The week’s roundup of sex & gender news, science and related articles, including MGM-related deaths, parental rights of rapists and sex-bias in hiring practices.

Recent News:

We had no edition last week as it was Easter weekend and we were all on holiday. Regular(ish) service will resume.

Mike Buchanan and Elizabeth Hobson of Justice for Men and Boys (the only political party in the English speaking world to campaign for the rights of men and boys) are to speak at the University of Cambridge on 24th May, with talks titled “Equal Rights for Men and Women” and “The History of Feminism”, respectively. However, according to an elusive open-letter (not very open if one cannot find it) signed by allegedly over 240 people, the event is not to be hosted because the talks do not correlate with the values held by the university (an excellent method for the university to admit bigotry). Varsity, the student-run media outlet which ‘broke the story’, have since been deleting comments and have outright removed the comments section from the article. We, the people here at The Screen, will be attending the talk. We hope to see you there.

The Scottish Government has announced it will be awarding £3.4million to support convicts leaving prison, according to Care Appointments. The money, which will be split between four programmes, will fund mentors to provide one-to-one support and guidance, offering help to overcome the challenges many inmates face on release. The schemes will include support for those dealing with problems such as ill-health, debt or substance abuse, and assist with longer-term aims such as finding a job or rebuilding family relationships. The organisations to benefit from the cash are New Routes Public Service Partnership (PSP), Shine PSP – a national service for women leaving prison – Moving On PSP for young male offenders leaving HMP Polmont and Low Moss PSP. We here at The Screen support this initiative as the sex-bias in the criminal justice system is very clear.

Natalie McGarry, 37, a former Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP), has pled guilty at Glasgow Crown Court to embezzling more than £25,600 from pro-independence organisations such as Perth and Kinross Foodbank, Women for Independence, Positive Prison, Positive Future and the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP. The MP was charged by police in 2017 over alleged fraud relating to potential missing funds from Women for Independence, which was set up in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish referendum, and Glasgow Regional Association. She had denied all of the charges against her until pleading guilty to two of them on Wednesday afternoon. She represented herself when she appeared in court, after previously sacking her legal team.

A woman who rang 999 more than 850 times in 11-months without a genuine reason has been jailed for a staggering sentence of 12-weeks and order to pay compensation to emergency services, according to Care Appointments. Tracey Ford, 48, was even reported to police by neighbours, who heard her “shouting and swearing down the phone at all hours” at a telephone box near her home, Basildon Magistrates’ Court heard. Prosecutor Sam Doyle said call records suggested Ford was “often intoxicated” while making calls from the phone box and on a mobile phone. She was also given a five-year criminal behaviour order, meaning she must get a third party to contact emergency services to report any minor crime or illness. It also bars her from using offensive or abusive language in calls and forbids her from dialling 999 unless in a genuine emergency.

The Parental Rights (Rapists) and Family Courts Bill 2017-19 has reached its second reading in the House of Commons following a reading on 10th April. A private members bill sponsored by Louise Haigh MP, the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, it is designed to “remove the parental rights of fathers of children conceived through rape; to make provision for an inquiry into the handling by family courts of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in child arrangement cases; and for connected purposes.” Unfortunately, this Bill is in part based on the 19 Child Homicides report by Women’s Aid, which used contorted and manipulated data to present a false image of what is happening in the Family Courts. We here at The Screen support the motion a parent should be prevented access to a child they conceived via rape yet, our views diverge from those held by Haigh where we argue the sex of the parent should play no role. This does not appear to be the case for this Bill. As of yet, no second reading has been announced.

Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi has announced a £30,000 grant to encourage more men to work in nurseries as the charity Fatherhood Institute aims to challenge stereotypes of the male role in early education. Men currently comprise just 3% of early-years staff in England and the charity will use the money to provide “how-to” guides, online content to encourage male recruitment into the profession and a national conference to highlight the positive role men play in the early years of education. Whilst we here at The Screen support this initiative, it fails to consider the environment pervasive in education which seeks to remove men and is vastly intolerant of masculinity.

Ched Evans, who was falsely accused of rape by a Police Force ardent on increasing their numbers, has won nearly £800,000 in an out of court settlement from his original defence team. Feminists are, needless to say, campaigning to stop evidence of the type used to free this innocent man from being presented in courts. They are also campaigning for an end to jury trials in rape cases.

