Weekly Roundup
Mar 23 - 29, 2026
LEADING ARTICLE
International Olympic Committee
THE NUZZO LETTER IN THE NEWS
Academic ‘Research’ That’s Unethical and Dishonest
National Review
Critiquing Feminism
The Threat of Institutional Capture
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Sex/Gender
Masculinity Experts “Map the Manosphere” and Find Nothing Good
The Fiamengo File
Young Men Aren’t Checked Out. We’ve Closed the Paths That Once Guided Them
American Enterprise Institute
Now mainstream: Women are violent, too
Best Interest
Taylor Frankie and the new understanding that physical, sexual and emotional abusers are both men and women, with lesbians the most violent.
The ‘male gaze’ as a female fantasy
Radically Pragmatic
Nothing in the Biology of the Sexes Makes Sense Except in the Light of Gametes: A Response to Mahr
Reality’s Last Stand
A researcher attempted to debunk my paper on the biology of sex using “feminist epistemology.” I responded.
Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration
Abstract: Compulsory paternity testing at birth has sparked significant legal, ethical, and social debate due to its potential impact on family dynamics, child well-being, and parental responsibility. This review explores the ethical, legal, and societal implications of such testing, using Bioecological Systems Theory and Rawls’ Theory of Justice to frame the discussion. This review evaluates the benefits and challenges of mandatory DNA testing at birth, particularly in reducing paternity fraud, ensuring fairness in child support allocation, and enhancing socio-economic outcomes, especially in low-income households. This qualitative review draws on multidisciplinary literature from family law, genetic counseling, social policy, and fathers’ rights advocacy. Sources were identified through PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, alongside grey literature such as policy briefs and advocacy reports (e.g., Fathers 4 Justice SA). Search terms included “paternity fraud,” “mandatory DNA testing,” “child support,” and related ethical and legal concepts. The literature reveals paternity fraud is a significant concern, which compulsory DNA testing could help mitigate; however, privacy, parental autonomy, and the social implications of mandatory testing present challenges. The review emphasizes the importance of balancing the benefits of transparency with protecting individual rights, particularly in societies with strong traditional family structures. Compulsory paternity testing could promote fairness and reduce financial exploitation, but its implementation must address ethical concerns, including informed consent and privacy. Policymakers are urged to develop balanced regulatory frameworks that consider both the benefits and the ethical challenges. Special attention should be given to cultural values and protecting children’s rights.
Education
Higher education has an integrity problem
American Thinker
Starting with DEI, every incentive structure in academia undermines the requirement that students demonstrate either merit or integrity.
America Shouldn’t Educate Our Adversaries
Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Institutions tasked with preserving our ideals are advancing hostile regimes.
New York Post
Politics
Quillette
The case of Bao Phuc Cao—released without a conviction after secretly filming over 100 women in public toilets—reveals that Melbourne’s judiciary is drastically out of step with the public understanding of the purpose of criminal justice.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Secession by Western Australia: Time to Cut the Cord
Australians for Science & Freedom
COVID Lockdowns Were a Catastrophic Mistake — The Economic Truth | Prof. Gigi Foster
Dr. Joe Unplugged
Description: Were COVID lockdowns a catastrophic policy failure — or a necessary response to a genuine threat? Professor Gigi Foster, economist at the University of New South Wales and one of Australia’s most prominent lockdown critics, joins Dr Joe to deliver a frank, evidence-based verdict six years on. In this episode, Gigi unpacks the economics of mass panic, explains why governments made increasingly irrational decisions in the face of fear, and reveals why most academic economists went along with the crowd, silencing the very trade-off analysis that could have saved lives. Drawing on her internationally recognised work, including her paper ‘Hiding the Elephant’, she argues that narrow hyper-specialisation, political incentives, and social media-driven fear created a perfect storm of poor policymaking. The conversation also turns to Sweden’s approach, the Great Barrington Declaration, the psychology of not admitting mistakes, and — looking forward. Gigi’s new book on Western Australian secession: a bold blueprint for reimagining health, education, and democratic accountability.
