Putting the "Man" Back in "Mental"

Reading about the matriarchal society that has evolved in the hospital ward, I honestly feel ashamed for men as a gender.  How can a group of men allow women like the Big Nurse to so completely control them?  To compensate for this lack of masculine dominance, I have compiled a series of facts that comfort me and re-establish my faith in men.  Enjoy:

•  Men are more intelligent than women – men have I.Q. scores of 3.6 points higher than females, and male brains are, on average, a hundred grams heavier (and a positive correlation exists between brain size and intelligence).

• Men are also much more likely to be at the top end of intelligence – there are more men geniuses than women (where “genius” is defined as an I.Q. above 140).

• Men test better than women on mathematical aptitude tests.

•  Men are more literate than women, with 100 men considered literate for every 88 women.

• There are ten times more Nobel Prize-winning men than women.

• Women are less productive than men – women in nonagricultural industries work 35.9 hours per week versus 41.6 hours for men.

• Studies have shown that men are better at directions – they possess better spatial awareness and memory for navigation.

• Men are better at getting children to listen to them - Men use less words and more simple words in comparison to women, who like to use more complicated words, as well as more of them.  Women want to rationalize, offer direction and explanation when communicating with their children, while men tend to use few words and get to the point. 

•  Men have better distance vision and depth perception than women, and women are 78% more likely than men to become blind.

• Ironically, although women have stronger immune systems, they are more likely to contract auto-immune diseases such as Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma and Multiple Sclerosis.

• Men are wired to understand technology better than women.  Men instinctively know how to figure out how equipment works, what it does, and what it is good for.  Women on the other hand seem to have some kind of stumbling block when it comes to handling technology. 

• Men are 30% stronger than women, in addition to being taller and heavier

• Differences in intake and delivery of oxygen translate into some aspects of performance: when a man is jogging at about 50% of his capacity, a woman will need to work at over 70% of her capacity to keep up with him.

• Women have weaker bones, and are more likely to develop osteoporosis later in life.

This is not meant to be an offensively sexist post. I merely felt humiliated for my gender due to its portrayal in this novel – all the patients in the mental hospital are men, and all the people in power are women. So I felt the need to give men some reassurance through this list of factual, scientific information praising the merits of the male gender.  I do find Kesey's decision to put women in charge of the ward interesting.  Perhaps he uses this rarity (especially in their times) to accentuate the unnatural nature of the ward, further justifying the patients' attempts at rebellion.