A young man who died by suicide following circumcision has had his story told by his mother, following his request made in his final email to her. Alex Hardy moved to Canada aged 18, deferring university for the year, as his passion for the country and for skiing had been reignited when he visited Canada aged 14. He deferred university four more times and obtained residency. However, following issues with phimosis (tight foreskin), he was tricked into circumcision by his doctor and underwent the procedure. In his email, he explained how he was circumcised two-years (before his death) but, had come to regard it as mutilation. He initially used a steroid cream but, when this did not produce results, he was referred to a urologist who immediately recommended circumcision. Alex wrote in his email “I was mostly trusting as I felt he was the expert who knew best in this regard so with a pinch of salt I accepted it.” His mother has since read online reviews of this urologist which have made her question his competence. One patient said she had been unable to work since having surgery for kidney problems, and he had “destroyed” her quality of life. Following the surgery, Alex described experiencing constant stimulation from the head of his penis, which was no longer protected by his foreskin. He also wrote about experiencing erectile dysfunction, and burning and itching sensations, particularly from a scar which sat where his frenulum was removed. He also experienced cramps and contractions in his muscles and “uncomfortable” sensations which extended deep into his abdomen. Having lived with an intact penis for 21 years, Alex believed men circumcised as babies or young children would “tragically never be able to fully comprehend what has been taken away”. He estimated he had been stripped of 75% of the sensitivity of his penis. Alex Hardy died on 25th November 2017. Rest in peace.

Science!

New research suggests the sex of a person sending an emoji may affect the interpretation of the emoji. Psychologists at Southwestern University recruited 80 undergraduate students to take part in a short experiment where they were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups. They were asked to read and evaluate the contents of a text message sent from one co-worker to another which read “Hey Katie I’m sorry I couldn’t come in yesterday. I’m feeling a lot better today though. Thanks for covering my shift.” and was succeeded by a set of emojis. The sex of the sender (denoted by name) and the emojis sent were tested for (smiling face or kissing face with heart emoji). Participants read this then were asked to state how much they agreed (or disagreed) with the following statements:

I would send a message like this to a co-worker

I find this text message acceptable

[Rebecca/Steven] acted professionally in this case

The text shows a proper tone between employees

This message seems inappropriate

I would like to work with someone like [Rebecca/Steven]

I feel as though I would get along well with [Rebecca/Steven]

[Rebecca/Steven] seems like the kind of person who gets along well with others

[Rebecca/Steven] is probably a likeable person

The researchers found texts with affectionate emojis were judged as more likeable and appropriate when they were believed to have come from a woman and text messages with friendly emojis (i.e., smiling faces) were judged as equally appropriate, but more likeable, when they were believed to be sent by a man.

Belinda Brown, writing recently in Quillette, argued we need to return from discussions of ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’ to discussions of ‘Responsive Masculinity’. Where the former argues men’s dominant positions in society are justified and the subordination of women is commonplace, the latter argues men had to be particularly responsive to the needs and demands of women. It was responsive masculinity which facilitated paternal investment and which in the long run helped their infants (and their genes) to survive. The discussion Brown excellently provides is based on her chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Male Psychology and Mental Health where she elaborates further.

Lee Jussim, social psychologist and self-confessed rabble-rouser whose interests include self-fulfilling prophecies, recently obliterated the nonsense idea there is gender-bias in favour of men in a superlative Twitter thread. There is little use in us summating his thread, read it yourself below:

Sorry, Celeste, your thread does not present anything false, but it constitutes a very selective review of the literature on gender bias. If you are simply taking an activist stand w/no interest in the data, then these sources will have no interest to you. Thread. 1/n https://t.co/y0cgXwqUZt — Lee Jussim (@PsychRabble) April 13, 2019

An interesting paper published last year in Evolution and Human Behaviour titled ‘God, sex, and money among the ultra-Orthodox in Israel: An integrated sociocultural and evolutionary perspective’ integrated Evolutionary Theory and Social Role Theory to assess the views of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, where social roles are reversed, such that women are the primary breadwinners in the family, pertaining the value of wealth. Evolutionary Theory states men strive to elevate their personal status as a means of attracting mates which means in most modern societies this equates to the accumulation of wealth but, in the ultra-Orthodox community, it is religious devotion and piety that determine the status of men. The authors remarked “findings are consistent with the idea that men may have evolved preferences for achieving status given the mating advantages it confers with women, but how status is achieved may be culturally specific”. Mate preferences are flexible – women don’t prefer wealthy men in a context in which they are the breadwinners.

Miscellaneous:

Why do most Russian women hate feminism, asks Russia Beyond. Simple: because they know what feminism is.

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