Latest Articles
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Men
I have long had a pet theory. It goes like this: Many if not most of the world's troubles can be traced to men -- specifically, men overcompensating in response to perceived threats to their masculinity. (There are addendums; for instance: many men have absent or emotionally distant fathers, and thus either receive a warped picture of what masculinity is or have to forge one of their own, or get it from their peers.)
Traditionally -- and, arguably, in nature -- masculinity means strength, assertiveness, bravado, willingness to take risks and adventure and defend home and hearth and blah blah and so on. In the kind of hunter/gatherer societies where humankind evolved for millions of years, this worked out OK. But in a highly complex, densely populated, interdependent world, it doesn't always go so great.
Evidence for my pet theory just emerged in the form of a new study:
"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Robb Willer, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell. ...
Willer administered a gender identity survey to a sample of male and female Cornell undergraduates in the fall of 2004. Participants were randomly assigned to receive feedback that their responses indicated either a masculine or a feminine identity. While women's responses were unchanged regardless of the feedback they received, men's reactions "were strongly affected by this feedback," Willer said.
" Masculinity-threatened men also reported feeling more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than did masculinity-confirmed men," states Willer's report, "Overdoing Gender: Testing the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis."Peace. Cooperation. Compromise. Voluntarily buying a smaller car. Burning less fossil fuel. Listening to treehuggers. These things are for chicks.
Masculinity-threatened participants also showed more interest in buying an SUV. "There were no increases for other types of cars," Willer said.
What? No hybrids?
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Discuss the ‘Soul of Environmentalism’
In May we reprinted "The Soul of Environmentalism" on Grist. It didn't get quite the response "Death of Environmentalism" got, but it was an important contribution to the discussion.
Tomorrow, Moving Ideas is hosting an online discussion with the authors. Head on over and ask them a question.
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Umbra on baking soda
Dear Umbra, I liked your column about homemade cleaning products. I have a question, though: What’s up with baking soda? It’s frequently bandied about as an eco-friendly cleaner, but I have no idea what it is, where it comes from, or how it’s made. AmandaCharlottesville, Va. Dearest Amanda, Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, a naturally […]
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Franzen in The New Yorker
This week The New Yorker is home to a piece by noted author Jonathan Franzen on birdwatching, environmentalism, global warming, and, um, his love life. No description can do it justice -- it really is an extraordinary piece of writing, weaving together personal history, acute political and sociological observation, ornithological detail, and an elegiac tone, with effortless grace.
As usual when I encounter stuff like this, I feel admiration and naked envy in roughly equal measure.
It isn't available online yet -- not sure if it will be -- but it's worth buying the magazine to read it. If I can track down an electronic copy, I'll paste some excerpts.
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Forest meets felon in John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce
The old riddle goes: If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound? The new one might go: If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s there to hear it, is it worth writing a book about? The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, […]
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Apotcalypse
Armed pot growers invade public lands When we say “growing pot in national parks,” what do you think of? Aging hippie, beat-up VW minibus, little dope field a few yards up the hill from the camp site? Yeah, those were good times … but where were we? Oh yes. Well, times change: California’s Sequoia National […]
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Hairy Otters Are Now Half-Gone (Wince)
Alaskan sea otters being added to endangered species list Suffering population declines that are baffling scientists, the sea otters of southwest Alaska are being designated a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, which entitles the furry marine mammals to stronger federal protections. Government biologists plan to investigate why their numbers have plummeted from tens […]
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One Meeellion Years
Feds create million-year health standard for Yucca Mountain dump The U.S. government has no plan for getting out of Iraq, balancing the budget, or repairing a hemorrhaging health-care system, but nuclear waste? It’s got that covered for the next million years. Yes, responding to a 2004 federal court ruling that the previous standard of 10 […]
