Is the term "Man Flu"...

Harry B

... a sexist and derogatory remark aimed at us poor men who are suffering with serious ailments and if so what should be the penalty to the female (aka my wife) who uses such a term?

I'm suffering sooo much and nobody gives a hoot

whyamihere

They're lucky, because they'll never know the discomfort that we're going through at the moment. They'll never experience anything like it. Pregnancy? Pah! I'd rather have 50 babies than a single bout of man flu.

/Runs away from the hordes of women with carving knives

iain_j

Just bear in mind, there are plenty of diseases which at some point in the past have been completely overlooked as nothing serious. There's hope yet.

cee

MTFU wet pants.

STEFANOS4784

Lol, same flu as women get so if they don't complain to the same extent then i'm afraid that you don't have a leg to stand on :P

Stewie Griffin

http://www.manflu.org.uk/

Help is available brother !

Harry B

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Lol, same flu as women get so if they don't complain to the same extent then i'm afraid that you don't have a leg to stand on :P

How do you know ours isn't more severe?

Harry B

Stewie Griffin wrote:

http://www.manflu.org.uk/

Help is available brother !

See it is real, it must be of it's on the interweb.

I'm going home now

singlespeedexplosif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EElqrgk4N0

Gotte

I'm sorry, but the term "Man-flu" just really annoys me. As I understand it, the main problem with men and their health is that they tend never to go to the doctor..
Here's an example - my father in law. He had trouble urinating at night, but just kept ignorring it and ignorring it, soldiering on thinking that it was nothing, and you know what, two years later he was dead.
Here's another example, my brother in law, who is diabetic, got food poisoning. It wiped him out, and he ended up being bedridden for a good while. After my father in law's funeral, I heard my Brother in Law's wife saying, to their daughters, "come on, let's get home and see how your dad's man-flu is." It turned out he was not "malingering" as his wife had suggested, but actually, his diabetes had got so bad it was life threatening. He ended up having his leg amputated after an infection festered. He's really badly messed up now, and a lot of it, I suspect, is becasue he actually ignorred teh problems with his health and his diabetes. Perhaps even becasue the underlying message he, and, I fear, a lot of men get, is that whenever we are ill we are malingerers who just need to get up and get on.

Grrrr. Man flu. I hate that term.

Nelson Longflap

The term is part of the creeping anti-male sexism, that men are just meant to take on the chin - otherwise they'll be accused of not being "men". It's a classic double-bind. Sorry, but I don't find veiled put-downs (in this case using gender stereotypes which arrogantly seek to belittle and shame) funny. Irrespective of who's doing it to who.

singlespeedexplosif

Gotte - to be fair, neither of your examples were actually man flu..

SCR Pedro

Nelson Longflap wrote:

The term is part of the creeping anti-male sexism, that men are just meant to take on the chin - otherwise they'll be accused of not being "men". It's a classic double-bind. Sorry, but I don't find veiled put-downs (in this case using gender stereotypes which arrogantly seek to belittle and shame) funny. Irrespective of who's doing it to who.

+1 "Man Flu" is probably the invention of some dreadful womens gossip magazine. It's pathetic and in my opionion, speaks volumes about the intelligence of those who use it.

Man flu, indeed :roll:

Cheers
Pedro

howiejmidlands

I dont get man flu, i get TB mixed with a double dose of consumption. As for pregnancy and the birth pains, i have two 7 mm stones lodged in my kidleys. The doc said it is more painful for a man to try and pass a stone, than for a woman to give birth.
Admittedly, my 7mm stones are lodged in place, and i passed a grain of sand after passing out twice with the pain.
Your little wee tube is not designed to increase in width, and a grain of sand is bloody enormous, trust me.

Oh yes and the very knoweldgable doctor of course was a man!

teagar

Nelson Longflap wrote:

The term is part of the creeping anti-male sexism, that men are just meant to take on the chin - otherwise they'll be accused of not being "men". It's a classic double-bind. Sorry, but I don't find veiled put-downs (in this case using gender stereotypes which arrogantly seek to belittle and shame) funny. Irrespective of who's doing it to who.

It's hardly veiled.

I think, http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12544013, will sooth your overheating brow .

pottssteve

Gotte,
I went to the Doc' with pain in the groin. He told me to wear tight underpants. Imagine my surprise when, 7 months later, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer!

I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, other than, "get a second opinion". Mind you, I was mis-diagnosed 3 times, so maybe "get a fourth opinion" would be better.

robbarker

The truth is that women are scared witless of manflu, lest they catch it and it should mutate to birdflu.

_Brun_

The whole 'flu' thing really pisses me off, given that most people seem unable differentiate between a harsh dose of the common cold and a bout of proper influenza. Presumably it's not acceptable to excuse yourself from work in the event of having a cold?

I'll confess to having no idea where the 'man-flu' thing comes from, but I wish copious amounts of (preferably non-contagious) disease on anyone who uses the term. Must add the assurance that I'm very definitely an employee rather than employer, but it ticks me off regardless.