Exercise Science
Sex differences in physical fitness among 10,000 adolescents aged 13–15 years
PLoS One
Abstract: Physical fitness during adolescence is critical for health and sports participation, with sex-specific developmental trajectories influencing performance. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine sex differences in physical fitness among non-athletic adolescents aged 13–15 years and to provide reference values for fitness parameters across age and sex. We assessed 9,669 non-athletic adolescents (64% females) aged 13–15 years. Fitness tests included Sargent jump, standing long jump, 30m sprint, medicine ball chest throw, and 6-minute shuttle run. Interactions between sex and age were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, with effect sizes (Cohen’s d) and mean differences calculated between 13–15 years of age. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine relevant relationships, and were compared between sexes using Fisher’s r-to-z transformation. Significant sex-by-age interactions were observed for all fitness parameters (p < 0.001). Boys showed greater differences than girls from 13 to 15 years, with mean differences for Sargent jump (7.0 vs. 1.6 cm), standing long jump (28 vs. 7 cm), 30m sprint (−0.54 vs. −0.01 s), medicine ball throw (1.6 m vs. 0.4 m), and 6-minute shuttle run (2.0 vs. −0.3 laps). Height correlated moderately with the power-based tests in both sexes (p < 0.001), particularly in boys (R = 0.21 to 0.56 depending on age and test), but not with endurance. Correlations between tests were stronger (p < 0.01) in boys for all comparisons except medicine ball throw vs. shuttle run. We conclude that boys show larger fitness differences from 13 to 15 years of age than girls, likely due to pubertal changes that increase stature and improve muscle mass and body composition. These reference values serve as a basis for sex-specific interventions to improve adolescent health, performance, and sports participation.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
Men tend to regulate their emotions through actions rather than words
Male Psychology Magazine (2023)
Journal of Family Violence (2009)
Abstract: Every state in the United States authorizes its courts to issue civil orders of protection for victims of domestic violence. Ideally, restraining orders should be available to all victims. However, consistent with the patriarchal paradigm, research suggests that judicial responses to domestic violence temporary restraining order (TRO) requests may be sex-differentiated. This paper reports on a study that explored equal protection issues in family law by evaluating gender and violence profiles of a random sample of 157 TRO petitions involving intimate partners, dating couples, and married persons in a California district court. The majority of cases involved allegations of low or moderate levels of violence perpetrated by male defendants against female plaintiffs. Although there were no systematic differences in level of violence as a function of plaintiff sex, judges were almost 13 times more likely to grant a TRO requested by a female plaintiff against her male intimate partner, than a TRO requested by a male plaintiff against his female partner. Further analyses revealed that this sex differentiation was limited to cases involving allegations of low-level violence.
They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment
Journal of Nutrition (2005)
Abstract: During World War II, 36 conscientious objectors participated in a study of human starvation conducted by Ancel Keys and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, as it was later known, was a grueling study meant to gain insight into the physical and psychologic effects of semistarvation and the problem of refeeding civilians who had been starved during the war. During the experiment, the participants were subjected to semistarvation in which most lost >25% of their weight, and many experienced anemia, fatigue, apathy, extreme weakness, irritability, neurological deficits, and lower extremity edema. In 2003–2004, 18 of the original 36 participants were still alive and were interviewed. Many came from the Historic Peace Churches (Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker), and all expressed strong convictions about nonviolence and wanting to make a meaningful contribution during the war. Despite ethical issues about subjecting healthy humans to starvation, the men interviewed were unanimous in saying that they would do it all over again, even after knowing the suffering that they had experienced. After the experiment ended, many of the participants went on to rebuilding war-torn Europe, working in the ministries, diplomatic careers, and other activities related to nonviolence.
RUBBISH BIN
OECD
(*My brief comment on this report is available on X here.)
