New York Route 90 Scenic Byway?

Taking a scenic drive along Route 90 in Cayuga County, my sister and her partner came across the sign above. They were horrified and decided to create their own version. I never have understood how these signs can be placed along a designated "scenic byway."

Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: August 21, 2007
New York Times

In academic feuds, as in war, there is no telling how far people will go once the shooting starts.

Earlier this month, members of the International Academy of Sex Research, gathering for their annual meeting in Vancouver, informally discussed one of the most contentious and personal social science controversies in recent memory.

The central figure, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University, has promoted a theory that his critics think is inaccurate, insulting and potentially damaging to transgender women. In the past few years, several prominent academics who are transgender have made a series of accusations against the psychologist, including that he committed ethics violations. A transgender woman he wrote about has accused him of a sexual impropriety, and Dr. Bailey has become a reviled figure for some in the gay and transgender communities.

For the complete article, click on the title of this post above. It's an interesting and detailed piece. My commentary follows below.

Several people sent me the link to the article above today individually and through a listserve for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health of which I am a member. I had already posted it on the blog here, but thanks!

I read Bailey's book, and I read it carefully, as soon as it was published in 2003. The image on the front cover is a clue to what's within. It is a photograph of the view of two legs from the back from the knees down that are muscled with feet pointed outward in pointy high heeled shoes. The image is pure stereotype. The title of the text while meant to be humurous and literary (nodding to Kipling's, The Man Who Would be King) pokes fun not at the author, but at those subjected to his study. But let's not judge a book by its cover...

The first background piece to be published on his book for the higher education audience was in The Chronicle in June 20, 2003 with the provocative title, "Dr. Sex." The article did indeed provoke responses. Several faculty wrote letters to The Chronicle which appeared in August 1, 2003, incIuding a very detailed one by Professor of Psychology and Provost at Wheaton College, Ill., Stanton Jones which actually critiques the report by The Chronicle. The other letters critique Bailey's methods.

Among transgender, gay, and queer researchers and among those who do research with transgender and/or gay people there is a diversity of opinion on what is good research and who benefits from that research. Recently, among reseachers who study transgender and transsexual people there was a call for commentary on Bailey's work. The ethical issues raised by Bailey's study are still very much in question.

There is much more to write about all this, but one thing is clear to me; this is another unfortunate example of the problems, ethical and methodological, of studying "the other" in ways that try to pass as science. Read the book carefully for yourself. You decide. In the meantime, here is an illustrative excerpt:

'When I ask my gay friends about what feminine traits they dislike, they usually begin by talking about voice. An older acquaintance related how once in a gay bathhouse, he was on the verge of having sex with a very attractive and muscular stranger, when the stranger spoke. 'When he opened his mouth, a purse fell out. I got limp.' But when I went to a Halsted bar with my gay graduate student, he was able to determine which men he would likely reject merely by watching them move. We don't yet really know what gay men mean when they say they dislike femmes. This leaves the question of why. When I talk about this with other psychologists, the most common suggestion is internalized femiphobia -- femininity has been punished so often by the straight world that gay men, too, come to hate it... It is certainly an unfortunate state of affairs that gay men tend to be feminine, tend to be less attracted to femininity, but tend to be stuck with each other. There are similar ironies in straight relationships. The designer of the universe has a perverse sense of humor." pp. 80 - 81.

Science? Well, no, but he is well within his academic freedom to print these views and I can disagree with them all. The history of sex research is full of controversies and chilly receptions to unorthodox ideas, methods, and results. At the same time, the right for marginalized people to self-determine also has a history and one which is being brought to bear on contemporary researchers. These histories clash here today. Results: Unknown.

You Don't Have To Hate Other Groups To Love Your Own, Psychologist Says

The American Psychological Association is holding its annual convention in San Francisco now. Here is an excerpt from research presented this week:

While it may appear that conflict is an inevitable part of interaction between groups, research actually suggests that fighting, hating and contempt between groups is not a necessary part of human nature, according to an Ohio State University professor of psychology.

“There's still this belief that a group's cohesion depends on conflict with other groups, but the evidence doesn't support that,” said Marilynn Brewer of Ohio State.

“Despite evidence to the contrary, you still see this theory in the research literature and in many textbooks.” Brewer has spent much of her career studying “ingroups” – the groups we belong to – and their relations with “outgroups” – those groups to which others belong.

“Simply put, we prefer people of our kind, people we know we can rely on. That doesn't mean you have to hate anyone else. But you will be more likely to trust people from your own group,” Brewer said.

That doesn't mean ingroup bias is benign, Brewer said. Ingroup bias is the basis for discrimination, the favoring of people in your group over those in another.

“You don't have to hate people from other groups in order to disadvantage them and to deny them the opportunities you have in your group,” she said. “That's a real downside to ingroup bias.”

