did bros cause the financial crisis? hegemonic masculinity in the big short

The following is a guest post by Joseph Gamble.

There’s a moment in The Big Short (2015, dir. McKay) where the film cuts to footage of a grandfather and his grandson eating eggs at a diner. Over the footage, we see the text: “The truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry. —Overheard in a Washington, D.C. bar.”

As a literary critic specializing in gender, race, and sexuality in English Renaissance poetry, I was a bit offended that I was watching a movie about a subject I thought everyone hated—the economy—only to learn that it was my work that people would rather avoid. I couldn’t believe that people don’t like poetry!^[1]

asa app advice

The ASA annual meeting app is here.* It works really well, but only after you do an acrobatic double login to sync the schedule you set up in the ASA online program. Here is how:

reminder: blogger party this sunday, now with swag and snacks!

A quick reminder: the annual blogger party is this Sunday! Join us from 4pm-7pm at the Pine Box Bar in Seattle, a scant 10 minute walk from ASA.  Longer description here. This year’s blogger party will feature some free food and exclusive (not really) swag for SocArXiv. So, come for the scintillating intellectual conversation and open access advocacy, stay for the snacks, booze, and buttons!

take the leave.

This coming week I will be two-thirds of the way through a medical leave – a paid medical leave that I almost didn’t take because I somehow felt it wasn’t warranted. My reluctance to take advantage of a benefit – offered by my university, supported by my colleagues, and recommended by a doctor who knows more about physiology and recovery than I do – is a problem.

Without a doubt, part of this hesitation is just me and my personality.* However, it was also the product of more widespread issues that I wanted to highlight here.  I also wanted to share the wisdom of others that finally gave me the courage to take the leave in hopes that someone else will do the same.

did bill clinton cause mass incarceration of black people?

Short answer: Bill Clinton’s policies contributed to maintaining and increasing mass incarceration, but they affected Whites more than Blacks. Edit to short answer: Over in my full post on my own blog, I added graphs of the federal system, where Black imprisonment did go up under Clinton more than White imprisonment did. Federal system is smaller than state systems, so the overall patterns are dominated by state systems. The full post also gives graphs for other races.

National rate of being in state prisons, by race, 1978-2007.

The vertical line at 1995 represents the first year Clinton’s crime bill could take effect. Black state imprisonment leveled off during the Clinton years while White imprisonment continued to rise steeply. The Black/White disparity declined in the Clinton years. The steep rise in the Black imprisonment rate occurred during the Reagan/Bush years and the drug war, which was at its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before Clinton took office.

Black/White disparity in rate of being in state prisons 1978-2007

 

More details and data sources over at my academic blog Race, Politics, Justice.

coaching and masculinity: a “natural” combination? (guest post)

Catherine Bolzendahl, Vanessa Kauffman, Jessica Broadfoot

UC, Irvine, Department of Sociology

Olympic fever has hit! As we all marvel at the power, precision, and grace of the athletes, a more disturbing commentary has also emerged, one that diminishes women athletes’ accomplishments, defines them by the men around them, places them in tired tropes of sex objects, or infantilizes them as “girls.” Some journalists, in combination with a robust social media discussion, are calling this bad behavior out.¹ But should we be so surprised?

everyday sexism

My local newspaper is one of many that did this. Notice “salutes wife’s achievement” is  and “former first lady.” Not former Senator, not former Secretary of State. I don’t agree with all of Clinton’s politics and understand that others disagree with more than I do, even enough not to vote for her, but you have a sack over your head if you don’t think there is sexism in this race. And, just to be clear, I learned from a friend that it was a woman night editor who made the editorial decision to run it this way, offering a lame excuse about what photos were available (as if you don’t have stock photos of the presumptive party nominee). And that editor provided no excuse for referring to her solely in terms of her relation to Bill. Gender bias isn’t just a male thing.

And, just to be clear, here is what they published at the comparable point for Trump. They used a stock photo.