Emma Watson is Wrong About Male Suicide

I have not conflated any part of the definition of suicide. I took the time to define suicide from the very first round. My opponent failed, address the issue in the first round when the definition was given as “The act of ending, or attempting to end one's own life.” This was done to reduce any confusion. Had my opponent taken the time to read the definitions she wouldn’t be confused, or accusing me of conflating anything this far into the debate. Any objection should have been raised in round 1. Ms. Watson’s claim is also about the inequality in male suicide. She made no attempt to differentiate the financial managers who’d ruined many lives and opted to jump out a window, or the old man who’d rather die quickly then slowly of cancer, or of the college student who just got dumped. She generalized all of them as being victims of absurd societal notion of what men should be.Robin Williams:Take note that my opponent has used Robin Williams as a “prototypical” example of male suicide. As tragic as Williams death was, was it really unexpected? Was he really untreated?The truth about Williams death is a little more unsettling. His death should have been expected, and should have been treated. Williams was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's. Part of what Parkinson’s causes is a drop in dopamine that reduces the ability to move. The changes in the brains chemistry due to Parkinson’s causes enhanced depression in patients[6].Using Williams death as a “prototypical” male example is an unfortunate logical consequence of my opponents, and Ms. Watson’s, misguided belief that men just need to talk about it, and be more like women to make everything ok. If Williams wasn’t already being treated for depression than his doctors were incompetent at treating his Parkinson’s. If we blind ourselves, and write off his suicide as just another man who needed to be emasculated more than we fail to address the actual cause which was the Parkinson’s. If we ignore treating Parkinson's patients for depression when we know we should to improve their quality of life then the mistake was societies for not treating them when it knew better. It was not the patients fault for not being woman enough.Furthermore, it wasn’t surprising to anyone involved. The general public was surprised, but the general public doesn’t have the right, or privilege of the personal affairs of a celebrity.Bad Statistics:My opponent has stated that “535,000 women *attempt* suicide per year, compared to 178,000 men *attempt* suicide per year”. This is erroneous. The correct statistic is that women attempt suicide 535,000 times per year. The statistic actually comes from how many people are hospitalized, and does not take into account repeated attempts. Had my opponent bothered to read the citation I used in my claim she would have avoided the statistic entirely. Since she shouldn’t be bothered to read anything from The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention I’ll just put it here.“The difference in death rates among the most common suicide methods estimated at 80–90% for firearms and 1.5–4% for overdoses—helps to account for the roughly 4: 1 ratio of male-to-female suicides.”[4]In other words there is no meaningful gap. Once you remove repeated attempts, and account for men having fewer opportunities for repeated attempts the number are more similar than dissimilar. Though reliable data on attempts has always been difficult to find.Cry for Help:“women are more likely to use suicide as a "cry for help," rather than a way to end their lives”So rather than “talk” about it men should just use pills? The notion that women are suicide as a cry for help is bad stereotype. It could be that women are more interested in how their body is found which is another stereotype. The effectiveness has a lot more to do with changing common suicide drugs so they’re less likely to be effective against children who accidentally come across them. Cyanide is a great rat poison, but it’s about 99% effective against people to so using arsenic reduces the chance of killing a person, or by just outright banning the stuff because kids get a hold of it too easily[6].Man Hating:I’d go into my opponents argument more, but I’m a bit short on time. That, and I wasn’t anticipating that my opponent would go into Robin Williams suicide, and illustrate how clearly that this is man hating, and just how bad it is. I’ll just defer to my earlier remarks on Robin Williams, and my opponents blatant disregard for the details of someone's tragic death.I’d have liked to have brought up young male syndrome, but time does not permit me at them moment. I’ll have to see if I can fit it in the next round.[6] http://www.pdf.org...