Weiße Männer haben im Vergleich zu Frauen und ethnischen und geschlechtsspezifischen Minderheitengruppen in den USA nicht die beste Gesundheit. Bei Männern ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, durch Selbstmord zu sterben, viermal höher als bei Frauen, und weiße Männer sind für mehr als 68 % der Selbstmordtoten verantwortlich. Weiße Männer verzeichneten einen stärkeren Rückgang des Glücksgefühls als weiße Frauen.

Conventional wisdom holds that social standing and economic stability tend to manifest as long life, good health and optimal wellbeing. In the U.S., the subpopulation holding the most such power and footing is White men.

Therefore, White men should evidence longer lives, better health and superior wellbeing compared with all other subgroups.

As it turns out, the syllogism isn’t even close to being reflected in reality.

Or, as put by researchers in an analytic essay published April 30 in the American Journal of Public Health:

“[I]t is paradoxical that non-Hispanic White American men do not collectively experience better health outcomes than minoritized racialized and gendered groups.”
The authors of the report, health-equity experts Caroline Efird, PhD, MPH, of Georgetown University and Derek Griffith, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, spend the bulk of the piece asking why “structural advantages” don’t consistently translate into health heighteners for “all men racialized as White.”

Their core justification for the project is their conviction that “understanding White men’s health and wellbeing through the intersection of structural whiteness and hegemonic masculinity may enhance our ability to improve U.S. population health.”

The researchers’ more thought-provoking observations, all backed by references to prior research, include these five.

White male bodies have been the (often unnamed) standard in biomedical research, but this approach fails to consider how gender and other structural factors affect White men’s health.

White men are “frequently the default comparison group in health research, and it is rare for investigators to designate them as the population of interest explicitly,” Efird and Griffith remark.

And yet, as of 2022, non-Hispanic White men could expect to live an average of only 75.1 years. That’s a significantly shorter life expectancy than the evidence-based projection for Hispanic men (77.0 years), non-Hispanic White women (80.1 years) and non-Hispanic Asian men (82.3 years), the authors note.

2. Men are four times as likely to die by suicide as women, and White men account for more than 68% of suicide deaths.

Over the life course, White boys and men have the highest suicide rates of any demographic group.

3. Related to well-being, White Americans report less satisfaction with their number of friends than do Black and Latino Americans.

Among men, loneliness is significantly associated with a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment for White but not Black men, Efird and Griffith report. Loneliness and social isolation “can be as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day,” they write, adding that social isolation generally increases the risk of stroke and inhibits proper management of chronic conditions such as diabetes.
“Moreover, White men experienced greater declines in happiness in recent decades than White women and Black men and women.”

4. In a nation that has yielded them myriad political, economic and social advantages, it is paradoxical that White men do not experience the best health relative to women and minoritized racial and gender groups.

“The structural conditions of oppression (e.g., racism) and supremacy (e.g., whiteness, hegemonic masculinity) in the United States generally work to elevate the social dominance of White men in ways that provide systematic advantages,” Efird and Griffith point out. “Yet these structural conditions can simultaneously harm their health and wellbeing.”

Here the authors name the stress of unrealistically high expectations for achievement and status. When frustrated, such expectations can contribute to adverse outcomes in mental and behavioral health. These, in turn, can cascade into poor outcomes in physical health-and-wellness categories.

“To be clear,” the authors clarify, “we are suggesting simply that White men’s health and well-being warrant attention, particularly if the goal is to achieve optimal U.S. population health.”

5. There is a potential health penalty associated with being in the most socially dominant racialized and gendered group in a nation where structural inequality thrives.

“This should be alarming, even for the most privileged populations, who are least likely to experience oppression or discrimination,” Efird and Griffith comment. “Similar to how the costs of dominance are key reasons men are more depressed by the experience of cancer than are women, we contend that the costs of whiteness and hegemonic masculinity are associated with worse morbidity, higher mortality and poorer mental health and wellbeing among some White men.”

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308430

Yeah, but how many white men in power do you see suffering like this? That’s the real truth, all the ones who aren’t part of the 1% shouldn’t be grouped in with that class of people because they would likely never achieve that level of wealth, which is priority to what they need to stay healthy.

Funnily, it’s the group people say it’s their own fault they are killing themselves.

I’m sure this will be a balanced and nuanced comment section

I think the article would benefit from saying mental health. Because white men are already centered in most studies, and it’s not lack of research on that front that causes all the additional white male deaths.

What an awful society men have created for themselves where they must suffer to appear manly to each other, instead of helping those who need help in a meaningful way. 

*Dying of Whiteness* by Johnathan M. Metzl came out in 2019. The Dickey Amendment makes studying white male gun suicide difficult to impossible. You can’t force white men to support things that help them, like suicide prevention, healthcare, and education. Does it suck? Yes. Am I sympathetic? Also yes. But the only „yes“ that matters is the vote they cast for politicians that enact these policies. 

Men in general have worse health outcomes because we’re socialized not to go to the doctor. You turn 18 and don’t go back for regular checkups until you’re like 35 or 40.

Men are 4 times as likely to die by suicide…

But they’re also a lot less likely than women to seek therapy, despite having at least equal access, and much more likely than women to drop out early. And when women drop out of therapy it is often the ability to attend at issue (childcare, money, etc) vs resistance to therapy itself.

Women are twice as likely to seek preventive health care. Women are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or drive dangerously.

I don’t know where the answer is, but it’s not a health access problem.

It’s almost like the caucasian experience isn’t all the same…

Maybe we should be doing more to promote mental health care amongst white men. Maybe the influences popular with white men could also promote taking care of mental problems in healthy ways. Hell maybe we should be doing more to improve mental healthcare access for everyone. That all sounds pretty dope.

Those red hats are probably lined with lead. 

“CDC data demonstrates that men account for over 76% of suicide deaths in the United States each year. The CDC also found that there are 3.3 male suicide deaths for every female suicide death. In contrast, in research studies, women are two to three times more likely to discuss thoughts of suicide than men, and there are approximately three female suicide attempts per every one male suicide attempt.” https://cams-care.com/resources/educational-content/the-gender-paradox-of-suicide/

What kinda red-pill troll post garbage….

I’ve legitimately seen several comments saying the male loneliness epidemic is not going far enough.

Damn, I’m a far left dude, but seeing the first two awards on this post bein‘ „crying laughing“ emoji is nasty work. Keeps everyone on this planet living in a cycle.

I think the main thing comes down to family. Parents are solid but they get old and die. Family is extremely good when things get tough. They help you lighten situations that otherwise might get darker without anyone around. Family helps split burdens, physical or emotional and thats just priceless. We have chosen career, money, status, material things over our family and I think we are seeing the aftermath.