LEADING ARTICLE

Source of Usual Health Care for Adults Age 18 and Older: United States, 2024

NCHS Data Brief

Summary: In 2024, 9 in 10 adults reported having a source of usual health care, with women more likely to report having a source of usual care (93.3%) than men (87.1%). Women were more likely to report a doctor’s office or health center as their source of usual care (82.2%) compared with men (72.6%). The percentage of adults reporting an urgent care center or clinic in a drug store or grocery store as their source of usual care declined with age. The percentage of adults with a Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center or VA outpatient clinic as their source of usual care increased with age. Men were more likely (2.0%) than women (1.5%) to report a hospital emergency room as their usual source of health care.

THE NUZZO LETTER IN THE NEWS

UN Propaganda Campaigns Can be Traced Back to Media Biases from 15 Years Ago

Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance (DAVIA)

Nuzzo on Exercise and Mental Health

Therapy Disruptors

Episode description: Exercise is not yet a big part of the mental health treatment landscape. Exercise needs to be a major part of the mental health landscape and Dr. James L. Nuzzo is here to make the case. It’s inexpensive if not free, frequently effective immediately, and has none of the side effects you’ll see listed in the Big Pharma TV ads. Exercise as a mental health tool is more than just a politically correct platitude, and this podcast may just change your mind about how you view it in your arsenal of treatment options.

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS

Sex/Gender

The War on Biology Is Far From Over

Reality’s Last Stand

Activists are flooding the zone with pseudoscience on sex because too much of their politics now depends on it.

FAQ about the IOC Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport

International Olympic Committee (IOC)

Gender Blind Spot: United Nations Neglects the Global Crisis of Male Homelessness

International Council for Men and Boys

Brazil establishes penalties of up to 5 years for interrupting a woman

La Derecha Diario

(See also the article by Free Speech Union Brasil on Substack titled,“Brazil’s Senate votes to criminalise “misogyny” )

The Rise of the Anti-Manosphere

The Dispatch

Opinion: Another generation of men will be left behind as Australia creates a generation of lost boys

Western Sydney University

(See the related article in The Australian titled, “‘Lost boys’: another generation of men will be left behind.” See also my brief comment on these articles on X here.)

Psychologist Dr. John Barry Exposes The Truth About Masculinity

THE SALIENTS

Episode description: 1. Why male suicide was dismissed as “men being better at DIY” in his psychology class. 2. How negative messaging about masculinity creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. 3. Gamma Bias: the hidden cognitive distortion shaping how society sees men. 4. Why men express depression differently (and why therapists miss it). 5. The fertility crisis and whether we’re heading toward “civilizational collapse”. 6. What men can do to reclaim their sense of self

Education

Texas Tech University System to phase out all sexual orientation, gender identity programs

The College Fix

CAPS or no caps: Scholars reject capitalization rules for feminist ‘activism,’ ‘trans’ identity

The College Fix

North Carolina Is a Model for Higher-Education Reform

The Tar Heel State has dramatically improved its universities in recent years.

Martin Center for Academic Renewal

Beyond protection?

University Affairs

The impact of ethics sprawl on researchers at Canadian universities.

Exercise Science

Sex differences in wheelchair marathon performance

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the historical trends of sex differences in athletic performance and participation among male and female wheelchair marathon athletes Design: This retrospective, observational study utilized secondary, publicly available data of the Boston, Chicago, and New York City marathons within the Wheelchair Division from 1984 to 2023. Athletic performance and participation were evaluated across all marathon events and over time using univariate analysis of variance and Pearson correlations. Results: Sex differences in athletic performance were observed with males outperforming females in all marathon events over time (p < 0.001). The sex difference among first place finishers was 20% and increased to 33% for tenth place finishers. Though sex differences decreased over time (p < 0.001), large sex differences in performance remain. Female athlete participation in wheelchair marathon events significantly increased over time (p < 0.001) and the ratio of male athletes to female athletes in these events significantly decreased over time (p < 0.001). Overall participation and male athlete participation also generally increased over time. Conclusion: Significant sex differences were observed in wheelchair marathon performance and participation. These findings highlight the importance of sex as a key biological variable related to human health and performance, especially among wheelchair athletes.

