A politician in South Korea is being criticised for making dangerous and unsubstantiated comments after linking a rise in male suicides to the increasingly “dominant” role of women in society.

In a report, Seoul City councillor Kim Ki-duck argued women’s increased participation in the workforce over the years had made it harder for men to get jobs and to find women who wanted to marry them.

He said the country had recently “begun to change into a female-dominant society” and that this might "partly be responsible for an increase in male suicide attempts”.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s rich countries but also has one of the worst records on gender equality.

Councillor Kim’s comments have been criticised as the latest in a series of out-of-touch remarks made by male politicians.

  • Blaine
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 month ago

    I’m linking to peer-reviewed scientific studies over here. If you want to dispute what I’m saying, avoid the genetic fallacy and engage with the substance.

    By “lower-status”, I meant lower socioeconomic status. Less education and less income. The two things women primarily judge potential mates on.

    • Allonzee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      I agree with you, though its all a symptom of the larger class war and the market capitalist owners need for mooaaaaaaar that required almost everyone to work to support a household. Same reason they limited abortion for poor women here in the US, the need for more desperate workers.

      The sad reality is the truths you lay out are just not palatable to the current culture, despite being true. They also will not even begin to improve until the larger global class war occupation is addressed and the greed of the owners is put into check by force.

      Even that is a losing battle, but at least it has meaningful support. If you’re going to fight a just but losing battle, fight the one that informs all others that won’t get rotten fruit unfairly pelted at you in the public square.

      • Blaine
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        If you’re going to fight a just but losing battle, fight the one that informs all others that won’t get rotten fruit unfairly pelted at you in the public square.

        Love this line. I’ve been eating a lot of fruit here on Lemmy. Going to have to put some thought into this one.

        • Allonzee@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          I did as well when I started pontificating on the current gender conflict, only to be rebuked not on the facts or the data, but on the feels with ad hominems directed at me.

          But the thing is, in addition to dictating all poors must work in the wake of the loss of their jim crow pseudo-slave workforce, the market capitalists want us divided in every conceivable way so we never look up at them basking in the dragon hoards we never stop growing for them with our bodies.

          They use the media they own and the curriculum they inform through captured governments to stoke racial/political/sex/cultural divides. It is in their interests to keep us ignorant, largely devoid of critical thinking, and hostile towards one another.

          Neither men nor women are setting these terms on the basis of their inherent drives, their drives are being manipulated to serve the market by a few thousand sociopath families with aligned interests based in unquenchable avarice. All of us without considerable net worth are less than human to the market capitalist owners.