Millions of women and people of marginalized genders have suffered from both intimate partner violence and untreated concussions. Yet concussions—a form of traumatic brain injury—are generally viewed as a sports-related problem. Concussion research has focused primarily on the relatively tiny population of men who play professional football.
What does it mean to be a man? As the stereotype goes, a “real man” is athletic, a provider, virile, and confident. He is strong, definitely heteronormative, and preferably tends toward hypermasculinity. These stereotypes of masculinity are as damaging to men as they are to the women impacted by the behavior they inspire.
"I’m a feminist, I plan to raise my daughter as a feminist, and I know, of course, that these books have the very best of intentions. But since having a child, I’ve also become hyperaware of the fact that we often misunderstand very young children’s minds and expect a lot more adult thinking from them than we should."
The more sordid aspects of Dewey’s life may come as a surprise to modern readers, but they were public knowledge while he was living. Dewey was censured in 1906 by the ALA when several women complained about his improper behavior toward them—including unwanted kissing, hugging, and caressing in public. Dewey’s daughter-in-law even moved out of his home because she was uncomfortable around him.
Going all the way back to the 18th century, researchers looked to the brain to justify the different social roles assigned to men and women and the behaviors encouraged in each. These scientists started with an assumption (that women and men have distinct destinies as ordained by nature, rather than God) and set out to find the evidence to prove it.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Men’s National Team joined the back-to-back winners of the Women’s World Cup in disputing that statement, saying they were “not impressed” and that the federation was misrepresenting facts to justify unfair pay.
"At this point we shouldn’t even be asking for #EqualPay for the #USWMNT - we should demand they be paid at least twice as much," wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The #MeToo movement’s approaching second anniversary is a good opportunity to take stock of how pop culture has reckoned with the Reckoning—and how often movies and TV shows by, for, and about women have courted or stumbled into commentary and relevance by imagining women as the ones who abuse their power.