How would our society react if men lived longer than women?

A Portuguese language website, Dextra, copies the 2007 VFR entry, “How society defends itself; and is women’s political equality a good thing?” Looking through the entry, I came upon this wonderful comment by Tim W.:

Think of it this way. Women on average live a few years longer than men. That’s one of those facts of life that we’re all aware of. And we all take it in stride. I know I do. I’m an old fashioned guy who believes in chivalry and if the ladies outlive me, that’s fine. But imagine if the opposite was true. What if men lived, let’s say, an average of five years and eight months longer than women?

Well, if that were the case, we’d never hear the end of it. The media would be filled to overflowing with stories bemoaning the life expectancy gap. Congress would stay pregnant (pun intended) with bills to fund studies, finance research, and implement programs at the cost of billions to find ways to close the gap. Everything imaginable would be blamed for it. Little boys roughhousing in grade school. Husbands going bowling instead of staying home. Women earning less money than men and thus suffering depression. Etcetera, etcetera. There would be marches on Washington to demand that government do something to equalize life expectancy.

And feminists and women candidates would walk around wearing buttons with “five years, eight months” written on them constantly to remind themselves and the world about this horrendous inequity.

That this would happen, and surely it would, says something about the differing natures of male and female voters.

VFR’s entries questioning whether the political equality of women is a good thing, and answering the question in the negative, are collected here.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 04, 2011 10:15 AM | Send