Whether Men are Wimps or Just Immunologically Inferior
December 12, 2017 4:10 AM Subscribe
“Man flu” is a term so ubiquitous that it has been included in the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries. Oxford defines it as “a cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.”1 Since about half of the world’s population is male, deeming male viral respiratory symptoms as “exaggerated” without rigorous scientific evidence, could have important implications for men, including insufficient provision of care.
The concept of man flu, as commonly defined, is potentially unjust. Men may not be exaggerating symptoms but have weaker immune responses to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women. There are benefits to energy conservation when ill. Lying on the couch, not getting out of bed, or receiving assistance with activities of daily living could also be evolutionarily behaviours that protect against predators. Perhaps now is the time for male friendly spaces, equipped with enormous televisions and reclining chairs, to be set up where men can recover from the debilitating effects of man flu in safety and comfort.
(via The Register)
The concept of man flu, as commonly defined, is potentially unjust. Men may not be exaggerating symptoms but have weaker immune responses to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women. There are benefits to energy conservation when ill. Lying on the couch, not getting out of bed, or receiving assistance with activities of daily living could also be evolutionarily behaviours that protect against predators. Perhaps now is the time for male friendly spaces, equipped with enormous televisions and reclining chairs, to be set up where men can recover from the debilitating effects of man flu in safety and comfort.
(via The Register)
This post was deleted for the following reason: The clickbaitiness of this is going to make it impossible to reasonably discuss the possibly interesting actual medical info, and I don't see an upside to having yet another angry thread about men vs women. -- taz
Birds are currently very worried that this could jump the species barrier at any time.
posted by Segundus at 4:31 AM on December 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 4:31 AM on December 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
I'm kind of upset that the author, who is a man, didn't fill in this as part of his declaration of competing interests. That said, he did do what appears to be a pretty thorough introductory literature review of sex-based differences in immunology.
My favourite light-hearted articles (such as this, in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal) are definitely those which are rigorously sourced.
posted by ambrosen at 4:32 AM on December 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
My favourite light-hearted articles (such as this, in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal) are definitely those which are rigorously sourced.
posted by ambrosen at 4:32 AM on December 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
if this level of snark had been targeted at a stereotypical female behavior
As a man with a chronic illness, I do bristle when people snark at men having a cold with the term 'man-flu', but yeah, part of men's fight against toxic masculinity has to be to bear this kind of shit, and to give it an accurate name. So the response to a sarcastic "ah, he's/I've got man-flu" has to be "oh, yeah, I really hate it when I have a cold". Not sure exactly how you say "cold" in bold, but that's kind of the best technique for correcting mostly-socially-acceptable bigotry.
posted by ambrosen at 4:44 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
As a man with a chronic illness, I do bristle when people snark at men having a cold with the term 'man-flu', but yeah, part of men's fight against toxic masculinity has to be to bear this kind of shit, and to give it an accurate name. So the response to a sarcastic "ah, he's/I've got man-flu" has to be "oh, yeah, I really hate it when I have a cold". Not sure exactly how you say "cold" in bold, but that's kind of the best technique for correcting mostly-socially-acceptable bigotry.
posted by ambrosen at 4:44 AM on December 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
There are benefits to energy conservation when ill. Lying on the couch, not getting out of bed, or receiving assistance with activities of daily living could also be evolutionarily behaviours that protect against predators.
And yet women don't have the luxury of doing this. Even if you stay home from work people expect you to do the housework and the cooking.
Maybe we need to dig deeper and see how the denial of this luxury to women has perhaps caused the stereotype of men "overreacting" to colds - maybe men are reacting just fine, and it just looks more severe because society has been pressuring women to underreact by comparison and we're pissed about that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:45 AM on December 12, 2017 [6 favorites]
And yet women don't have the luxury of doing this. Even if you stay home from work people expect you to do the housework and the cooking.
Maybe we need to dig deeper and see how the denial of this luxury to women has perhaps caused the stereotype of men "overreacting" to colds - maybe men are reacting just fine, and it just looks more severe because society has been pressuring women to underreact by comparison and we're pissed about that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:45 AM on December 12, 2017 [6 favorites]
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It would be interesting to see the difference in response if this level of snark had been targeted at a stereotypical female behavior.
posted by fairmettle at 4:31 AM on December 12, 2017 [4 favorites]