How to Get Downvoted on the Men’s Rights Subreddit, Sandra Fluke edition
If you ever have the desire to get yourself downvoted on the Men’s Rights subreddit, here’s one sure-fire strategy: Write a sensible comment suggesting that birth control benefits people with penises as much as people with vaginas.
Here are the two top replies to this comment:
I was going to point out some of the ironies inherent in Men’s Rightsers getting mad about women getting “free” birth control, but I suspect you can figure those out on your own.
This is why the so-called Men’s Rights movement is not so much a rights movement as a take-away-other-people’s-rights movement.
Like this:
![Leopard [Crates and Ribbons]](../../../../avatar/8504325f271947ec8840a52c69762073-s-30-d-identicon-r-G.jpg){kind=avatar}
Posted on September 6, 2012, in antifeminism, hypocrisy, irony alert, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, oppressed men, penises, reddit, vaginas and tagged antifeminism, birth control, men's rights, MRA, mras, reddit, sandra fluke. Bookmark the permalink. 231 Comments.
“these chumps couldn’t get laid in a women’s prison with a fistful of pardons.”
Gotta say: the reason I try not to use the “lol you never get laid” argument on MRAs is because of the reaction I have when I see it. I know that I am capable of getting laid. And, sadly, I know that PUAs and MRAs are capable of getting laid too, though I can’t imagine it’s very satisfying for any party involved.
Also, “A Fistful of Pardons” would make an amazing name for a Fallout: New Vegas fan film. I should get on that.
*doesn’t*
I’m waiting for some MRA to declare that condoms are misandry because the more sex you have the more they cost, unlike hormonal contraceptives. Clearly the medical establishment made it that way on purpose to punish men for having lots of sex. It’s a tax on alphas!
Still laughing at the idea that BC pills cost on average $45-$60. If only that was true outside Sweden. I see that he’s still not getting the difference between OTC meds and things that you can buy at a store without seeing a doctor. Hint - if something requires a doctor’s visit, that’s always going to cost more in real terms, and in systems that don’t have fully funded public healthcare that cost is usually passed on to the consumer. Now, I think that all forms of birth control should be available free, because it’s good for society to have BC as widely available as possible, and I’d love to see free condoms available all over the place, because they work to prevent STDs as well as pregnancy, but no, hormonal BC and condoms are not the same thing, and that’s why one is (hopefully) covered by insurance and the other is not.
1. I think any guy having daily sex would not have a penis, he’d just have a giant friction burn in the region of his crotch. *not a doctor*
2. I thought MRAs hated Alphas for having sex and not being the MRA(s) in question?
In the realm of TMI: I have had relationships where we had daily sex (or at least sex every day we were together, which was pretty much the same thing). One of those periods was about 18 months. The week we spent in bed, doing not much other than make love and eat was about the only time we weren’t functional in the real world.
But that’s an outlier. In the 30 years or so I’ve been having sex the more common time frame is more like 2-3 times per week, when I was monogamous,and cohabiting with my partner.
More TMI! On old boyfriend and I once decided to see how many times in a row we could have sex, just because we were young and bored. We eventually stopped at 7. We were both a bit sore afterwards, but nothing terrible, and his penis seemed to be entirely intact.
I’m up in the Great White North, and before I got my IUD I was paying $15/month for birth control with co-pay. Fortunately, I didn’t have to pay for the doctor’s visits, but it was still a pain to book the appointments (at one point I had a doctor who would ONLY give me 3 month scripts instead of a full year), get paps, etc.
As for daily sex… seriously dude, I have stuff to do. Who has TIME for that sort of thing?
I’m not sure if Creative Writing Student tried to make some kind of joke there? Otherwise, no, it’s possible to have daily sex, heck, it’s even possible to have (PIV) sex several times a day, day in and day out, and your genitals would still be perfectly fine!
@Polliwog: In Sweden health care and medication is heavily subsidised by the state. For instance, no matter how much you need to see a doctor over the course of a year, you’re guaranteed not to pay more than 1100 SKr (167 dollars). If you need surgery and stuff that’s also payed for by tax money. And you never pay more than 1800 SKr a year (273 dollars) for prescription meds, no matter how much meds you need. When it comes to birth control pills they obviously don’t take you up to the limit, but various counties in Sweden have various policies when it comes to them - in many places you don’t pay the full cost, but the county pays some.
So… pretty different system from the US one, not really comparable.
Does it have the same kinds of wait times that the NHS has for major procedures like operations? Because honestly, that’s the only thing I don’t love about the NHS.
