PODCASTS AND PRESENTATIONS
Dr Joe Unplugged (also on Substack here)
Episode description: Research which was potentially embarrassing to the government mysteriously disappeared after 48 hours online. Why could this be? What was found?
What Do We Actually Know About Autism? | Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen | Ep 562
Jordan Peterson Podcast
Episode description: Dr. Jordan B. Peterson speaks with psychologist and autism researcher Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen about the nature of empathy, systemizing, and the neurological basis of autism. This needed conversation explores how humans develop theory of mind, the differences between cognitive and affective empathy, and why some individuals gravitate toward systems over social interaction. They discuss the evolutionary roots of invention, gender differences in cognition, and how autistic traits relate to creativity and pattern recognition. Unflinchingly, they also discuss the darker side of empathy deficits—including psychopathy and cruelty—raising urgent questions about compassion, human development, and our capacity for evil.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Education
The Manhattan Statement on Higher Education
Manhattan Institute
How Female is Campus Anti-Semitism?
National Association of Scholars
Virginia’s George Mason University to be Scrutinized for Illegal Racial Preferences
National Association of Scholars
Universities rejected applicant pools with too many white scholars, records reveal
The College Fix
University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Pittsburgh shut down DEI operations
The College Fix
Minnesota State U. hides DEI statements it demanded from football coach applicants
The College Fix
RFK Jr. wants gov’t scientists to publish in house, not in ‘corrupt’ journals
The College Fix
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Hoover Institution launches essay contest, creator competition to honor Thomas Sowell
The College Fix
Sex/Gender
Where Have Men Gone? We’re Right Here.
New York Times
Readers respond to a Modern Love essay that asks why so many men have retreated from dating and relationships.
NY Post
Why Are We So Comfortable Watching Boys Fail?
Evie
Woman Complains of Post-Traumatic Stress after Setting Male Friend on Fire
The Fiamengo File
And the female judge in the case admitted that she dislikes putting women behind bars.
The Justices Unpick a Stitch-Up
Quadrant
This Data Flips the Transgender Bullying Narrative on Its Head
Reality’s Last Stand
A massive study finds that trans-identifying teens, especially those who identify as ‘nonbinary,’ are more likely to bully others than be bullied.
Epidemiology
MMWR Supplement
Abstract: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are preventable, potentially traumatic events occurring before age 18 years. Data on ACEs among adolescents in the United States have primarily been collected through parent report and have not included important violence-related ACEs, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. This report presents the first national prevalence of self-reported ACEs among U.S. high school students aged <18 years, estimates associations between ACEs and 16 health conditions and risk behaviors, and calculates population-attributable fractions of ACEs with these conditions and behaviors using cross-sectional, nationally representative 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data. Exposures were lifetime prevalence of individual (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; physical neglect; witnessed intimate partner violence; household substance use; household poor mental health; and incarcerated or detained parent or guardian) ACEs and cumulative ACEs count (zero, one, two or three, or four or more). Health conditions and risk behaviors included violence risk factors, substance use, sexual behaviors, weight and weight perceptions, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Bivariate analyses assessed associations between individual and cumulative ACEs and demographics. Adjusted prevalence ratios assessed associations between cumulative ACEs and health conditions and risk behaviors, accounting for demographics. Population-attributable fractions were calculated to determine the potential reduction in health conditions and risk behaviors associated with preventing ACEs. ACEs were common, with approximately three in four students (76.1%) experiencing one or more ACEs and approximately one in five students (18.5%) experiencing four or more ACEs. The most common ACEs were emotional abuse (61.5%), physical abuse (31.8%), and household poor mental health (28.4%). Students who identified as female; American Indian or Alaska Native; multiracial; or gay or lesbian, bisexual, questioning, or who describe their sexual identity in some other way experienced the highest number of ACEs. Population-attributable fractions associated with experiencing ACEs were highest for suicide attempts (89.4%), seriously considering attempting suicide (85.4%), and prescription opioid misuse (84.3%). ACEs are prevalent among students and contribute substantially to numerous health conditions and risk behaviors in adolescence. Policymakers and public health professionals can use these findings to understand the potential public health impact of ACEs prevention to reduce adolescent suicidal behaviors, substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and other negative health conditions and risk behaviors and to understand current effects of ACEs among U.S. high school students.
