Quickies

Quickies: What Happens During a “Cleanse,” Male Rape Survivors Mistreated at SMU, and Eradicating Homophobia

  • When the Victim is Male – “Southern Methodist University violated Title IX when it failed to provide a “prompt and equitable response” to the alleged sexual assault of a male student by another male student in 2012, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday. The university then failed to protect the victim from further harassment and embarrassment following the assault, the department said, leading him to drop out.” From Elaine.
  • Science News Fail: How Not to Illustrate Your Story – The problem isn’t as much with science as with the stock images that “funny” science journalists use to simplify the overall message of important research. Click through to this article to see what I mean.
  • Cure Homophobia With This One Weird Trick! – “On Friday, the journal Science published a buzzy new study suggesting that homophobia is more of a minor, curable malady than a chronic illness. For the study, researchers sent gay and straight canvassers into strongly anti-gay neighborhoods and directed them to converse with residents for about 20 minutes about why marriage equality mattered to them. The result: Residents’ support for gay equality increased considerably—and those residents who spoke with gay canvassers retained their pro-equality beliefs nine months after the conversation.”
  • In Transgender Teen’s Fight, Echoes Of Others – “What happens in a small, semi-rural community in a southern state when an “out” transgender student decides to speak up for his civil rights? Here in Gloucester County, Virginia, where I live — not far from the Historic Triangle of Yorktown-Williamsburg-Jamestown — the answer is that all hell breaks loose.”
  • “SNL’s” “The Office: Middle Earth” is downright genius – “One of the sketch’s many highlights is the Dwight-inspired nemesis, Gollum played frighteningly well by Taran Killam, who responds to Bilbo’s pranks with a, ‘Those are nasty tricksies.’ ” (I also enjoyed the Weekend Update lineup.)
  • Black Fraternities And Sororities Split On Protest Policy – “Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, two of the nation’s oldest black sororities, were astonished that the groups’ leadership issued directives that sorors could wear their organization’s colors — but not their letters or logos — at protests.”
  • What Happens in Your Body During a “Cleanse” or “Detox” – “Juice cleanses, colon cleanses, fruit detoxes, sugar detoxes—we’ve all seen these things, but do they actually work? What are they supposed to do? Let’s take a look at the science behind the fad.”
  • Farmworker children uprooted by California rules – “This December, thousands of migrant farmworker children are making their annual trek to new schools in California, but they do so also at other times throughout the country. During growing season, their parents rent low-cost housing in federally subsidized labor camps, but state rules mandate that families move at least 50 miles away when the camps close for the winter.” From Michael.

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Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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3 Comments

  1. It doesn’t surprise me that some Greek societies don’t want their letters associated with protests. That would make them a target for violent hate crimes.

  2. I knew a ‘detox’ wasn’t that different from fasting (albeit maybe adding enemas because naturopaths) in terms of its effects on the body. Sure, you can do it for some time, and there’s a long tradition of people fasting for religious or protest reasons, or simply to be at the high end of one weight class rather than the low end of the next highest one, but it can become unhealthy.

    It shouldn’t be surprising about homophobia. Prejudices tend to exist only as long as they’re reinforced.

    And it shouldn’t surprise me about SMU, given their general treatment of LGBT students.

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