American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews

Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise

Abstract: Purpose: The aim of this overview of reviews was to determine the impact of resistance training (RT) prescription on muscle function and hypertrophy, utilizing evidence synthesis methods. It updates the American College of Sports Medicine 2009 Position Stand, “Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults.” Data sources: Ovid MEDLINE(R) ALL, Ovid Emcare, Ovid Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EBSCOhost SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science Core Collection current to October 2024. Eligibility criteria: Eligible systematic reviews synthesized randomized trials of healthy adults (≥18 yr) who completed RT (≥6 wk; range: 6–52 wk), compared with a group that completed no exercise or an alternative RT program, and reported the change in muscle function, size, or physical performance. Results: We synthesized data from 137 systematic reviews (>30,000 participants). Compared with no exercise (control), RT significantly improved muscle strength, size (hypertrophy), power, endurance, contraction velocity, gait speed, balance, and multiple physical function outcomes. Few RT prescription (RTx) variables affected primary adaptations. However, voluntary strength was enhanced by lifting heavier loads (≥80% one-repetition maximum), through a complete range of motion, for 2–3 sets, at the beginning of training sessions, and ≥2 sessions/wk. Muscle hypertrophy was enhanced by higher volumes (≥10 sets/wk) and eccentric overload. Power was enhanced by moderate loads (30%–70% one-repetition maximum), low-to-moderate volume (≤24 repetitions⋅sets), Olympic-style weightlifting, and power RT (fast concentric phase). Power RT enhanced physical function. Training to momentary muscle fatigue, equipment type, exercise complexity, set structure, time under tension, blood flow restriction, and periodization did not consistently impact training outcomes. Conclusions: Healthy adults should perform progressive RT, with variable prescription consistent with our findings, to improve muscle function, size, and physical performance. Muscle strength, hypertrophy, power, and certain components of physical function can be enhanced by manipulating the RT variables highlighted.

HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

Sexual molestation of males: Associations with psychological disturbance

British Journal of Psychiatry (2018)

Abstract: Background: There are no epidemiological data in Europe on associations between sexual molestation in males and psychological disturbance. Aims: To investigate whether sexual molestation in males is a significant predictor of psychological disturbance. Method: We recruited men attending general practice and genitourinary medicine services. Participants took part in a computerised interview about sexual molestation as children or adults. We ranked reported sexual experiences into three categories of decreasing severity. Each category was treated as an independent predictor in a multivariate analysis predicting different types of psychological disturbance. Results: Men who reported child sexual abuse were more likely to report any type of psychological disturbance. Men who reported sexual molestation in adulthood were 1.7 (1.0–2.8) times more likely to have experienced a psychological disorder, but self-harm was the single most likely problem to occur (odds ratio⩵2.6, range⩵l.3–5.2). Men reporting ‘consenting’ sexual experiences when aged under 16 years also were more likely to report acts of self-harm (odds ratio⩵l.7, range⩵0–2.8). Conclusions: Sexual abuse as a child or adult is associated with later psychological problems. All forms of sexual molestation were predictive of deliberate self-harming behaviour in men.

Physical fitness differences between prepubescent boys and girls

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2012)

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to analyze in which physical capabilities boys and girls are closer or distant. An additional objective was to find which of the body fat, physical activity, and somatotype factors have a greater effect on prepubescent children’s physical fitness. This was a cross-sectional study involving 312 children (10.8 ± 0.4 years). The physical fitness assessment employed sets of aerobic fitness, strength, flexibility, speed, agility, and balance. The boys presented higher values in all selected tests, except tests of balance and flexibility, in which girls scored better. Gender differences in the physical fitness were greatest in the explosive strength of upper (p ≤ 0.01, η(p)(2) = 0.09) and lower limbs (p ≤ 0.01, η(p)(2) = 0.08), although with a medium-size effect of gender, and smaller in the abdominal (p > 0.05, η(p)(2) = 0.007) and upper limbs (p > 0.05, η(p)(2) = 0.003) muscular endurance, and trunk extensor strength and flexibility (p > 0.05, η(p)(2) = 0.001). The endomorphic (p ≤ 0.01, η(p)(2) = 0.26) in the girls, and the ectomorphic (p ≤ 0.01, η(p)(2) = 0.31) and mesomorphic (p ≤ 0.01, η(p)(2) = 0.26) in the boys, had the high-sized effect on the physical fitness. The physical activity in the girls, and the endomorphic and body fat in the boys, did not have a significant effect. These findings can help in the planning of activities that take into account the success and motivation of both boys and girls and thus increase levels of physical activity and physical fitness at school. However, in prepubescent children, one cannot neglect the influence of genetic determinism, observed from the morphoconstitutional point of view.

Sex-related differences in vision are heterogeneous

Science Reports (2018)

Abstract: Despite well-established sex differences for cognition, audition, and somatosensation, few studies have investigated whether there are also sex differences in visual perception. We report the results of fifteen perceptual measures (such as visual acuity, visual backward masking, contrast detection threshold or motion detection) for a cohort of over 800 participants. On six of the fifteen tests, males significantly outperformed females. On no test did females significantly outperform males. Given this heterogeneity of the sex effects, it is unlikely that the sex differences are due to any single mechanism. A practical consequence of the results is that it is important to control for sex in vision research, and that findings of sex differences for cognitive measures using visually based tasks should confirm that their results cannot be explained by baseline sex differences in visual perception.

