It reminds of the reaction of some men to men who kill their partners or families and themselves versus a woman who kills her husband or children. The immediate reaction is it was a crime of passion and I wonder what got him to the state where he "had to" kill his wife and children. Whereas when a woman kills her husband or children all hell breaks loose.

It's tragic boys kill themselves. That's why most women who advocate for mental health parity like myself advocate for the mental health of both men and women. Brain disorders should be treated the same as physical illnesses. This includes Alzheimer's and autism. If it's about chemicals in the brain, how is that not a physical illness?

But it's distasteful we have men here blaming the victims. 14-year-old girls who hand themselves are spoiled brats. These same men would not call 14-year-old boys who shoot their brains out or hang themselves spoiled brats. They would suddenly show sympathy and try to figure out why this boy did something like that.

Why do men never bring up suicide except to dismiss articles about women's suicide? If men were really concerned about how patriarchy hurts men and women, they'd be feminists.

They aren't because they're only interested in maintaining their privilege over women.

Women attempt suicide more than men. Most respectable studies on suicide state that for every suicide there are at least 100 attempts.

Joan Walsh is the head of Salon but that doesn't make it much different than the rest of society. Markos Moulitas is Hispanic American but the progressive blogosphere is still extremely racist.

Salon.com is male-centric like the rest of society. If the suicide of boys was important to men, they'd write about it. But it's not. Or we'd see articles about it. They are much more interested in world affairs, business, money, power, getting laid, etc. Men's health is never the priority at WSJ, NYT, WaPo, Newsweek, Time, etc.

In other words, if men's health were a top priority to men, they'd write about it. It parallels how many times men visit the doctor versus women. Men see the doctor much less frequently than women.

Broadsheet wouldn't exist if Salon and every other news outlet wasn't already male-centric.

This trend is real. It's because of the glass ceiling in the workplace. Educated women find their choices limited in the workplace. The solution is equality for all women, rich and poor.

Republicans are on an obsessive quest to pick a Hillary slayer for 2008.

Figures.

coquelicot,

The reasons for suicide in China are similar to the alarming suicide rates of Asian American women. Note that Chinese and Japanese American women have the highest rates among Asian American ethnicities. CNN said Asian American women kill themselves because of pressures outside and inside the home.

http://us.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/16/asian.suicides/index.html

First and foremost, they say "model minority" pressure -- the pressure some Asian-American families put on children to be high achievers at school and professionally -- helps explain the problem.

[...]Asian-American parents, he says, are stricter with girls than with boys. "The cultural expectations are that Asian women don't have that kind of freedom to hang out, to go out with friends, to do the kinds of things most teenagers growing up want to do."

And in Asian cultures, he added, you don't question parents. "The line of communication in Asian culture one way. It's communicated from the parents downward," he says. "If you can't express your anger, it turns to helplessness. It turns inward into depression for girls. For boys it's more likely to turn outwards into rebellious behavior and behavioral problems like drinking and fighting."

The second article I quoted that said China had the highest female suicide mortality rate in the world said urban middle-class women kill themselves because of pressure from work inside and outside the home:

even better-off urban Chinese women face greater pressures than men. "Women have to face the same pressure in work as men as well as being expected to be good housewives at home," she told the paper. "Family violence also contributes to the cause. In addition, women have to face pressures from children. Once children encounter problems in study or in life, mothers can find it easy to feel guilty and blame themselves," the paper quoted Lin as saying.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/social/2003/09/17/115741/

China, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam are all Asian countries. I wonder what they have in common with India?

The Lancet carried out studies in China and India and now they're onto China (perhaps studying teen girls there like in India?), Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

So

1. China is the only country in the world in which women kill themselves more than men.

2. China has the highest female suicide rate of any country.

3. Indian teen girls have the highest overall suicide rate in the world.

I have a feeling this has nothing to do with pesticides and everything to do with sexism.