On the Men’s Rights subreddit yesterday, I found this inspiring report from the front lines of the Men’s Rights struggle — the struggle of MRAs to annoy pretty much everyone they ever talk to.
Yes, it is of course true that some men get breast cancer. I’m pretty sure, though, that yelling at breast cancer fundraisers isn’t the best way to help these men.
Have MRA’s done anything to help men’s issues aside from sitting on their butts complaining about women online? Pretty sure they haven’t.
atheist4thecause
god flipping f*** damn it
I’ve noticed a trend with MRAs. They take issues that affect women the most and say that men have it worse in those areas? Did this guy even try to offer some proof that men die of breast cancer at a higher rate? Of what (fairly little) i know of breast cancer and breast tissue, it seems unlikely.
But this just seems like the regular: ”Me too! Pay attention to ME!” from MRAs.
Men who develop breast cancer do die at a higher rate if it isn’t caught early (and it usually is not, because it is rare).
I agree that more research should be done to figure out why men respond to treatment differently. No one should die of cancer, and the more we understand about it the better for all of us.
However, the sad fact is that research funding is a zero sum equation, and research on diseases that affect more people will be funded at a higher rate. I hate that this is so; my feelings don’t change the facts.
Because breast cancer money is earmarked for females only. So sayeth the matriarchal overladies! Honestly, I’da hung up too. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Cold calling is a science. Misogynist asshat=no donation=hang up and move on. That’s a minute and a half she’ll never get back
I’m curious. If Mr Cause actually did care about cancer in males and had instead said, ‘You mentioned women a lot. I was just wondering, is this drive exclusively for women?’, would she have immediately hung up? He makes it seem like she fled from his equalist wizardry, but, according to him, he’d already said he wouldn’t support them before she got outta there. So, misandry on her part, or is he just an assbag. I report, you decide
@makroth :
Mortality overall is higher in males but that is because they get diagnosed at a later stage. This could be because they don’t seek out medical attention as much or simply because it is not a diagnosis patients or doctors tend to suspect in males. Stage for stage (equally advanced tumors) breast cancer in males have roughly the same 5 year survival.
About one in 8 women will get breast cancer in their lifetime, vs. 1 in 1000 men. If this guy doesn’t understand why breast cancer patients might be referred to as “ladies”, then he is just looking to get offended.
Also, since there are no great biological differences in breast cancers between the sexes that I know of (maybe more syndromic cases in males), then there is absolutely no reason why any breakthrough in treating cancers wouldn’t benefit the few men that get breast cancer.
And I highly doubt anyone ever asked money for breast cancer research by saying : “give money to the ladies”
@Iseult The Idle
That’s a good point. I personally take the time to research cancer charities before donating so I can make sure my money is going towards research. That’s one way that individuals (who can afford it, of course) can help out the lesser funded research.
@Jamesworkshop
Seconded. I wish I could say No True Atheist, but asshattery transcends religion.
Richard Roundtree is a famous male survivor of breast cancer but male breast cancer is rare, harder to diagnose, and diagnosed later in life. But I doubt this jackass really cares about the issue, he just wants to bitch about women.
She hung up on him because he said he wouldn’t donate, not because he “dared” to mention men. I bet if he had been even 10% tactful about it, he could have had an interesting conversation with the person on the other end.
Keeping in mind, of course, that the other person is just a phone bank volunteer reading from a script, and not someone who oversees the organization’s budget or has deep knowledge of statistics, biology, and research. Seems like a pretty weak victory, on a par with giving the finger to the DMV building.
These guys care more about bullying women than helping men.
As he is so concerned about breast cancer in men, I’m quite certain that he gets a regular mammogram himself. I’m sure those are two plates he’s glad to keep in contact with.
What he thinks happened: “Oh no, he’s onto us! My feeble ladybrainz have been outwitted! I must tell the Grand High Matriarch! *flees in emotional feeemale hysterics*””
What actually happened: “Oh no, he’s one of those idiots. What about teh menz, yadda yadda, bye now.” *hangs up, sighs, headdesks*”
Colour me cynical but I’m not convinced this event ever took place.
