THE NUZZO LETTER IN THE NEWS
“The Nuzzo Letter is a must-read on men, masculinity, and health.”
Awards for Men in Leadership (on LinkedIn and Facebook)
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Sex/Gender
Do No Harm
Today, Do No Harm released a report exposing how the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) uses its Healthcare Equality Index to infiltrate health systems and push gender ideology on children.
LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6%
Gallup
Daily Mail
Increases in Self‑identifying as Transgender Among US Adults, 2014–2022
Sexuality Research & Social Policy
Abstract: Introduction: Understanding changes in the number of people self-identifying as transgender is key to informing policy, legal, and healthcare practices. Examining demographic variation in changes is important to address socially and structurally determined health disparities. Methods: Analyses examined self-identification as transgender between 2014 and 2022 in the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (n = 1.9 million), which collects cross-sectional data yearly. Results: An increasing number of US young adults self-identified as transgender between 2014 and 2022. Self-identifying as transgender nearly quintupled among 18- to 24-year-olds and quadrupled among 25- to 34-year-olds, but either declined or did not change significantly among those older than 35. By 2022, 2.78% of 18- to 24-year-old adults self-identified as transgender, up from 0.59% in 2014. The increase was driven by those identifying as transgender men or gender non-conforming; identification as a transgender woman did not change significantly among young adults and declined significantly among all adults. The increase in self-identifying as transgender was larger among White individuals than among Black or Hispanic individuals. Up to 2021, the increase was similar in states whose electoral college voted Democrat (“blue”) or Republican (“red”) in 2016, suggesting a nationwide shift.ConclusionsResults suggest that more people self-identify as transgender than in previous generations, with young people driving this change. Policy Implications: Results highlight the importance of accurate and inclusive measurement of gender. To support public and individual health, policy efforts should support access to gender-affirming care and aid individuals, families, professionals, and communities to support gender diversity.
Bettina Arndt
False allegations exposed in our courts
"Mankeeping" and How Women Still Find Male Vulnerability Annoying
Secrets of Grimoire Manor (Substack)
If Men Aren’t The Problem, Who Is?
Evie Magazine
Dating feels broken, and the popular narrative says men are to blame. But is that the whole story?
Education
Nuisance or hero? Retired U-M prof perfects art of fighting campus DEI
Bridge Michigan
Martin Center for Academic Renewal
In North Carolina, as elsewhere, anti-DEI reformers can’t keep up with the faculty and staff.
Trump cracks down on covert affirmative action with admissions transparency order
The College Fix
Wake Forest University closes DEI office
The College Fix
Conservative, liberal scholars pen manifesto calling for end of ‘wokeness’ in humanities
The College Fix
Epidemiology
National Vital Statistics Reports
Abstract: Objectives: This report presents final 2022 data on U.S. deaths, death rates, life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, and trends by selected characteristics such as age, sex, Hispanic origin and race, state of residence, and cause of death. Methods: Information reported on death certificates is presented in descriptive tabulations. The original records are filed in state registration offices. Statistical information is compiled in a national database through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program of the National Center for Health Statistics. Causes of death are processed according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision . Beginning in 2018, all states and the District of Columbia were using the 2003 revised certificate of death for the entire year, which includes the 1997 Office of Management and Budget revised standards for race. Data based on these revised standards are not completely comparable to previous years. Results: In 2022, a total of 3,279,857 deaths were reported in the United States. The age-adjusted death rate was 798.8 deaths per 100,000 U.S. standard population, a decrease of 9.2% from the 2021 rate. Life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years, an increase of 1.1 years from 2021. Age-specific death rates decreased from 2021 to 2022 for age groups 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85 and older and increased for age groups 1-4 and 5-14. In 2022, the 10 leading causes of death remained the same as in 2021, although four causes changed rank. Heart disease remained the top leading cause, followed by cancer. The infant mortality rate, 5.60 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022, increased 2.9% from the rate in 2021 (5.44). Conclusions: In 2022, the age-adjusted death rate decreased and life expectancy at birth increased for the total, male, and female populations, primarily due to the decrease in deaths from COVID-19.
RUBBISH BIN
How Leaders Are Keeping DEI Work Alive
Inside Higher Ed
Resistance is possible—and necessary, Jorge Burmicky and Oscar E. Patrón write.
Red Pill Women: Heterosexual Fantasies in Misogynistic Spaces
Men and Masculinities
Abstract: This study examines the motivations and strategies of women participating in the Red Pill Women’s subreddit, a community that espouses traditional gender roles while navigating the gendered expectations of neoliberal capitalism. Red pill adherents subscribe to the beliefs that biology determines how men and women act, and that men are naturally dominant over women. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of approximately 2,000 subreddit comments, this research examines how participants negotiate their identities within the framework of hegemonic femininity. The findings reveal that, while these women endorse traditional femininities, they actively engage in strategic negotiations to attain femininity premiums, such as social status, financial security, and access to “high-value” partners. Red Pill women selectively adapt Red Pill ideologies to minimize their loss of agency within the Red Pill framework. These gender negotiations are influenced by neoliberal pressures, emphasizing individual responsibility and self-optimization within patriarchal structures.