RUBBISH BIN

A new minister in Victoria will tackle the manosphere. Here’s what they should do

The Conversation

(See my brief comment on this article on X here.)

Masculinity, masculinist politics, and political extremism

Journal of Gender Studies

(See my brief comment on this article on X here.)

Wildfires in the (M)anthropocene: fieldnotes from a young woman social scientist in Portugal

Gender, Place & Culture

Abstract: The gendered character of wildfire research has marginalised alternative knowledges and realities, particularly those of women. This article examines how situated epistemologies can foster alternative ways of knowing and governing fire-risk in the context of feminist and decolonial critiques of the Anthropocene. As a young woman researcher early in her career studying social dynamics in communities affected by severe wildfires, fieldwork posed challenges due to my personal background and identity. However, it also offered opportunities to explore gender relations and practices in fire-prone areas of Portugal. What also meant knowing untold stories of women and the power structures that entangle them. Drawing on autoethnographic data gathered during research in two rural communities of Central Portugal, it is argued that researchers’ embodied situatedness and experiences influence how wildfire knowledge is produced and the consequences that may follow. The paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on how male- and white-dominant narratives in wildfire science have marginalised knowledges and approaches, preventing the much-desired paradigm shift in fire-risk reduction policies and practices. Finally, a wildfire-situated epistemology is proposed as a means of reclaiming not only unreported realities and the forces of reproduction underpinning the (m)Anthropocene’s master narrative but also shedding light on the current invisibility of its women researchers.

“Cis Hell”

Journal of Gender Studies

Abstract: This paper develops the concept of cis hell to describe the regulatory normativity over all bodies based on gender biopolitics as a global political pandemic. Centring the recent UK Supreme Court’s 2025 Equality Act ruling and connecting it to similar examples across the world, we demonstrate how biopower operates through social movements inspired by the new authoritarianisms to establish transnational regimes of bodily control. Drawing connections between trans exclusion in the UK, USA and pronatalist policies in Turkey, Hungary, and Russia, we argue these seemingly disparate developments represent coordinated manifestations of biopolitical logic reducing human worth to reproductive capacity. Authoritarian innovation threatens and destroys modest progress towards human rights for vulnerable groups. ‘Gender-critical’ activism, despite protection claims, functions within a broader masculinist restoration project threatening collective prosperity by constraining human potential and re-centring white, male, and cis supremacy. The purported ‘safety’ of cisgender categorization creates a hell of rigid taxonomies undermining human flourishing across the gender spectrum, necessitating a radical reimagining of gender justice as essential to global prosperity through participative co-design processes inherent in new social movements theory focusing on social identity, human potential, and affect.

Feminism, so confusing: Charli XCX’s Brat and nihilistic feminism

Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies

Abstract: This essay introduces “nihilistic feminism” as an emerging representational discourse in order to understand nihilism as a product of neoliberal and postfeminist ideals. I define nihilistic feminism as a disavowal of both patriarchy and feminism, characterizing feminism as necessary in theory but impossible in practice and, therefore, unworthy of pursuit; instead, nihilistic feminism positions fulfillment of individual pleasures as the only feasible alternative. This essay examines Charli XCX’s 2024 album Brat and its viral “brat summer” trend as exemplars, identifying three foundations of nihilistic feminism: political hopelessness and withdrawal, hedonistic hyperindividualism, and aestheticized (apolitical) chaos.

The moral-political economy of discomfort: who is allowed to feel uncomfortable in higher education

Pedagogy, Culture & Society

Abstract: This conceptual paper interrogates the affective limits of discomfort in higher education by situating it within a broader moral-political economy. While work on ‘pedagogies of discomfort’ in the past has framed unease and disruption as pathways to ethical and transformative learning, this paper argues that not all discomfort is equally recognised or welcomed. Drawing on scholarship on affective governance, backlash politics, and DEI controversies in the United States, the analysis shows how universities selectively authorise certain forms of discomfort – those aligned with reflective growth, civility, and institutional legitimacy – while delegitimising others, such as anger, refusal, or exhaustion that expose structural injustice or institutional complicity. Introducing the concepts of authorised and unauthorised discomfort, the paper argues that discomfort becomes politically significant precisely when it exceeds the affective limits institutions are willing to tolerate. In doing so, the analysis reframes discomfort a site of ongoing struggle over affective legitimacy, authority, and voice.

(See my brief comment on this article on X here.)

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