The Government Argues That Men Commit Suicide More Due to Masculinity

The Ministry of Health has caused significant controversy on social media after publishing a message claiming that masculinity is the reason men live shorter lives, commit suicide more often, and consume more drugs. The publication is not based on any scientific study or anything of the sort. It is inspired by an opinion article by Javier Padilla in the heavily subsidized outlet infoLibre.

Logically, the publication has been heavily criticized for lacking scientific data to support the claim. The official message stated:
"Men live shorter lives, commit suicide more often, and consume more drugs. It's not genetics: it's a masculinity that pushes them to take risks and ridicules vulnerability."

This publication has caused a flood of replys on social media, where the Ministry of Health has been accused of ideologizing a public health issue without providing scientific evidence. Many users have pointed out that the article on which the claim is based doesn't include figures or references to scientific studies supporting the relationship between masculinity and health.

In fact, X users have added community notes to the Ministry of Health's publication. This tool allows X users to add context or debunk false information published on Elon Musk's social network. Meanwhile, on this occasion, they have pointed out that "Health presents an opinion article as a statistical fact that contains not a single piece of data or scientific source. It incurs in unverified explanation fallacies, abusive generalization, irrelevant conclusion, and insufficient data."

Criticism of the Lack of Scientific Rigor

One of the main criticisms has been the lack of concrete data in the infoLibre article. Several social media accounts have pointed out that Health is presenting a theory as a proven statistical fact when it is actually an opinion without empirical support.

Users like @velardedaoiz2 have expressed their outrage. "It's somewhat frightening to think that you make decisions affecting everyone's health with such ideological prejudices," they said.

Others have mocked the logic of the Ministry's argument, as in this message. "It's unbelievable, @javierpadillab, that according to that far-fetched theory, there was almost no toxic masculinity in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. And that there is less toxic masculinity in Libya, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, or Morocco than here."

User @JordiCerda has offered a different perspective on masculinity and men's health. "Masculinity has been (and is) socially and anthropologically about giving your strength, energy, and dedication to protect those you love, at the expense of your own health. That's why we live shorter lives."