STATISTICALLY SKEWED: WHERE HAVE ALL THE MEN GONE?

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

(I originally posted this article a year ago, but, in the light of all those discussions about same sex marriage, I would like to repost it on my blog. Just another viewpoint re the ongoing debates)

Just the other night, I had some bantering and laughter with friend Jimmy Cantor, managing editor of the Pahayagang Malaya, but not without discovering, deliberating, and discussing what we considered statistical anomalies on men-women relationship.

This was about the ratio of available men for women.

By our reckoning, available men are getting fewer to match the growing number of women, who seek the company of men in the usual socially approved heterosexual relationship.

Our discussions revolved on probabilities, but they were realistic to stand on two or four legs. 

Assuming we have a universe of 100 men, it would be fair and realistic to assume that 20 are gays, who would seek the company of another 20, leaving 60 as available for 100 women.

Jimmy and I said that at the rate our society is getting more open-minded and liberal for homosexual relations, it would be fair and realistic to allot 20 men for 20 gays. In fact, some gays have multiple male partners to offset the gays, who could not have male partners.

Of the remaining 60 men, about 20 men are abroad, working as overseas contract workers. Thus, they default the possible heterosexual relations with women, leaving the 100 women with 40 men to share.

But not all of the remaining 40 men are prepared for heterosexual relations.

Of the remainder, about 10 to 15 men are unprepared for various reasons: physical deformity or deficiency; mental incapacity (they are simply not the marrying type), or choice of celibacy (they want to remain chaste and celibate like priests and other religious workers).

Overall, only 25 to 30 men are available for 100 women, Jimmy and I concluded. Or to put it simply, about 4 women for every single man.

Jimmy and I ended up laughing to our hearts' content. This is the new reality, we said.

How should we handle this statistically skewed ratio?

Jimmy advanced the phrase "armed to the pen_s."

Men should be prepared for every conceivable battle just like soldiers, who, when they go to battles, are armed to the teeth.
We both tossed to that phrase, as Jimmy and I raised our glasses of beer for a bottoms-up drink.

Kampai!

Touche!