The Weekly Roundup is an opportunity to recap a week in news and share recently discovered materials that might be of interest.
PODCASTS
The Victor Davis Hanson Show, 2024
In a candid interview with New York Post columnist and longtime News Corp journalist Miranda Devine, VDH discusses with her the four weaponized trials facing Donald Trump, the growing epidemic of anti-Semitism on campuses, the reasons behind the Biden administration destruction of the southern border, the cycles of Biden cognitive decline, and more...
Interview on Vaping with Gary Hardgrave on 4BC
Dr. Joe Unplugged, 2024
The Australian government continues to wage war on people trying to quit smoking. [Dr. Joe’s] chat with Gary Hardgrave on radio 4BC covers the problems and the obvious solution.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
How Men and Women Are Dividing on Politics
Newsweek, 2024
Women like J.K. Rowling Will Not Free Us from Gender Ideology
Only men of courage can do it, and it’s not clear they will
The Fiamengo File, 2024
Sex Differences in the Heritability of Autism
Genes play a larger role in the development of autism in males than females
The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter, 2024
The First Law of Behavior Genetics
All psychological traits are partially heritable
The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter, 2024
Who Teaches the Teachers? An Audit of Teaching Degrees at Australian Universities
Institute of Public Affairs, 2023
Summary [abridged]: Teaching as a discipline as taught at Australian universities is now dominated by the study of Critical Social Justice, also known as wokeness. Critical Social Justice assumes most human interaction in society is underpinned by oppressive power structures based on group identities, such as race and gender. These theories, now entrenched in Australian universities, were pioneered by Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire as a theory of teaching known as ‘critical pedagogy’. Students are instructed to be politically conscious agents of change to overturn oppressive power structures that Critical Social Justice theorists claim exist. This audit is a systematic review of 3,713 subjects taught across 37 universities in Australia offering teaching degrees in 2023.
Free Speech On Campus Audit 2023
Institute of Public Affairs, 2023
Summary [abridged]: The Institute of Public Affairs’ Free Speech on Campus Audit 2023 is the fourth systematic analysis of more than 279 policies at Australia’s 42 universities. The Audit rates each university’s support for free speech by analysing policies that restrict expression.
Partner Abuse, 2023
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated the profound negative impact of both intimate partner violence (IPV) and parental alienation (PA) on both the mental and physical health of fathers. However, considering the increasing arguments for PA to be categorized and examined as a form of IPV, there is an urgent need to explore the impact of PA as part of a broader pattern of IPV. This is a particularly relevant line of inquiry for fathers, as men are largely invisibilized in research examining IPV. The present study analyzed qualitative responses to an online survey by 171 fathers who have experienced alienating behaviors within the context of IPV. Three themes were identified: impact on fathers (including health, finances, grief, identity, and relationships), perceived impact on children (including siblings and extended family, health and well-being, and loss of childhood), and impact on relationships with children (including lack of closeness, feeling responsible, and improvements over time). The impacts described by men are discussed in relation to the theoretical and practical relationship between IPV and PA, and the implications for support and help-seeking for men experiencing this form of abuse.
Partner Abuse, 2023
Abstract: Previous research has highlighted that when men describe their experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV), they frequently talk about the use of children by their abusive partners. The behaviors they describe align with descriptions of so-called parental alienation (PA) where children are coercively controlled to reject one (alienated) parent in favor of the other. The situation of alienating behaviors within intimate partner and family violence structures is one that has been proposed but rarely explicitly studied. This study analyzed qualitative responses to an online survey by 171 fathers who have experienced alienating behaviors within the context of IPV. Four themes were found: direct manipulation of contact (including relocation and control of contact), manipulation through systems (including false allegations, and court and school settings), manipulation of children (including lying directly to children about fathers and involving children in abuse), and the wider context of violence (including physical, psychological, and controlling behaviors). The experiences described by men are discussed in relation to the theoretical and practical relationship between IPV and PA and implications for the current debate around the use of PA within family court cases.
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 2024
Abstract: Little is known about help seeking behaviors of male victims of intimate partner violence. This systematic review intends to summarize the help seeking experiences of male victims in terms of the usefulness of the existing services following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews recommendations. Twelve studies from five countries and with 3245 participants were selected. The results indicated that male victims mostly seek informal help (e.g., family and friends), and are satisfied with this source of support. Regarding formal services (e.g., police), male victims evaluate these services as not useful. As a result, men seem to become further (re)victimized by the system and penalized for trying to seek formal help. In order to provide better services to male victims, it urges a focus on the training of frontline professionals, in primary and secondary prevention, and in awareness campaigns. The suggestions for future research are put forward.