Yeah, people often have to wait for non-emergency surgery. It can take up to three months. Which sucks, of course.
I also read in some news paper article that in the USA, the patients are regarded as customers, and if they want certain tests to be taken or want a certain procedure the doctors will normally give them what they want. Here it’s more like the doctor decides if some kind of testing is necessary or not, and if the doc thinks it’s unnecessary, he’s not gonna do it. And that’s one reason medical care in Sweden cost much less per capita than it does in the USA.
The NHS really isn’t bad for operations. Usual waiting time is 6-8 weeks for non-emergency procedures, but can be longer depending on how ‘non-emergency’ they are. Contrast with the USA where if you don’t have insurance (or the right kind of insurance) it just like, doesn’t happen at all.
There is the dynamic that Dvärghundspossen described where patients tend to self-diagnose and got into a doctor’s office demanding a certain kind of drug or a specific test. On the other end of the spectrum there are doctors who need to pay the bills. The U.S.’s pre-Obamacare health care model is mostly a pay by procedure one. Doctors get little from insurance companies for well-visits or preventative care; the real money comes from tests, procedures, and surgeries.
There is kind of a customer/salesman model in most of the interactions I’ve had with family doctors and specialists as an adult. Usually it’s them trying to sell me on a certain procedure or test that I normally wouldn’t want. When I had a (benign) breast lump a few years back, the surgeon who removed it suggested I undergo genetic testing. When I asked what the benefits would be from knowing that I had a cancer gene, he suggested that I could prevent the onset with a prophylactic treatment, like an early bilateral mastectomy. I’m sure that he had my best interest at heart. I’m equally sure that he was also considering his bottom line. Otherwise why wouldn’t he have mentioned extra screenings or lifestyle changes instead of going back to him to have my healthy-for-now boobs chopped off?
I hate that these professionals have to resort to that kind of money-grubbing instead of practicing medicine. But I had six-figure student loan debt, office rent to pay, a payroll to meet, equipment to buy, and a five figure annual bill for malpractice insurance, I’d do the same.
re Wait times for non-emergency surgeries. It’s the US which is odd (and IMO, backwards).
Things like a hip-replacement are rarely emergency, so they can be scheduled. If one is having regular visits to the doctor, the need is usually seen well in advance of the wait causing difficulty. It also allows one to put one’s day to day routines/affairs in order to deal with the time recovery and recuperation take.
So I don’t see a real problem with the wait times.
*if I had six figure student loan debt. oops.
My Aunt is currently waiting for a hip replacement. She just got the 3-monthly letter asking are you still alive / do you still need a hip? When your turn does come up, you only get a couple of days’ notice.
Rural areas need heaps more doctors, nurses, physios, radiologists, ambos, etc. Anyone here a health worker? You’d be made very welcome
… Apart from in the states like Victoria and Queensland where cutting back on healthcare is the government mantra!
I’m in NSW - we got a brand new hospital and two - count ‘em - TWO linear accelerators
I will have to make a note to myself to come by with the actual data on Monday since I have it saved at work but wait times in the US for those who have insurance when compared to Canada at least (might have something on the UK though), show up to be little shorter then the Canadian system.
You still have to have a surgeon with the time, the hospital bed and space, the blood for transfusions, the nursing staff, etc..for a surgery regardless of where you are. Frequently that means the treatment will take just as long.
I think outcomes post surgery are much worse in the US though-there have been studies that show when you allow profit into the mix, medical providers will increase above and beyond the “scared of being sued” factor that they have (which is based more on malpractice premiums shooting up due to the monopoly on that particular insurance segment then on the actual incidents of lawsuits. Malpractice lawsuits have been stagnant/dipping slightly for decades despite up to 90,000+ actionable deaths a year and do not ask me about the actionable nondeath disastrous treatment, those numbers will make you cry.) In addition to that problem, most hospitals in the US prevent their information getting out on what kind of care that you can expect so no one has an idea how bad it really is.
Wait, what? I cant pee standing up here in Sweden? That’s news to me.
Unfortunately the pdf that I had bookmarked has turned into a download about the Canadian wait times. So here is the rest of the website:
http://www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/About/Priorities/HCFA/EducResources.aspx
For the worse outcomes-it is for profits hospitals that leave people sicker or dead than other hospitals:
http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/devereaux_costs.pdf
On deaths by malpractice:
http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/1999/To-Err-is-Human/To%20Err%20is%20Human%201999%20%20report%20brief.pdf
Summary of all of that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/business/economy/23leonhardt.html