Harry B

robbarker wrote:

The truth is that women are scared witless of manflu, lest they catch it and it should mutate to birdflu.

Excellent

Still feel crap though

Crapaud

robbarker wrote:

The truth is that women are scared witless of manflu, lest they catch it and it should mutate to birdflu.

Surely you mean burd-flu?

DavidBelcher

cee wrote:

MTFU wet pants.

+1 for that. Well said, cee.
I think I posted something equally dismissive about the alleged severity of 'man-flu' [1] on the Commuting forum a while back, after which it was suggested that, though I had a valid point, I'd probably not be the best person to man a Samaritans switchboard....

David

[1] Doesn't actually exist of course; stop feeling sorry for yourself and snap out of it!

Gotte

singlespeedexplosif wrote:

Gotte - to be fair, neither of your examples were actually man flu..

No, but there's an underlying message that when a man is ill he makes the most of it. My point is that men tend to do exactly the opposite. It's well known that men tend to die earlier, often because they completely ignore serious issues. I see a trend with the whole "man flu" thing that says men are weedy, mollycoddled shirkers who should get on with it when they're sick, when in reality men should actually be encouraged to seek medical advice when there is something wrong with them.

Jay dubbleU

'Man flu' is an invention of PC motivated feminists which has become a standing joke among men - thus turning the tables on the inventors :evil:

HungryCol

My theory is that through genetics and millennia where man is hunter gatherer our constitutions have been built up to withstand smaller bugs and colds. This means that when we get a cold, or indeed flu, it is more virulent that what our female counterparts experience.

As a lot of us on this forum are cyclists and are relatively fitter than your average couch pots so our health and immune systems are improved which further emphasises the fact that when a bug gets through our strong immune system it’s worthy of making us ill and therefore makes us sicker than normal.

STEFANOS4784

Harry B wrote:

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Lol, same flu as women get so if they don't complain to the same extent then i'm afraid that you don't have a leg to stand on :P

How do you know ours isn't more severe?

Because when i get flu it's fine(i'm a man) if my brother catches it from me it's like he's dying or something :roll:
Actually quite winds me up :twisted: :arrow:

disquieting_museeuws

On the general subject of 'gendered' illness - My father had some serious bleeding from 'down there' a few years ago. You wouldn't believe the hatred it elicited from the female members of my family - infringing on their territory, you see, almost like animals rejecting a member of the pack that was different. Quite depressing how easily humans of both genders (god knows men have been guilty) turn into nasty bullies when faced with something they don't understand.

Mark Alexander

Nelson Longflap wrote:

The term is part of the creeping anti-male sexism, that men are just meant to take on the chin - otherwise they'll be accused of not being "men". It's a classic double-bind. Sorry, but I don't find veiled put-downs (in this case using gender stereotypes which arrogantly seek to belittle and shame) funny. Irrespective of who's doing it to who.

Please tell me this is a wind up! what a load of old bo***cs :? or is it a double blind?

I think it was Billy Connelly who said that the only people you can joke about anymore are white, heterosexual males without being offensive.

I did like the youtube clip with the paramedics.

Stormy

The difference between flu and a cold I’ve always thought goes something like this:

A £50 note is blowing about in your back garden; you simply don’t possess the strength or energy to claim it, and drift back into semi consciousness (Flu)

Same deal with a cold and you’ve caught it currently en-route to blow it at the LBS!

Granted lots of people (both genders) confuse a heavy cold with flu………as for me I’m currently mid way through a vile chest infection , and I’d just like to thank my smoking co worker who dragged in the latest example of this particularly aggressive all singing all dancing newly mutated for winter 2008 cold virus.

Through expert coughing and hacking you’ve managed to just about decimate 50% of the workforce with this one, and the irony is her cough didn’t change much at all. It still sounded its usual phlegm ridden cacophony of a 20 a day habit……………………..nice

Sometimes there's just no justice lol

hisoka

Pah, everything I get is horrible. Mostly as I have a weakened immune system ever since a horrendous set of infections in my uni days (started with glandular fever).
It means I get everything going round, but my body has adapted and "burns" for about a day or maybe two and I get over things quicker. Hard and fast, just like a sprinter or hurried lover. hehe

keef66

I'm fit, eat well, and generally stay healthy. Maybe catch a cold on average every other year. I've only had flu once in 50 years, and believe me, there's no way you'd confuse it with a cold.

Once had the opportunity to compare directly male / female tolerance of things unpleasant. In Egypt me and wife had managed to stand on the same clump of pencil-spined sea urchins, I had about 25 spines in my right foot, she a similar number in her left. In hospital we sat on the same bed and took turns while the local doctor dug out the spines without any anaesthetic. Bit of a toe-curler! She later said it was more painful than childbirth. I on the other hand found it less distressing than passing a fragment of gallstone which had me writhing, incoherent and tachycardic in the care of the paramedics.

Mark Alexander

other than the odd cold each year, the only time I caught something was after a mamoth bike challenge and was recovering the week after i was struck down with a virus for two weeks.