(See my brief comment on this paper on X here.)
Sex Inequalities in Medical Research: A Systematic Scoping Review of the Literature
Women’s Health Reports
Abstract: Background: Historically, medical studies have excluded female participants and research data have been collected from males and generalized to females. The gender gap in medical research, alongside overarching misogyny, results in real-life disadvantages for female patients. This systematic scoping review of the literature aims to determine the extent of research into the medical research sex and gender gap and to assess the extent of misogyny, if any, in modern medical research. Methods: Initial literature searches were conducted using PubMed, Science Direct, PsychINFO and Google Scholar. Articles published between January 01, 2009, and December 31, 2019, were included. An article was deemed to display misogyny if it discussed the female aesthetic in terms of health, but did not measure health or could not be utilized to improve clinical practice. Results: Of the 17 included articles, 12 examined the gender gap in medical research and 5 demonstrated misogyny, assessing female attractiveness for alleged medical reasons. Females remain broadly under-represented in the medical literature, sex and gender are poorly reported and inadequately analyzed in research, and misogynistic perceptions continue to permeate the narrative. Conclusion: The gender gap and misogynistic studies remain present in the contemporary medical literature. Reasons and implications for practice are discussed.
(See my brief comment on this paper on X here.)
Investigating the white racial equilibrium and the power-maintenance of whiteness
Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy
Abstract: The white racial equilibrium is a social, historical, and cultural location where whiteness is insulated from critique and the importance of race is largely ignored by white people. The expectation of the white racial equilibrium is one way white people define their whiteness, and this expectation protects white supremacist epistemologies and ideologies. We completed interviews with fourteen white undergraduate students to understand more about the processes employed by students when challenged by the white racial disequilibrium. Using consensual qualitative research (CQR), we coded their responses and found seven representative domains, with two categories endorsed by every participant: “assumption of valid knowledge” and “non-racist beliefs.” While some respondents displayed thoughtfulness about race and whiteness, findings suggest that most participants attempted to restore the white racial equilibrium by centralizing the innocence and beneficence of whiteness and white people through various rhetorical maneuvers, including (1) invoking superficial and incomplete knowledge of complex racial topics, and (2) depersonalizing themselves from racist acts and ideas, among others. This study contributes to the whiteness literature by providing descriptions of how white students attempt to re-establish the white racial equilibrium after facing disruptions to their expectations for conversations about race. Implications for anti-racist psychologists are discussed.
Rewriting the climate story with young climate justice activists
Geographical Research
Abstract: Amidst intensifying climate breakdown and inadequate climate change education, young people are increasingly taking part in a global movement for climate justice. Young climate justice activists are disseminating stories of injustice and possibility intended to inform and activate their peers, parents, politicians, powerholders, and the public for sweeping systems-level change. Using in-depth interviews with 16 youth activists aged 15 to 17 from the United States, this study explored youths’ stories into activism, defined as the counterstories motivating youths’ initial and sustained engagement in the climate justice movement. Using reflexive thematic analysis, two interrelated thematic categories were generated: redefining the problem of climate breakdown and challenging dominant climate solutionism. First, activists spoke of questioning dominant, depoliticised discourses that regard climate change as a primarily scientific or environmental problem that adults are currently “solving” to prevent future harms. Youths’ counterstories emphasised that climate change is an issue of present-day and future injustices perpetuated by inadequate action by today’s adult leaders. Second, youths’ counterstories emphasised the powerful role of young people in spurring societal transformation towards climate justice—an inherently political and radical project requiring systems change through collective action. The research draws upon and contributes to recent scholarship in children’s geographies and critical geographies of education, while responding to urgent calls for reimagining climate pedagogies with young people’s well-being and political agency at the centre. By examining the counterstories employed by young activists, this research highlights storylines educators may mobilise to activate learners’ political imaginations and spur their active engagement in societal transformation.
SUPPORT THE NUZZO LETTER
If you appreciated this content, please consider supporting The Nuzzo Letter with a one-time or recurring donation. Your support is greatly appreciated. It helps me to continue to work on independent research projects and fight for my evidence-based discourse. To donate, click the DonorBox logo. In two simple steps, you can donate using ApplePay, PayPal, or another service. Thank you!
If you prefer to donate to a specific project, please see the Go Fund Me page for my current research on sex differences in muscle strength in children.
Sheesh, you think that world is in bad shape, but because of James, you can learn that it is in ever worse shape.
Thank you, James. Do you have any guesses as to who Newsom's executive order to "help" men will play out?
And: Psychologist Todd Bottom crunches some numbers, and says that the Tea app can victimize 70% of the male population, whether they are dating or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh8XQwkDhZ8&t=345s