MMWR Supplement
Abstract: Transgender women experience high prevalence of homelessness, which can affect their likelihood of acquiring HIV infection and can lead to poor medical outcomes. CDC analyzed data from the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Among Transgender Women to identify whether personal characteristics and social factors affecting transgender women were associated with duration of homelessness during the past 12 months. Longer duration and chronic homelessness might indicate greater unmet needs, which increases their likelihood for acquiring HIV infection. Ordinal logistic regression was conducted to calculate adjusted prevalence odds ratios and 95% CIs for transgender women from seven urban areas in the United States experiencing homelessness 30–365 nights, 1–29 nights, and zero nights during the past 12 months. Among 1,566 transgender women, 9% reported 1–29 nights homeless and 31% reported 30–365 nights homeless during the past 12 months. Among participants who reported physical intimate partner violence or forced sex, 50% and 47%, respectively, reported experiencing 30–365 nights homeless. Furthermore, 55% who had been evicted or denied housing because of their gender identity and 58% who had been incarcerated during the past year experienced 30–365 nights homeless. The odds of transgender women experiencing longer duration of homelessness was associated with being younger and having a disability; higher psychological distress scores were associated with longer duration of homelessness. Analysis of social determinants of health found transgender women experiencing longer homelessness to be less educated, living below the Federal poverty level, and having lower social support. Therefore, focusing on HIV prevention and interventions addressing housing instability to reduce the duration of homelessness among transgender women is important. Further, integrating housing services with behavioral health services and clinical care, specifically designed for transgender women, could reduce HIV acquisition risk and improve HIV infection outcomes.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
MMWR Supplement
Abstract: Racism is a fundamental determinant of health inequities among racial and ethnic groups and is understudied among adolescents. In 2023, the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire included an item assessing experiences of racism in the school setting among students in grades 9–12 in the United States. This report estimates the prevalence of students who reported ever having experienced racism in school and compares prevalence by racial and ethnic groups. For each racial and ethnic group, prevalence differences and prevalence ratios were estimated comparing the prevalence of indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use among students who reported that they have ever versus never experienced racism in school. In 2023, approximately one in three high school students (31.5%) said that they had ever experienced racism in school. Reported experiences of racism were most prevalent among Asian (56.9%), multiracial (48.8%), and Black or African American (Black) (45.9%) students and least prevalent among White students (17.3%). Black and Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) students who reported experiencing racism had a higher prevalence of all health risk behaviors and experiences investigated, including indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use compared with students of their racial and ethnic group who reported never experiencing racism. Many of these associations were also found among multiracial and White students. Student reports of racism were associated with indicators of mental health and suicide risk among American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Asian students. Among students of color, including AI/AN, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, the prevalence of seriously considering and attempting suicide was more than two times higher among students who ever compared with never experienced racism. These findings demonstrate that racism in the school setting is experienced by high school students attending public and private schools and continues to disproportionately affect students of color. Students who reported experiencing racism had a higher prevalence of indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use. Schools can incorporate policies and practices to prevent unfair treatment on the basis of race and ethnicity and offer resources to help students cope with these experiences.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?
National Association of Scholars (2015)
Gender as a Factor in the Response of the Law-Enforcement System to Violence Against Partners
Sexuality and Culture (2004)
Abstract: A great deal of sociological evidence has been collected in the past three decades on the prevalence of abuse among adult heterosexual partners in domestic relationships of some degree, of permanence. Partly as a result, of this information, partner abuse has been identified as an important social ill that must be addressed aggressively through public-awareness campaigns, the funding of a broad range of support services, and the re-training of law-enforcement authorities—including police, prosecutors, and judges. However, in at least one important respect, these policy initiatives diverge substantially from what the sociological data, which ostensibly motivates them, would indicate: they have been, to date, overwhelmingly gender specific. That is, partner abuse is routinely portrayed and acted upon as though it were almost exclusively about men abusing and victimizing innocent women and, by extension, their children—despite the overwhelming sociological evidence that a significant amount of abuse is also suffered by male partners. Persistent anecdotal reports from victims and even some participants in the law-enforcement system suggest that this ideological emphasis on the male as perpetrator has had a deleterious effect on the impartial administration of justice, resulting in men being treated much more harshly than women who are accused of partner violence. This study attempts to determine whether the anecdotes are scientifically supportable.
