-3 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Yes, Dads Can Struggle With Postpartum Depression—Here’s Why
Either semantics matter or they don't. If they matter, then it matters how we refer to PPD. If it doesn't, why are you arguing with me.
I'm going to address this first because I didn't explain myself properly.
I'm not, at all, saying semantics doesn't matter. I'm saying what you're doing is making it harder to discuss this issue and diminishing the effect it has on men, using semantics.
I'm not saying I don't think language matters, I'm saying it's being missused to disguise a pretty foul opinion.
I'm sorry, but you're just wrong about this. It's comparing apples and oranges, and no amount of being mad about it changes it. A fracture isn't the same as an infarction isn't the same as an aneurism.
Those are all *wildly* different medical conditions that have nothing at all in common outside of extremely vague things like all being medical conditions.
The only point you're making here is you don't understand the difference between equivocation and comparison. Apples and oranges have tons of stuff in common. They are both fruits. They both have pH values lower than seven. They are both sweet. On and on and on. I can compare them all day long.
What they are not, is literally the exact same thing, or close enough to be interchangeable. Saying they are similar enough to place them in the same overall category of things, is not equivalent to saying they are the exact same and there are no differences between them.
My entire point is you can say "women and men experience this differently" all fucking day long, and you will be technically right basically every time you say it. Men and women are different, and thus things affect them differently.
That's so patently obvious arguing against it just makes you look ridiculous.
There are obviously differences in how men and women experience PPD. There are also differences in how they experience PTSD, or anxiety, or any number of different things.
But none of this is about establishing men and women experience things differently. It's about trying to disrupt a conversation about an issue that affects men, and turn it around so they're suddenly wrong for having the conversation in the first place. It's about policing men's capacity to discuss their issues out of the language.
Like, what the fuck else are we supposed to call PPD for men? It's depression you experience directly related to but occuring after the birth of your child. Yet you're saying I can't include "birth" or any variant of it in the name, because men don't give birth. So how the fuck are we even supposed to talk about it?
And that's the thing. We aren't. The whole reason people make these points is to make it wrong to even have these conversations. It's about disrupting men's ability to talk about how issues affect them. It's about hijacking the conversation and trying to make it about how men are hurting women by having a conversation about their own issues in place entirely removed from them. And I am *so fucking tired of it*.
Comment by officialspinster at 11/01/2025 at 13:42 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Post partum refers to the state of the body. As your body was not pregnant, it cannot be in a postpartum state.
Call it postnatal depression. It still codifies the root cause while being actually accurate.
Comment by Gimmenakedcats at 11/01/2025 at 14:48 UTC
3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
After looking at this exchange, it’s actually probably more medically ideal to use ‘PPD’ for both women and men, and apply a different subset of illness to women post birth because there *is* an undeniable difference between being foisted upon by a new baby and your life and health suffering for it vs having that *and* your body being decimated by it. Your physical body injuries and the way it recovers from pregnancy is a whole different animal.
If it helps, it’s better to compare it to a birth mother and an adoptive mother. Adoptive mothers can never have the same hormonal new motherhood that a mother who birthed the baby does. They can both experience PPD because there is a real depression that affects any new parent of a baby, but the added hormonal affects and injuries from an actual birthing mother should have separate qualifiers.
It’s not anything special or anything anyone wants to covet or make others feel bad for not being able to achieve, it’s just a fact of pregnancy.