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Rapid response to:

Research Christmas 2014: Going to Extremes

The Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7094 (Published 11 December 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7094

Rapid Response:

I was under the impression that discrimination had been outlawed. This is a joke article but the joke is not funny; the joke is on the BMJ and the authors.

Perhaps it would have been funnier if your source data had not been obtained from a list of, however idiotic, tragic deaths of real people. Some of these people would have been living with learning disabilities, mental disorders, or doing things that, although admittedly foolhardy, were brave or necessary.

This damages men and boys, by undermining our self-esteem and ability to live as we choose for fear of being called stupid, just as using nepotism to give an author a citation in a prestigious journal damages the scientific community by impeding those without family connections.

Competing interests: No competing interests

04 January 2015
Christopher W. Benson
Pathology Analyst
Cardiff, UK