Weekly Roundup
Jan 5 - 11, 2026
LEADING ARTICLE
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(See new U.S. Dietary Guidelines here).
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
Sex/Gender
The Normalization Of Anti-Male Advertising
Evie Magazine
Use of Fertility Services in Women Ages 20−49 in the United States: 2022−2023
National Center of Health Statistics Data Brief
Key findings: Among women ages 20–49 in 2022–2023, 13.7% had ever used any fertility services, defined as any medical help to get pregnant or to prevent pregnancy loss, at some time in their lives. A higher percentage of Asian non-Hispanic (13.6%) and White non-Hispanic (12.4%) women had ever used medical help to get pregnant compared with Black non-Hispanic (7.1%) and Hispanic (7.0%) women. The percentage of women who had ever used any fertility services and the percentage who used any medical help to get pregnant increased with higher family income. The percentage of ever use of any fertility services and the percentage of any medical help to get pregnant was higher for women with private health insurance compared with those who had public insurance or were uninsured.
Epidemiology
Diagnosed Allergic Conditions in Children Ages 0−17: United States, 2024
National Center of Health Statistics Data Brief
Key findings: In 2024, diagnosed seasonal allergies were the most common allergies in children (20.6%), followed by diagnosed eczema (12.7%), and then diagnosed food allergies (5.3%). Children living in nonmetropolitan areas were more likely to have a diagnosed seasonal allergy compared with children living in metropolitan areas. The percentage of children with eczema was similar in girls (13.3%) and boys (12.2%). The percentage of children with a diagnosed food allergy increased with age.
(See graphs and summarised data from this report on X here.)
Diagnosed Allergic Conditions in Adults: United States, 2024
National Center of Health Statistics Data Brief
Key findings: In 2024, 31.7% of adults had a diagnosed seasonal allergy, diagnosed eczema, or a diagnosed food allergy. The percentage of adults with a diagnosed seasonal allergy was higher among those living in nonmetropolitan areas than those in metropolitan areas. Women were more likely to have diagnosed eczema (9.5%) compared with men (5.7%). Diagnosed food allergies were more prevalent in Black non-Hispanic adults (9.9%)compared with Hispanic (5.4%), Asian non-Hispanic (5.5%), and White non-Hispanic(6.4%) adults.
(See graphs and summarised data from this report on X here.)
Education
‘Queer food’ course at Boston U. explores what ‘polyamorous’ and ‘non-binary’ people eat
The College Fix
Exercise Science
Airmen can now swap out the 2-mile run on both yearly fitness tests
Task and Purpose
Politics
Withdrawal from Wasteful, Ineffective, or Harmful International Organizations
Office of the U.S. Secretary of State
RUBBISH BIN
The Caveman in the Mirror: Masculinity and Paleofantasy
Signs and Society
Abstract: In the early 2000s, mainstream US wellness culture started to develop something of an obsession with the distant past. These “paleofantasies” (Zuk 2013), such as barefoot running and the Paleo diet, are not based in scientific evidence about prehistoric human behavior or accurate understandings of evolutionary theory. Why, then, do so many people (especially men) find them compelling? In this paper, I argue that the “stone age” chronotope is implicitly masculine and in fact tends to exclude women altogether. Women are largely absent from imaginings of prehistory, whether those imaginings are car insurance commercials, diet and exercise programs, or even anthropological texts. Looking at various popular discourses about the stone age chronotope, I consider how women are effectively rendered invisible, leaving behind what is perceived as a distilled masculine essence. I suggest that the proliferation of paleofantasy in the past two decades has been part of a broader cultural backlash against feminist progress.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
Sex Roles
Abstract: A dominant narrative among men’s rights activists (MRAs) is that rape culture does not exist. Despite statistical evidence that men are more likely to be sexually assaulted than wrongfully accused of assault, false rape allegations are the most frequently discussed topic on MRA forums and websites. In this study, we analyzed comments about false rape allegations posted to r/MensRights, a popular MRA forum. Just as the larger MRA movement emerged as a reactionary counterbalance to a feminist movement that MRAs believe has purportedly achieved equality, we found that MRAs construct a culture of false rape allegations to counterbalance a purportedly non-existent rape culture. Using a grounded theory approach to examine the narratives deployed by MRAs, we discovered that these men construct what we call a “compensatory culture of injury.” We found that MRAs are driven by “aspirational oppression,” which we theorize as a sense of grievance surrounding a group’s diminishing privilege and desire to achieve the guise of subjugation that warrants reparations to restore the status quo in the ostensible pursuit of fairness and equality. This co-optation of victimhood may be challenged by structural conversations about gender as well as the explicit identification of the misogynistic nature of MRA narratives.
