Weekly Roundup
Feb 5 – 11, 2024
The Weekly Roundup is an opportunity to recap a week in news and share recently discovered materials that might be of interest.
PODCASTS
Australians are going back to smoking
Published at Dr. Joe Unplugged
Episode description: With stagnant smoking rates you would think that the Australian government would not be making it harder for people to quit smoking. You might think they would learn from international data and experience. Sadly you would be wrong.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
How Men and Women Rate Each Other on Dating Websites
Published in The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter
Men find women more attractive than women find men.
Published in Reality’s Last Stand
New whistleblower testimony on the reality of ‘gender-affirming care’ is a reminder that we are not, in fact, crazy.
Comments on Sports Participation and Transgender Youths
Published in JAMA Pediatrics
Published in European Journal of Sports Science
Abstract: There are contradictory claims regarding sex-based differences in athletic performance before puberty, but there has been minimal evaluation of sex-based differences in competitive running performance before puberty. The purpose of this project was to determine if there are prepubertal sex-based differences in track running performance. Finalist times from the USA Track and Field National Youth Outdoor Championships and National Junior Olympic Championships during the years 2016–2023 for running distances of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500m in the 8 and under and 9–10-year-old age groups were analyzed for sex-based differences. In the 8 and under age group, the males were, on average, faster (p = 0.000, Hedges' g = 0.632–0.834) than females by 4.0% in the distance of 100m, 4.7% in 200m, 5.3% in 400m, 6.7% in 800m, and 6.1% in 1500m. In the 9–10-year-old age group, the males were, on average, faster (p = 0.000, Hedges' g = 0.584–1.089) than females by 2.9% in the distance of 100m, 4.6% in 200m, 4.0% in 400m, 4.0% in 800m, and 5.9% in 1500m. In each distance and age group between 2016 and 2023, the individual fastest male was faster than the individual fastest female by 3.7 ± 2.3%. The present data indicate that, in elite competition, males in the 8 and under and 9–10-year-old age groups typically run faster than females of the same age by 2.9%–6.7% for running distances of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500m. These findings are of particular importance as government agencies and sports organizations consider policies regarding single sex sports competition for youth.
HISTORICAL ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
A history of physical activity, health and medicine
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1994
History of Research on Physical Activity and Health: Selected Topics, 1867 to the 1950s
Published in Quest in 1995
Abstract: Health is an elusive term. So is fitness. Discoveries and developments in the biomedical sciences affect how people think about both health and fitness, as so do a host of social and cultural factors. A judicious use of history can be useful when it sheds light on such matters, and so doing helps researchers to think more comprehensively about contemporary issues and practices. This paper briefly examines two topics that were of interest to educators, physicians, and some researchers in the physiological sciences between 1867 and 1950: the phenomenon referred to as “the athlete's heart” and anthropometrical/growth and development studies. Historians of exercise science, physical education, and sport might undertake more studies in which the historical record is examined from the perspectives of the biologist, the nutritionist, and/or the epidemiologist.
RUBBISH BIN
Gender & Society, 2009
Abstract: The purpose of this viewpoint is to systematically synthesise the intersection of research that focuses on poststructuralism as related to a physical education discourse (namely President’s Challenge Physical Fitness Awards Program). A feminist poststructuralist framework will be used to investigate the ways in which the hegemonic design of norm-referenced youth fitness tests influence students’ gendering of the body through the notion of the normalised body. We propose that the tests and qualifying standards that are markedly different for prepubescent girls and boys fosters a gendered continuum that forces some students into dominant positions, while others are pushed to the margins.
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I was fascinated by "A feminist poststructuralist examination into the President’s Challenge Physical Fitness Awards Program".
I assume this is a hoax. If not, we are in even more trouble than I thought.