Emma Watson is Wrong About Male Suicide

== The Resolution == My opponent says that he objects to the insertion of [mental illness] for [suicide] in the first proposition he has to prove. However, let's look at what Emma Watson actually said. She said, "I"ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man." Since the topic is about whether Emma Watson is wrong, we have to look to her actual words. She said men can't seek help for *mental illness.* It doesn't even make sense to say that someone would seek help for "suicide." Suicide isn't really what you are seeking help for when you go to a therapist; you are seeking help for the underlying thoughts or illness that is causing suicidal ideation. C1: Emma Watson is correct that men are less likely to seek help for mental illness According to a study by Cole (2013) , "Endorsement of masculine norms . . . were associated with less willingness to engage in professional help-seeking as well as friends and family help-seeking when depressed." [1] Furthermore, the study found that "men view depression as a feminine disorder." [2] Men attempt to "prove their masculinity" by "engaging in rigid denial of distress and avoidance of psychological help when depressed." [2] C2: Emma Watson is correct that untreated depression increases suicide risk According to a study by the American College Health Association, "The number one cause of all suicides . . . is untreated depression." [3] == Rebuttal == R1) The male suicide rate is not "high" My opponent's argument is essentially that the rate of male suicide is not "high" because if you include *attempted* suicide, women *might* be just as likely to *try* to kill themselves as men (even though men are much more successful at accomplishing their suicides). First, it is wrong for my opponent to conflate *attempted* suicide and successful *suicide.* Women attempt to use less lethal forms of suicide (like taking too many pills instead of shooting themselves) because women are more likely to use suicide as a "cry for help," rather than a way to end their lives. [4] The very real gender differences in the *methods* used demonstrates that many women attempt suicide because they *want* help, they just don't know how to ask for it. In contrast, men often just want to end their lives because they don't see seeking help as an option. Robin Williams' suicide is a prototypical example: he slit his wrists *and* hung himself. He wanted to die; he didn't want help. The disparity in the *success* of male vs. female suicide attempts absolutely comes from the difference between male and female help-seeking, so it doesn't prove my opponent's point that Emma Watson is wrong. Second, let's look at the rates in absolute terms. Annually in the U.S., there are about 40,000 suicides and an additional 713,000 attempted suicides. My opponent concedes that men are up to *10 times* more likely to kill themselves than women, whereas women are three times more likely to only attempt suicide than men. Thus, approximately 36,000 men kill themselves each year compared to only 4,000 women. In contrast, approximately 535,000 women *attempt* suicide per year, compared to 178,000 men *attempt* suicide per year. So you can see that in absolute terms, women are actually far more likely to try to kill themselves (if you include successful suicides) than men are, but suicide is much more lethal in men. These absolute numbers show (once again) why it's wrong of my opponent to conflate *attempted* and *successful* suicides. Only 4,000 women die per year from suicide, compared to 36,000 men. Suicide is a leading cause of death for men, but you can't say the same for women. Therefore, it wasn't wrong of Emma Watson to say that we should be worried about the male suicide rate because it is "high." Third, something doesn't become "not high" in absolute terms just because something else is also high. You wouldn't say that the number of traffic fatalities in this country wasn't "high" just because the number of heart attacks is also a large number. Therefore, the female suicide rate has no bearing on whether the male suicide rate is "high." Emma Watson would not be technically "wrong" that the male suicide rate was "high" even if the female rate was comparable. R2) Man hating My opponent claims it would be "man hating" if you knew all of the statistics about male suicide to still suggest that men should seek help. However, you can see from the above statistics that it's true: men are less likely to seek help than women, so one solution to the male suicide rate is to confront gender norms and tell men that it doesn't make them "less of a man" to seek help for depression. My opponent claims that there are "warning signs" for suicide that are easily detectable by others and that if we could just recognize these warning signs, there would not be any suicides. However, a lot of suicides happen now that no one saw coming (e.g. Robbin Williams). The warning signs are a lot easier to see *after the fact,* than before the fact. Hindsight is 20/20. A *better* solution to the high male suicide rate is to confront gender norms and tell men that seeking treatment isn't feminine. Merely hoping that family and friends recognize the warning signs before it is too late is *not* a real solution. In fact, it's not a solution at all. Socially isolated people are more likely to attempt suicide. [3] It's possible that a majorly depressed person doesn't have anyone close enough to them on a daily basis that it's even possible for someone to recognize the warning signs. And even if someone *did* recognize the warning signs, what would they do? They'd try to send that person to *therapy.* The problem is that therapy doesn't work unless you *want* to go. You can't be dragged into therapy against your will. So if men don't want to seek professional help, recognizing warning signs won't do *anything.* Family and friends can play a constant game of "keep the scissors away from Johnny," but at the end of the day, Johnny won't truly get better unless he goes to therapy (and perhaps gets drug intervention). So my opponent's solution -- of merely recognizing the warning signs -- is no solution at all. Emma Watson is correct that we have to fight gender norms if we want the male suicide rate to go down. What she said is not remotely "wrong," so my opponent utterly fails to meet the BOP as to *any* of the three propositions he had to prove. [1] http://digitalcommons.unl.edu... [page 117] [2] same source [page 120] [3] http://arcadiantelepsychiatry.com... [4] http://www.wikigender.org... [5] http://www.cdc.gov...