Weekly Roundup
Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2023
The Weekly Roundup is an opportunity to recap a week in news and share recently discovered materials that might be of interest.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
“Men won't CLAM up if you're male- friendly!” A brief guide to supporting men’s mental health
Male Psychology: The Magazine, 2023
Quick Facts – Women in the Federal Offender Population
United States Sentencing Commission, 2022
Diabetic Medicine, 2017
Abstract: Erectile dysfunction may be common among men with diabetes, but its prevalence is still debated. We aimed to assess the relative prevalence of erectile dysfunction in diabetes searching major databases from inception to November 2016 for studies reporting erectile dysfunction in men with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. We conducted a meta-analysis of the prevalence [and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs)] of erectile dysfunction in diabetes compared with healthy controls, calculating the relative odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. A random effect model was applied. From 3747 initial hits, 145 studies were included representing 88 577 men (age: 55.8 ± 7.9 years). The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in diabetes overall was 52.5% (95% CI, 48.8 to 56.2) after adjusting for publication bias, and 37.5%, 66.3% and 57.7% in Type 1, Type 2 and both types of diabetes, respectively (P for interaction < 0.0001). The prevalence of erectile dysfunction was highest in studies using the Sexual Health Inventory for Men (82.2%, 17 studies, P for interaction < 0.0001). Studies with a higher percentage of people with hypertension moderated our results (beta = 0.03; 95% CI, 0.008 to 0.040; P = 0.003; R2 = 0.00). Compared to healthy controls (n = 5385) men with diabetes (n = 863) were at increased odds of having erectile dysfunction (OR 3.62; 95% CI, 2.53 to 5.16; P < 0.0001; I2 = 67%, k = 8). Erectile dysfunction is common in diabetes, affecting more than half of men with the condition and with a prevalence odds of approximately 3.5 times more than controls. Our findings suggest that screening and appropriate intervention for men with erectile dysfunction is warranted.
RUBBISH BIN
Fat femininities: on the convergence of fat studies and critical femininities
Fat Studies, 2023
Abstract: What is the relationship between fatness and femininity? How do prejudices toward fat bodies (i.e., fatphobia) and femininity (i.e., femmephobia) intersect? How does scholarship on femininities converge with scholarship on fatness? And, what novel insights can be cultivated by putting the fields of fat studies and critical femininities into conversation? In this article, we explore these questions, arguing that fatphobia and femmephobia, as well as the dominant cultural framings of fatness and femininity, are inextricably intertwined. Specifically, we challenge femininity’s associations with superficiality and oppression, discussing instead the importance of intersectional and recuperative approaches to fat femininities. Accordingly, this article illuminates the complex relationships between femininity and fatness; how these relationships differ across intersectional axes of privilege and oppression; as well as the ways femininity and fatness – or, by extension, femmephobia and fatphobia – intertwine to create unique experiences of gendered embodiment. Ultimately, with this article, we advocate for the importance of exploring diverse fat feminine embodiments and the potential for critical femininities to transform how we think about and embody fatness.
Gay fat femininities: A call for fat femininities in research on gay socio-sexual applications
Fat Studies, 2023
Abstract: Fatphobia and femmephobia are highly interconnected structures of oppression that heavily impact the romantic and sexual lives of gay fat and femme men. Researchers have yet to place critical femininities studies – specifically femme theory – and fat studies together to analyze the regulation of fatness and femininity in gay socio-sexual applications (GSSAs). As such, this article is a call for future empirical research to use these two analytics – femme theory and fat studies – in tandem to deconstruct systems of homonormativity within GSSAs. Specifically, this article draws explicitly from femme theory and fat studies work on shame and failure, placing both in conversation with current work on gay men and GSSAs, to illuminate how these feelings can be motivating forces for political activism. Such feelings of gay fat femme shame and failure can disrupt hierarchies that exist within GSSAs by challenging the boundaries of identity that marginalize gay fat femme men while also focusing on fat and femme agency.
“Spread my thighs and imagine a better, fatter world”: the uses of the erotic in fat activist art
Published in Fat Studies in 2023
Abstract: I make the claim that the erotic has significant uses for fat activist art. I examine the work of Toronto-based, queer, South Asian, fat artist Anshuman Iddamsetty (@boarlord) on Instagram, Patreon, and Only Fans. I draw on Audre Lorde’s writing on the erotic while at the same time challenging her sidelining of the pornographic, using Iddamsetty’s nude self-portraiture as a counterexample of the possibility for an erotic pornographic. My analysis involves a fundamental linking of fat sexuality with fat art and activism both in the current moment and throughout history, with a special focus on digital spaces. Jenny Ellison’s research provides a background for exploring the role of sexuality in gendered fat activism and art, as well as the queer fat history of politicizing desire. I examine how the erotic can be used to flip fat stereotypes and push for liberation in order to understand the specific erotics on display in Iddamsetty’s oeuvre. My analysis configures the fat body as a site of resistance and the erotic as a source of embodied artistic, activist power. I point to the potential of the internet (despite censorship) for creating intimate artistic activist networks, using Lorde’s concept of “the erotic connection.” Ultimately, the question I ask throughout the piece is what can be gained from fully embracing erotic art in fat activism?
Trans/fat: an autoethnographic exploration of becoming at the intersection of trans and fat
Fat Studies, 2023
Abstract: The fat body and the transgender body are expected to always be in a state of becoming. For fat bodies, becoming less fat, for transgender bodies, becoming more “congruent.” To be fat and/or transgender means coming into constant confrontation with social and cultural expectations about the fat and (trans)gendered body. It means navigating a medical system that considers one a problem to be solved with a careful and pre-determined set of solutions. It means diminished autonomy and little agency. Fat bodies and transgender bodies are often met with solutions based on gatekeeping versus informed consent. Fat bodies and trans bodies are often unwelcome and even made invisible in public spaces. When there are no chairs to fit fat bodies, and no bathrooms to include trans bodies, those bodies are erased, and the gender binary and body ideal reified. When transgender studies excludes discussion and acknowledgment of fat bodies and when fat studies excludes transgender bodies from their analysis or employs gender as a binary characteristic, fat trans bodies are disappeared, raising the question, how might thinking intersectionally reinvigorate both fields? This auto ethnographic exploration of navigating social and medical structures as a fat, trans/non-binary individual seeks to underscore the many commonalities inherent in anti-fat and (trans)gender oppression, and to highlight the ways these oppressions intersect to create unique barriers for fat, trans folks.
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