE myself or others sees it as discrimination. THAT is equality.[/quote]

No, equality is no one feeling like who they are is intrinsically less than other people through no fault of their own. It's not discrimination to not call someone who is crippled a cripple, it's discrimination to tell other people that they are similar to your friend when the do something that you find foolish. Similarly if someone uses your ethnic group or religion as a perjoritive, even if it's not to you, it is discrimination.

Shutting our eyes you say never solves any problems, Europe used to consist of some 40 odd nation states. These people have closed their eyes to the people who conquered them and now affiliated with them to give a more united Europe than at any time in history outside of the Roman Empire. Ultimately we must eventually shut our eyes.

Um...Europe still consists of separate nations, that they have learned to get along together isn't because they've ignored their differences and their pasts, but because they have (mostly) moved together past them. And I still hear Brits hating on the French, Germans hating on the Spanish and almost everyone hating on the Greeks, so the problems are clearly still there and still need to be worked on.

Point 2: But if we are all equal and skin colour doesnt matter then....Why does it matter what racial origin they are? They are just adults. Your very perception on the problem in and of itself perpetuates the problem. Because YOU, presumably a white American say they have no role models then THEY fail to identify with these people because YOU are teaching them not too.

And there's the privilege. Privilege is having advantages that are so pervasive you don't even see them.

As it happens I'm American Indian, but I'm light skinned so while I don't look like Abe Lincoln there are role models who looked like the people I saw around me. My wife on the other hand is black and she found through her schooling the lack of black female role models upsetting when she was young. She found it difficult to identify with white women in history because they weren't like here or like the people she saw around her, they were an 'other'.

 

[BushMonstar]

Coming into this, I was amazed at the amount of people listing "We can pee standing up" as one of the major good points.

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

No PMS and periods. No carrying a growing, living being inside us for nine months, accompanied by vomiting, mood swings and crazy food cravings. No "morning after" pill, no consequences of sex (apart from any std's you may get if unprotected), and I'm just guessing here but probably better prices on clothes. Also, bigger bladders, if the idea that women have tiny bladders has any truth to it.

 

[BanicRhys]

Biologically:
Pee standing up
Harder, better, faster, stronger [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-S6FRJsGo8]
No breasts
Don't get pregnant (frankly, I'd rather a few hours of intense pain preceded by 9 months of inconveniences a few times in my life over the constant threat of slightly less intense pain for my entire life)

Societal:
Jack shit

Societal disadvantages to explain my previous answer:
Expected to pay for dates
So much harder to report domestic violence
Unless you're married to a woman with income comparable to Oprah's, you WILL most likely be screwed over in a divorce regardless
Must risk your pride to ask a woman out, can't rely on waiting for the woman to ask you out
Misandry is cool
You can't speak out against said misandry because of the legion of white knights who will label you as a misogynist
Women have full control of a child before it's born. If a man wants the child but the woman doesn't, the man has to deal with it while the woman gets the abortions. If the woman wants the child but the man doesn't, the man has to deal with it while he forks over money for a child he never ready for.

Biological disadvantage for the hell of it:
Ejaculation
Erections
Getting hit in the balls
Prostate exams

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

Also, the 1950's woman did all the cooking and cleaning for you. You were considered king of your own household. Obviously that's dated now, but yeah. Authority.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

From observation, it seems that guys are alot less stressed in general. Plus we can pee standing up.

Guys tend to hide their distress more. But the peeing things is definitely right.

This is true, especially at the age extremes. Younger men tend not to deal well with serious mental/emotional issues for fear of being perceived as weak or incapable, older men do it because they don't want to be a burden on anyone else. Basically it boils down to a mindset of "I am a man and therefore I should be fully capable of handling this alone".

Also, what is the obsession in this thread with peeing? I was not aware this was such a hot issue in gender studies...