International Journal of LGBTQ+ Youth Studies
Abstract: This paper explores the audience perceptions of the benefits of hosting drag shows at a mid-sized southern university in the USA. Amidst increasing political hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community, these events serve not only as entertainment but also as crucial educational and inclusive spaces on campus. By assessing feedback from three different drag events hosted during the Spring 2024 semester, this paper demonstrates how drag performances may foster learning, promote LGBTQ+ visibility, and enhance student well-being. The findings suggest that drag shows are not mere spectacles; they may be transformative experiences that facilitate a deeper understanding of LGBTQ+ issues among students, create safe spaces for self-expression, and strengthen community ties. This paper argues that such events are an effective tool for engaging students in meaningful ways beyond traditional classroom settings.
Youth participatory action research as an agent of queer joy
International Journal of LGBTQ+ Youth Studies
Abstract: This qualitative study contributes to the discussion of queer joy studies by centering on the experiences of seven queer Midwestern youth researchers who participated in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program led by a local collective of university researchers. We offer theoretical and empirical implications to the growing field of queer joy as related to queer youth from data collected over the course of a year-and-a-half-long program. We conceptualize queer joy in youth as an individual and communal state of being that exists despite and because of our participants’ multiple, intersecting queer identities. Additionally, this joy is deeply intertwined with resistance against the structural violence that permeates schools, society, culture, social media, public policy, and national, state, and local laws. Our data highlights expressions of communal and individual joy experienced through participation in unique, queer-centered research projects. Recommendations for future studies into queer joy with youth are made.
White tears, white rage: Victimhood and (as) violence in mainstream feminism
European Journal of Cultural Studies
Abstract: Using #MeToo as a starting point, this paper argues that the cultural power of mainstream white feminism partly derives from the cultural power of white tears. This in turn depends on the dehumanisation of people of colour, who were constructed in colonial ‘race science’ as incapable of complex feeling (Schuller, 2018). Colonialism also created a circuit between bourgeois white women’s tears and white men’s rage, often activated by allegations of rape, which operated in the service of economic extraction and exploitation. This circuit endures, abetting the criminal punishment system and the weaponisation of ‘women’s safety’ by the various border regimes of the right. It has especially been utilised by reactionary forms of feminism, which set themselves against sex workers and trans people. Such feminisms exemplify what I call ‘political whiteness’, which centres assertions of victimhood: through these, womanhood (and personhood) is claimed to the exclusion of the enemy. Through legitimating criminal punishment and border policing and dehumanising marginalised Others, claims to victimhood in mainstream feminism often end up strengthening the intersecting violence of racial capitalism and heteropatriarchy.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Voices of change: Perspectives from nurse scientists on dismantling systemic racism
Nursing Outlook
Abstract: Background: Calls to address systemic racism in health care, nursing, academia, and science are increasing. Anti-racism actions in nursing are emerging as essential strategies to mitigate inequities. Purpose: This paper describes an innovative approach undertaken by the Betty Irene Moore fellowship to prepare nurse leaders that can recognize and resolve systemic racism and health inequities. Methods: The fellowship employed a curriculum guided by an action-oriented cultural humility framework that included iterative improvements after each cohort’s training. Findings: The fellowship created an environment conducive to learning and relationship-building while delivering a rigorous curriculum. Upon reflection, fellows were able to articulate their growth across personal or individual, interpersonal, and organizational or institutional levels. Discussion: The fellowship’s efforts underscore the need for leadership training opportunities that promote anti-racist practices. Current anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies highlight the necessity of advocacy among nurses as current efforts to dismantle systemic racism and fulfill nursing’s professional obligations are actively impeded.
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Thaks Jim - Packed as usual! Lots to peruse. Congrats on the National Review!
Jim, you're a global treasure. New project idea: use A.I. to iterate over feminist science publications to find one scoring the highest in illogic, gamma bias, or statistical fraud. Then publish a paper about it, citing it. Creating a paper mill that blows away the dross, back out the door of science.