A conspiracy of cats: The curious case of the litterbox lie
Feminist Theory
Abstract: This article concerns the curious case of what I label the ‘litterbox lie’: a false narrative propagated on social media that litterboxes are being installed in grade school classrooms for kids who identify as cats. This lie, first circulated in Canada in 2021, has been raised by rightwing forces in response to the perceived accommodation of transgender children in public schools. This article deploys discursive and semiotic analysis to critically reconsider three entwined areas of ideological intrigue that inform this litterbox lie: cats, computers, crap. This terminological trinity contours the keywords of the litterbox lie – what I cheekily call its CATegories. I follow this conceptual round-up with an exploratory unravelling of the litterbox lie, and conclude with a ‘clawback’, as I answer the rightwing ridiculous with some radical ridicule of the queered cat creative kind, including the inter-species academe of trans studies stalwart Sandy Stone. Across its pages, this article re-presents the litterbox lie as a paradigm of present-day conservative conspiracy theories, one that pulls from persistent gender panic patterns and successful social media strategies of the cat kind. In a conclusion that refuses respectability, I offer some ‘catty’ examples of semiotic guerilla warfare as enabling trans-cat alternatives to this online anti-trans disinformation and hate.
Journal of School Psychology
Abstract: As school psychology works to advance social justice in research, training, and practice, interpretation of social justice often emphasizes dismantling the racism in our educational system. Associated efforts among school psychologists and school psychology organizations to address decolonization have primarily been symbolic (e.g., land acknowledgements). Social justice and antiracism are important but insufficient to disrupt colonization and support liberation. To truly realize liberation as both a process and a goal, we must work towards decolonization. And to decolonize the field, school psychologists must understand colonialism and how it has and continues to shape the field. This critical consciousness is necessary to support the un/learning needed to better support sustained, structural change in all aspects of our professional work. This manuscript is the first in a two-part series on colonization, decolonization, and Indigenization of school psychology. Here, we provide an overview of colonization and then discuss its influence in education and school psychology, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice initiatives. We assert that decolonization and Indigenization are required to address colonization as a macro-structure and prevent its continued harms in schools and society.
(*My brief comment on this article is available on X here.)
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Good on Trump or any other government that tries to bring back some normality about food.
I read this recently in a gay man's article about being cancelled: "I entered this field because, as a Gen X gay man who lived through the AIDS crisis, I wanted to help others in a way the generation before me had helped me.
AIDS reminded us that disease spreads because of behavior and biology, not identity and ideology."
https://lgbcouragecoalition.substack.com/p/how-a-private-conversation-about
the last sentence struck me as something to remember. To think about.
and the article about food is this exactly. Eat normal food if one can.
** please note that I'm not entirely in love with this web site mentioned above, but I enjoyed him sharing his story.
Strange stuff going on and something from the queer world (as a gay man I can call myself this if I want!!!!!!! Apparently).
One day people will wake up... surely. hopefully.
I remember many years ago. maybe the end of the 90's, watching a documentary about Nazi Germany and the war.
The interviewer asked the old German man, who had been a soldier, why he did it! "Why did you kill people?" (something like this).
He refused to answer that question. He said he would not answer such questions.
What he did say impacted on me somewhat.. "it was over and I woke up one morning and thought to myself 'what on earth happened? It was like we were in a dream!'".
That was it.. one man said that after such horror. I was impressed. I think it is true now.
Only this morning I was thinking of a conversation (it involved the use or non-use of pronouns) , with others, with a Biological Female, turned 'non-binary' and has had her breasts removed. I've never asked her about this, totally. But she doesn't want people to see her breasts and assume she is a female. YET, she didn't change name! I realised this earlier today. Her name is still a traditional female name, a little unusual, but non the less, a female name..
I laughed at this. Not wanting to be seen as a female but not changing ones name!!!
I laughed and realised I was thinking, “this is f*ing crazy shit.” I felt like I stepped out of a crazy world, even for a moment.
**Personally, I try not to care so much about what adults do to their bodies and how they live now a days. As long as no-one else is hurt, that’s their business.