A very interesting article about the relationship between black youth and the police. Backlash against the Boy Scouts for not letting in gay scouts. Should men take women’s studies? A type of possible male birth control other than RISUG. A report about same-sex education in American schools. In short: it doesn’t work and it’s growing more popular.…
Trans Dad Cannot Become Breastfeeding Leader
The La Leche League, an organization that helps people breastfeed, has rejected the application of a trans man who wants to be a La Leche League leader. Despite having had chest surgery, he worked with his local La Leche League group to be able to breastfeed his child. He argues that his experience would make him…
National Literacy Trust Report on Boys’ Reading
The National Literacy Trust in Britain has come up with a report on boys’ reading. The outlook is not good. An astonishing three-quarters of British schools say boys do not do as well in reading as girls. By age seven, there is already a gender gap of seven points in the proportion of pupils who…
Romney is an “Alpha Male” Apparently
Or so says the National Review. I remain confused about why I should give a fuck. The conventional biological wisdom is that men select mates for fertility, while women select for status — thus the commonness of younger women’s pairing with well-established older men but the rarity of the converse. The conventional biological wisdom is…
Private Prison for Virginia Civilly Committed Sex Offenders
Um. Does it occur to anyone else that civil commitment for sex offenders deemed likely to reoffend is… a bit of a civil rights infringement? You don’t get to indefinitely detain people! If someone is in prison for assault and is deemed likely to punch people in the face again, we don’t keep them in…
Slim Jim Combats Horrific Evils of “Spice Loss”
Yeaaaaaaaaah. Words used in this campaign: Man gland Brofiles in courage Brolectrolytes Menergy Things that make you less of a man: Shakespeare Swan boat rides Yoga Salad Ironing Caring about and prioritizing your family Caring about women in any way whatsoever This is Ozy’s unhappy face. Why do you people hate SALAD so much?
Chavis Carter’s Death Ruled Suicide
Chavis Carter was shot in the head while his hands were cuffed behind him. His death has been ruled a suicide. Now, I’m not saying that it wasn’t a suicide. It could have been a suicide. It is theoretically possible that the police managed to miss a gun in his front pockets, despite that being a…
NHS Failing Gay and Bi Men?
A recent survey has suggested that Britain’s National Health Service is not succeeding in providing appropriate care to gay and bi men. Fortunately, 81% of gay and bi men say their current general practitioner is “good.” However: A third of gay and bi men have had a negative experience related to their sexuality and the…
Blog Note
I am sadly computerless until Saturday. I’ll try to keep up a regular blogging schedule via looking sad at my partners until they let me steal their computers (never underestimate the dark power of the Puppy Dog Eyes), but if comments languish in moderation more than usual you know why.
Louis CK Appreciation Day
I really like Louis CK. He’s a comedian, and he’s mostly not made of complete fuckery! He has, of course, done fucked things, but far less so than most comedians. (And it turns out that his Tweet in praise of Daniel Tosh was not about Tosh’s rape ‘joke’*, but about how much he had laughed at…
Working-Class Beasts and Rape Culture
TW for harassment. This article provides an excellent example of how the Knight/Beast dichotomy plays into rape culture. Some men harass women on street corners. Generally, our culture presents it as being working-class men– archetypically, construction workers. They’re Beasts, not like the nice Knights who can be expected not to whistle at women who don’t want…
More Are Active, But More Are Absent: The Problem of American Fathers
I recently stumbled across this Pew research survey from 2011, which talks about the growing dichotomy for American fathers. When they live with their children, fathers are becoming more and more involved; however, more and more men also don’t live with their children. In 1965, the average married father spent 2.6 hours a week caring…
Gendered Pictures Roundup
Hat tip to Sociological Images. As always, slow connections might not want to go below the cut.
Are Men More Likely Than Women To Be Homeless?
Are men more likely than women to be homeless? Certain people, who have much invested in a myth that feminism is basically Bane from The Dark Knight Rises*, claim that men are 94-97% of homeless people. More realistic estimates that are both properly cited and not disproved by basic observation propose that men make up about 67.5% of the…
Report on Paternity Leave
This report on paternity leave in the United States is really fucking depressing. Only fourteen states and the District of Colombia have gone beyond the rather bare-bones provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act. FMLA is the only act that helps Americans balance work and family, which is both praise for FMLA and a shameful…
On Intersex Surgery
Commenting note: this is about intersex surgery. This is not about male or female circumcision. Please keep your comments to the topic of intersex surgery. We talk a lot about female and male genital circumcision, but a topic that is sadly undercovered, in my experience, is the surgery performed on children with intersex genitalia. An…