How many guys actually know the respective survival rates for breast cancer? Heck, how many guys even know that blokes can get breast cancer? (Non scientific survey, but I didn’t)
It does however seem like one of those ‘facts’* that MRAs love to share, about how men are so badly treated and life’s so unfair (dying younger, always getting drafted etc.)
Can’t help but think this is just some fantasy ‘gotcha’ on the lines of ‘we revealed the truth about nature’s misandry to a lady, and that shut her up!’
(* Ok, apparently this one is true)
Former telemarketer here {shame face}…
You succeed by extracting funds from willing people; you fail by wasting precious phone time talking to time-wasters.
Simple as that. He was going to be a time-waster. In fact, he gleefully acknowledged that he purposely made her waste more time than she had to, simply by “allowing her to finish her whole spiel” before informing her he had absolutely, positively no intention whatsoever to help any of his fellow earthmates.
@Alan
I mean, he’s not wrong that men who get breast cancer get really screwed over. It’s not caught as early, they’re laughed at, even medical professionals are surprised to learn men can get it, etc. Anyone who is curious can read survivor stories here: http://malebreastcancercoalition.org/survivor-stories/
The thing is, most of what men are put through with this diagnosis is a form of misogyny. And if MRAs want to do something about that, they could donate to a charity that focuses on men who get breast cancer. I do something similar; when a friend posts a link asking me to sponsor them in a cancer run where only 5% would go to anything useful, I’ll donate what they’re asking to a charity for the same cause that puts more of the money to good use. But they don’t do that; they just weaponize the very men they claim to support. It’s disgusting.
@Carrie No shame in that.
Of course, nothing’s stopping this guy from starting his own Men’s Breast Cancer Awareness group.
Except that would cut into his Reddit time.
I try to live by the maxim that I have no need to actively make anybody else’s life worse than it already is. This applies to telemarketers as well. If I’m not interested, I try to end the call quickly but politely.
(The ultimate form of this comes with the people who offer duct cleaning services: I just have to point out that my house uses radiators for heating.)
From the friends of mine who have worked in it, telemarketing is already something of a soul-destroying job. Why would I want to make it worse?
the dude had already said “I don’t support this” so why would he expect her to waste more time trying to change his mind?
5 year survival rate for men: 74%.
5 year survival rate for women: 84%.
It’s true! Largely because there’s less effort to diagnose breast cancer in men.
But at the same time, the frequency of breast cancer in men is about 1% that of women. About 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year; so therefore, you can figure out that about…400 men die of it.
Math is so hard for MRAs.
@Jenora Feuer
I try to be polite as well, but I’ve had to make an exception for electricity companies. We’re absolutely drowning in various electricity providers with similar generic names and exactly the same script. They seem like borderline scams, and the script is ridiculously disingenuous. They mention the name of the company under their breath and act as if they’re calling from your current provider, and then move on to saying “we’ve noticed that you’ve been paying too much for your electricity”. Then they offer you “the new, lower price”. I’ve been getting 2-3 of these calls every week for more than 5 years, and it’s always a different company name. It’s unbearable. As soon as I recognize the script (takes 3 seconds) I just hang up.
I’ve done political canvassing both door to door and on the phone and done market research on the phone. If someone seems like a crank, like if they start ranting about breast cancer research being misandry, you disengage. It has nothing to do with fearing their truth bombs. It’s, as others in the thread have said completely unproductive to waste your time trying to win over someone who is opposed.
What is it with manospherians and their certainty that someone refusing to waste their time engaging with them means they’ve won. Do they just not realize how deeply unpleasant they are to interact with?
It’s the perfect distillation of MRA logic. Less than 1% of breast cancer patients are men, so anything focusing primarily on the other 99% is sexist.
I loathe telemarketing, survey calls etc… but not the people who are stuck working in those jobs. Giving them a hard time makes you almost as bad as someone who yells at the kid working the drivethrough at McBurgerDees Jr.
Considering that it’s women who’ve made an issue of breast cancer, and raised awareness of the rates at which men get it (and die of it), methinks the “gentleman” doth protest too much.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAROFLOL