Weekly Roundup
Jun 1 - 7, 2026
LEADING ARTICLE
The Social Science Journal
Abstract: Studies examining the intersection of gender and the death penalty have identified gender effects in case outcomes. I build upon that previous research to simultaneously consider the gender of the defendant, victim, and prosecutor in more than 14,000 capital case prosecutions in Texas. I find the most death sentence-oriented gender combination (male prosecutor, female victim, and male defendant) produces death sentences at a vastly higher rate than the least death sentence-oriented combination (female prosecutor, male victim, and female defendant). The results support a theory of masculine focal concerns that posits decision-making shortcuts and the desire to impose social dominance allows gender to shape the process. The results also speak to a central debate in death penalty jurisprudence regarding the degree to which sentencing is a product of arbitrary factors unrelated to the severity of the crime and the culpability of the accused.
(My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
WEEKLY VOICE
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Sex/Gender
Congressional Men’s Health Caucus Convenes Inaugural Men’s Health Conference on Capitol Hill
Office of Congressman McCormick
Australia’s failed suicide policies
Bettina Arndt
Male body count set to increase due to recent feminist takeover.
The 3 Mechanisms Behind Female Grievance
Psychobabble
The Evolved Male in the Modern Classroom
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Abstract: I elucidate the educational and occupational struggles of boys and men using an evolutionary framework. This perspective is useful in explaining boys’ relative disadvantage in language and reading development and their advantage in visuospatial and mechanical abilities. I show that classroom settings and the behavioral expectations of formal schooling are more of an evolutionary mismatch for boys than girls because of sex differences in physical activity levels and social relations. This results in boys being disproportionately identified as having behavioral difficulties. Further, there are universal preferences that influence occupational choices: More men than women, for example, show an interest in working with things, and these interests align with boys’ and men’s relative strengths. I argue that secondary schooling does not fully capitalize on boys’ evolved capacities to help prepare them for the modern workforce, and suggest how schools can adapt to better accommodate boys’ strengths.
Boys’ K–12 Education: Gaps, Trends, and Outcomes
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Abstract: Boys lag girls on several important measures of educational achievement and engagement. They begin school with weaker early literacy and self-regulation skills, perform worse in reading but not in math, and are more likely to exhibit behavioral problems and to drop out. These patterns are durable, widespread across countries, and largest among students with the greatest learning and behavioral challenges. This article synthesizes findings from major U.S. and international assessments—the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class; the National Assessment of Educational Progress; and the Program for International Student Assessment—to document where gender gaps are largest and how they have changed over time.
Do Male Teachers Matter to Boys’ Education?
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Abstract: Boys, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, increasingly trail their female peers across key educational and economic milestones. One long-proposed policy intervention aimed at ameliorating this inequity is to increase the share of male teachers, especially in earlier grades where men comprise just a small fraction of the teaching workforce. I review the theoretical rationale for this policy approach and the empirical evidence on how teacher gender affects student outcomes. Male teachers could benefit boys in at least two ways: They could serve as same-gender role models, or they could employ distinct pedagogical or disciplinary approaches that are helpful to boys. The causal evidence supporting either of these ideas is mixed. Some studies find modest positive effects of same-gender teachers on grades and test scores, but others detect no benefits, and research on long-term outcomes is largely absent. I conclude by identifying potential directions for future research on the topic.
Education
Justice Department launches probe into ASU for alleged illegal DEI practices following viral videos
The College Fix
How much do you know about NATO? Take our quiz
Pew Research Center
Health Science
National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2024
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
(My brief comment on this press release is available on X here.)
Trends in Selected Reasons for Being Uninsured Among Adults Ages 18–64: United States, 2019–2024
National Center for Health Statistics
Use of Sleep Aids Among Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024
National Center for Health Statistics
Institute of Public Affairs
Parkinson Disease Mortality Among Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2024
National Center for Health Statistics
Key findings: In 2024, the age-adjusted Parkinson disease death rate for adults age 65 and older was 72.0 deaths per 100,000 standard population. Parkinson disease death rates increased from 2014 (57.2) through 2021 (76.3), but the rate in 2024 was lower than in 2021. In 2024, Parkinson disease death rates in adults age 65 and older were higher for men than for women in each age group (65–74, 75–84, and 85 and older). Death rates from Parkinson disease were highest among White non-Hispanic adults age 65 and older compared with other race and Hispanic-origin groups. Parkinson disease death rates varied by state of residence, ranging from 47.7 in New York to 102.1 in Utah.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
Challenges in calculating occupational fatality rates
Monthly Labor Review (2022)
Unusual fears in children with autism
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders (2013)
Abstract: Unusual fears have long been recognized as common in autism, but little research exists. In our sample of 1033 children with autism, unusual fears were reported by parents of 421 (41%) of the children, representing 92 different fears. Many additional children had common childhood fears (e.g., dogs, bugs, and the dark). More than half of children with unusual fears had fears of mechanical things, heights, and/or weather. The most common unusual fear was fear of toilets, and the most common category was fear of mechanical things. Amazingly, many of the fears reported in our sample were described in children with autism 70 years ago by Kanner, including fear of vacuum cleaners, elevators, mechanical toys, swings, and the wind. Children with autism perceive, experience, and react to the world differently than children without autism. What is tolerable for most children (e.g., clouds in the sky, a change in activity or routine, sensory input, or a performance request) might be terrifying, distressing, or infuriating for a child with autism. It is critical to assess for unusual and common fears in children with autism because they are present in the majority of these children, they further impair functioning, and effective treatment is available.
RUBBISH BIN
How to talk to teens about the manosphere: a guide for parents and caregivers
UN Women
Boys are navigating a barrage of extreme content online. Give them the tools to understand it, question it, and push back.
(My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Institute for Research on Male Supremacism
America Has a Masculinity Crisis
New York Times
A much-needed, nuanced conversation about masculinity and feminism today.
Epistemic exclusion in higher Education: navigating racialised gatekeeping in Australia
Whiteness and Education
Abstract: This paper presents a collective autoethnography of our experiences as diasporic scholars navigating the racialised terrain of Australian academia. Writing from our lived realities as researchers of race, we examine the often invisible processes of gatekeeping that sustain whiteness, both structurally and interpersonally. We explore how racialised norms and forms of “white-speak” shape academic cultures, silencing and disciplining those who do not conform to dominant institutional expectations. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and the concept of whiteness as property, we argue that ostensibly neutral standards of excellence are embedded in exclusionary logics. Through collaborative autoethnography, we centre our shared and divergent positionalities, identifying patterns of marginalisation alongside practices of resistance. By exposing the racialised mechanisms that regulate belonging, we call for the creation of counter-spaces and urge institutions to move beyond symbolic inclusion toward systemic transformation grounded in racial equity and the full recognition of minoritised scholars’ humanity.
Journal of Sex Research
Abstract: Research on diversity within group sex communities in Canada tends to focus on gender, sexuality, and body size as indicators of inclusion and acceptance. Racial/ethnic diversity are notably absent from these discussions; in this study, we explored perceptions and experiences of race and racism in group sex spaces. We conducted two annual individual interviews with group sex participants living in southwestern Canada. Of our 20 participants, 40% identified as people of color (POC). We worked with a community advisory board of group sex participants/organizers on participant recruitment, interview questions, and data analysis. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we constructed three themes. In themes 1 and 2, we discuss barriers to entry for POC and manifestations of racism within group sex spaces, respectively; these include lack of racial diversity, white ignorance, cultural appropriation, and desirability politics. Some POC described being fetishized because of race, which non-POC downplayed as simply being “kinky.” In theme 3, we discuss change-making barriers, such as defensiveness, and change-making opportunities, such as integrating anti-racism into existing harm reduction practices. Participants expressed that community leaders and event organizers need to shift their responses to racism and how they create and manage group sex spaces. These results advance broader discussions of sexual racism and white defensiveness, as well as opportunities to advance anti-racism within group sex spaces and communities.
British Journal of Sociology
Abstract: Following David Theo Goldberg’s astute insights, this article discusses a form of neoliberal authoritarianism that extends incessant denial of systematic racial degradation by de(-)meaning anti-racism. It argues that de(-)meaning works to redefine anti-racist struggle-including demands for a free Palestine and scholarship explaining the politics of racism-as racist and hostile, while recasting racialised and militarised state power as anti-racist and humane. Thus, anti-racism is de-meaned of its ethical and emancipatory terms, re-meaned as an unethical and exclusionary endeavour threatening modern socio-political arrangements, demeaned in the traditional, non-hyphenated sense of the word, and subject to state warfare masquerading as ‘anti-racism’. As a specific strategy for maintaining structural racism, de(-)meaning necessitates resistance rather than defensiveness by reclaiming and renewing anti-racism that is at once political, collective, anti-militaristic and transformative.
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Thank you, James, good work as always. I will report the Institute for Research on Male Supremacsm to the IRS and DOGE. There is no reason that taxpayers should have to support misandry.
As for the Group Sex not being diverse enough!!!!
it is as if everything must be controlled, right down to our desires.