RUBBISH BIN
New York Times Magazine
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
The Conversation
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Mapping the Neo-Manosphere(s): New Directions for Research
Men and Masculinities
Abstract: In a digital ecology that is increasingly conducive to social harms, misogynist ideology operates across a spectrum of primarily online actors known colloquially as ‘the Manosphere’. The manosphere and its associated red pill philosophy has now been around, in its current transnational and highly networked form, for over a decade. Yet the manosphere, particularly in the context of Covid-19, influencer culture and the affordances of new social media sites, has evolved rapidly in this time, and scholarship has yet to adequately capture these developments. This paper begins with a stocktake of contemporary literature on the manosphere and its core themes, before evaluating the evolving status of this online ecosystem of anti-women actors. It advances our theoretical comprehension of the neo-manosphere and its likely future directions by identifying and evaluating the four key developments which distinguish it from the earlier manosphere; namely migrations to new platforms, mainstreaming and monetization, ideological and ethnic diversification, and overlap with other extreme ideologies, most of which are driven by recommender algorithms.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Indigenous fat rebellion: Rejecting settler fatphobia and reclaiming body sovereignty
Fat Studies
Abstract: This article confronts the urgent need for Indigenous Fat Studies by asking: What does it mean to embody fatness as an Indigenous person under the weight of settler-colonial oppression? Fatness, for Indigenous Peoples, is a radical site of resistance against a colonial legacy that enforces Eurocentric ideals of health, beauty, and body size. Indigenous body sovereignty stands as a powerful act of defiance, rejecting settler narratives that demonize and pathologise fat bodies. This article explores how Indigenous fat liberation reclaims fatness as a vital expression of cultural strength, self-determination, and community resilience. By reclaiming body narratives embedded in Indigenous knowledge systems and lifeworlds, Indigenous communities challenge harmful colonial frameworks and reject colonial ownership over Indigenous bodies and lives. This article calls for a dismantling of settler-colonial health, body and beauty regimes and champions a future where Indigenous body autonomy reigns, asserting that Indigenous fat studies is essential for radical body liberation and sovereignty.
Reclaiming beauty: non-heteronormative and racialised conversations on fatness and transness
Feminist Theory
Abstract: This article explores the relations between fatness, transness, racism and beauty, proposing a theoretical framework to critically examine how beauty is experienced and negotiated amidst intersecting forms of oppression. Drawing on conversations with fatness experts, academics and fat activists in Mexico and ethnographic research with travesti sex workers in Brazil, the article interrogates the limits of ‘permitted’ bodies within hegemonic beauty standards shaped by white supremacy, heteronormativity and patriarchy. It focuses on three key themes: the boundaries of ‘permitted’ fat and trans identities, the negotiation of bodily intelligibility in relation to beauty norms, and the dynamic, context-specific intensities of oppression and resistance. By integrating concepts such as Matsuda's ‘the other question’ and Moreno Figueroa's ‘distributed intensities’, the article illuminates how beauty operates as a gatekeeper to social legitimacy and as a resource for survival, self-definition and collective resistance. Mexican fat activists challenge Eurocentric, thin-centric ideals, advocating for a self-defined, inclusive beauty rooted in their genealogies and experiences. Brazilian travestis navigate racial and gender hierarchies through hyper-feminine performances that simultaneously conform to and subvert hegemonic standards, asserting their presence within transphobic and racially stratified contexts. This analysis highlights the multifaceted nature of beauty as an experience that both marginalises and enables. It argues for a broader understanding of beauty that transcends dominant frameworks, advocating for actionable paths towards dignity, inclusion and liveability for those whose bodies defy societal norms. By examining the distributed intensities of oppression, the article offers insights into reshaping beauty and embodiment in ways that challenge exclusionary practices while fostering transformative possibilities.
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