USA Today: Obama muss sich endlich um die Männer kümmern!

In der "USA Today", laut Wikipedia die am weitesten verbreitete Zeitung in den Vereinigten Staaten, findet man inzwischen einen Artikel wie aus dem maskulistischen Lesebuch. Ein Auszug:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men make up the majority of those injured on the job. In the manufacturing, mining and construction fields, 86% of workplace injuries and illnesses occur to men and 92% of workplace-related deaths are men as well.

And let's remember our injured vets: 98% of the Iraq wounded are men, and for many of them, their war-related health problems will continue for a lifetime.

Psychological issues again, often left untreated because of a lack of employment and insurance affect men in much greater numbers, as well. Almost 70% of homeless adults are men, and the suicide rate for young men is five times that of young women.

These factors help explain why, in 2006, the average American male could expect to live 5.1 fewer years than the average woman; a black American male will likely live 11 fewer years than a white American woman. (By contrast, in 1920 men and women could expect to enjoy about the same lifespan.)

Despite the overwhelming evidence that men are being left behind, the U.S. government has never made a concerted effort to address male health issues. Right now, there are seven (seven!) offices of women's health in the U.S. government: six in the Department of Health and Human Services and one in the Department of Agriculture. And the Pentagon makes huge investments in women's health research. Yet there is not a single federal organization that encourages and disseminates physical and mental health research for and about men.

One argument for funding so many health service organizations targeted to those citizens who already enjoy the best health, the most insurance, the longest lifespan, and the safest and most plentiful jobs that would be women is that it's payback time. Medical research in the past has been conducted primarily on men, and (theoretically, at least), men got the benefits of that research, so women need the opportunity to catch up.

Obviously, however, the life-expectancy totals don't bear that out. Women have gained in the past century, while men have fallen behind. And saying men benefit from being experimented upon is like envying the lab rats for their medical careers. Men especially soldiers, prisoners and minorities have been research subjects because they were, in some sense, expendable. And men can't become pregnant, another reason why bombarding the bodies of women with untested chemicals and other therapies is frowned upon, while doing the same to men often elicits little more than shrugs.

The Obama administration showed great eagerness in addressing the problems of women soon after it took office, with the establishment of the White House Council on Women and Girls. We applaud that move, and we now look for equal time for the males of the species.