Severity and Predictors of Physical Intimate Partner Violence against Male Victims in Canada
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 2024
Abstract: Recent debates surrounding intimate partner violence (IPV) have focused on its gender symmetry and gender-oriented nature. These debates center on findings from various data sources, like victimization or self-reported surveys and police-based reports. Data by Statistics Canada, from 1999 to 2014, has shown that the prevalence of IPV is similar for male and female victims, except for sexual assaults. However, there has been a paucity of studies on the severity and risk factors of IPV against men by female partners. Thus, this paper examines the severity of and risk factors for physical IPV against heterosexual men in Canada using the General Social Survey (Victimization) data of 2014. This study revealed that there is a symmetry in the experiences of physical violence between male and female victims. This study also revealed that male victims experience more severe violence than female victims. Using binary logistic regression analysis, years of dwelling together, the victim’s age, childhood victimization, and marijuana use were found to predict physical IPV against heterosexual men. This paper concludes with suggestions about how these predicting factors can be used to identify male victims and the need for a more inclusive approach toward addressing IPV, which should include male victims.
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 2024
Abstract: A growing body of research finds many men are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), but there is limited research on children’s exposure to domestic violence (CEDV) in relationships where fathers are the victims of IPV. We focus on fathers’ perceptions of CEDV in the narratives of 30 men who experienced IPV and who are from four English-speaking countries. Four main themes were identified across the countries: children as victims of abuse; effect of abuse on children; the men’s attempts to help children, and men’s own victimization in the light of CEDV. Most of the men reported that their children experienced different types of abuse, including neglect, witnessing the abuse of the father, physical and psychological abuse, and kidnapping. Effects of abuse on children varied from emotional suffering and estrangement to anger toward parents and turning against the father. Men’s attempt to intervene in the abuse of children included directly protecting children from abuse and staying in abusive relationships to protect the children. In addition, the men’s own victimization often took place in front of children. Finally, the men reported that their partners often used their children in their partners’ abuse of the men, such as through parental alienation. The implications of these findings for developing more gender-inclusive policies and programs for abused men and their children are discussed.
RUBBISH BIN
Don’t get mad, get equal: putting an end to misogyny in science
Nature, 2023
Subtle forms of misogyny attack female leadership and coerce women to conform to conventional gender norms. It’s time to call out these behaviours, say Alison Bentley and Rachael Garrett.
The Missing Ingredient: How Misogyny and the Patriarchy Sabotage our Clinical Practice and Research
Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 2023
Abstract: Discussing massive, unrelenting trauma, especially during a global pandemic, when the threat is not only personally affecting you, but also everyone else, is not an easy thing to do. We can see the consequences of two years of being locked inside. People's trauma responses literally came flooding out. It seems that the pandemic tipped us over an abyss that is hard to comprehend. In so many countries there are protests, laws rolling back basic human rights, the threat of fascism, and actual war. There seems to be widespread governmental corruption that cannot stop the favouritism of those who have wealth, and perpetually admonish those who do not. Our world seems very unstable. Change is deeply desired. Yet, this instability is predictable. It is predictable because the systems that created the structures that "run and rule" us are fundamentally destructive and violent. In never-ending ways, the only way that change happens is by utilizing violence as the only way to achieve change. This is the legacy of patriarchy. A system that not only is ruled by one group of people but also tends to be controlled by a very specific type of person. It is a system that cultivates human cruelty, selfishness, and violence. It is a system that is managed by those who do the "best" in violence. Most of us do not work this way but are forced to live this way because of the belief that humans are innately violent, selfish, and self-serving; a myth based on the traumatic reaction of fight. It is a dissociated, relational injury that is a direct result of not having our mothers and fathers able to be mothers and fathers. It is formed in misogyny. There are ways to heal, if one can comprehend what misogyny does to human beings, and what we would be like in its absence.
Women’s Health, 2024
Abstract: Background: The literature on menstruation defines period poverty as the inability to access sufficient period products, education, and sanitary facilities needed to manage menstruation healthily and effectively. While research has identified shortcomings of healthcare in the carceral setting, period poverty behind bars has remained largely absent from criminal legal discourse. Objectives: The current study examines the interplay of period poverty and carceral control to introduce the novel concept of menstrual victimization, defined as the physical, emotional, and financial victimization that results from period poverty perpetuated through carceral control. Methods: The study uses qualitative content analysis to systematically gather and code journalistic accounts pertaining to the menstrual experiences of incarcerated and previously incarcerated females, criminal justice practitioners, and journalists. The analysis uses literary pieces (n = 99), which were coded deductively and guided by concepts related to structural violence and radical feminist criminology. Results: The findings shed light on the unique structural harms incarcerated menstruators face and reveal the dearth of needed empirical research on period poverty in carceral spaces. The narratives in the sample revealed how manufactured scarcity of period products within carceral spaces is used as a means of oppression by institutional agents. The emergent themes highlight how the intersection of period poverty and carceral control led to menstrual victimization characterized through shame, humiliation, control, and coercion. Conclusion: Potential outcomes associated with understanding menstrual victimization in the carceral setting are discussed, including reducing menstrual stigma, disseminating health education, minimizing health disparities, and ultimately, shifting modes of holding accountability away from oppressive, retributive, and controlling tactics.
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