Using “mental illness” in such a generalized way is incredibly misleading.
Women have high rates of certain mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, whereas men have higher rates of substance abuse and personality disorders (especially anti-social personality disorder i.e what used to be known as psychopathy).
Yeah it’s not false to say that women also have high rates of mental illness, but not all mental illness predisposes people to the same actions. You’re more likely to pick up a gun if you have anti-social personality disorder than if you have anxiety.
Gender also affects how people deal with mental illness. For example, women have much higher rates of depression, but men have much higher rates of suicide. Theories suggest this could be in part due to the way men and women are socialized. Women are taught to talk about their feelings, men are taught to bottle things up. Socialization also plays a role in male violence.
I’m not saying that men don’t have a greater tendency than women to be violent, even socialization aside. But posting misleading information that says that “this isn’t about mental illness” and demonizes men as whole to fit some narrative is so unproductive and wrong. What exactly does a post like this suppose we do to fix the problem?
Add to the list of problems the U.S. has the compulsion to create a divide between us and them on every issue instead of actually taking a nuanced look at problems and trying to solve them.
(side note: Yes mental illness is global, but so are men, including white men in many countries. Guns are clearly the thing that makes the U.S. distinct.)
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