She discussed the nature of these intergroup relations in her address Saturday August 18 in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

A real downside to ingroup bias indeed! This is what makes Dr. Emo very glum. Not the research, but its results which have been repeated over and over and yet when will we pay attention? It could be a simple start, for example, admitting that one's preference is for folks like oneself and then taking the next step to ponder, how do my preferences for people of my kind disadvantage folks different from me? The research supports asking this question, especially by people who benefit from being within an ingroup that has power over and more privilege than others. It is not a small matter to make the statement, “You don't have to hate people from other groups in order to disadvantage them and to deny them the opportunities you have in your group.”

For the complete piece, it's actually a press release, click on the title of this post above.

Where Have the New Faculty of Color at Wells College Gone? And...Why?

July 31, 2007

Dear faculty, staff, and students,

Last week Assistant Professor of Education, Dr. Ethel King-McKenzie, resigned from Wells College. In her letter to me, Professor King-McKenzie explained that her family situation has changed, making it important for her to be near her family.

Professor King-McKenzie came to Wells in 2004. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, her M.A. in Social Studies and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Curriculum Theory from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Before coming to Wells, Professor King-McKenzie taught at Ashland University in Ohio. At Wells, Dr. King-McKenzie taught many different courses in the education program. Highlights of her work at Wells include two courses she developed: Educ 320, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, and a Wlls 101 section, Education and Third World Women.

Professor King-McKenzie wrote that she "will treasure" her time at Wells. We will miss her enthusiasm and involvement in many campus events. I'm sure you will join with me in wishing Dr. King-McKenzie all the best in her future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Leslie Miller-Bernal
Dean of the College

Dr. King-McKenzie, who was a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Education at Wells, is now working at






August 13, 2007

Dear Members of the Wells Community:

At the end of last week, I received a letter of resignation from Jill S. H. Hill, Assistant Professor of Psychology. Dr. Hill received her B.A. in psychology, with honors, and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology, from Loyola College in Maryland; she received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oklahoma. At Wells Dr. Hill taught a wide range of courses, including indigenous psychologies, psychotherapy, abnormal psychology, and educational psychology. She also helped the College engage in program assessment, and with Professor Olson, developed the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Minor.

Professor Hill explained that she has accepted another professional position. She wrote that she “can only hope” that her future students “will be as dedicated, passionate, and self-aware as the women and men of Wells.”

I know you will join me in wishing Professor Hill fulfillment and success in her new position.

Leslie Miller-Bernal
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

Dr. Hill, who was a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wells, is now working at




No email sent about Professor Raúl Delgado Rodríguez who was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wells for three years.

In Mourning: Lo Perdido/What Is Lost

Size Effects?

Photograph: Antonin Kratochvil/VII, for The New York Times

A recent study found that friends who gain weight influence how much weight their friends gain. The researchers attribute this effect to “social networks.” Weight gain can be spread through social networks similar to how a common cold is generously shared among friends or children in grade school.

Gina Kolata has an interesting piece on this in the NYTimes. Click on the post title, Size Effects? above to read her article. Here is a excerpt:

"Now, scientists believe that social networks not only can spread diseases, like the common cold, but also may influence many types of behavior — negative and positive — which then affect an individual’s health, as well as a community’s."

This got me thinking that if negative and positive behavior can be "spread like a cold" imagine the consequences of a community where almost everyone feels badly about what's happening. Do hatred, bigotry, intolerance, unhappiness spread like a cold? If so, what's the cure?

Judith Herman (1993) in her book, Trauma and Recovery, wrote "Trauma is contagious." The idea that social networks spread emotions and behaviors is not new, but what we still haven't figured out is how to cure an unhealthy community which continuously reinfects itself through close contact. It seems then that small communities especially need to be mindful of how negative behavior spreads quickly and before you know it, everyone is sick with it. Is the cure to quarantine and isolate or to make a healthy community for everyone? You decide.

Ward Churchill Fired

from The Sylvia Rivera Law Project

(Sylvia Rivera, 1951 to 2002)
This project is named for civil rights pioneer Sylvia Rivera. A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, Sylvia was a tireless advocate for all those who have been marginalized as the "gay rights" movement has mainstreamed. Sylvia fought hard against the exclusion of transgender people from the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York, and was a loud and persistent voice for the rights of people of color and low-income queers and trans people. This project works to continue Sylvia's work by centralizing issues of systemic poverty and racism, and prioritizing the struggles of queer and trans people who face the most severe and multi-faceted discrimination.

For more on The Sylvia Rivera Law Project click on the post title above.

from Democracy Now!

On July 25th, 1898, following 400 years of Spanish rule, US troops invaded the island [of Puerto Rico]. At the end of the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded Puerto Rico and other territories to the United States.

Over a century later, Puerto Rico is still a US territory. Puerto Ricans have had US citizenship since 1917, but residents of the island cannot vote for President and lack voting representation in the US Congress. Debate continues over Puerto Rico's political independence and US military and corporate presence on the island.

Puerto Ricans currently make up about 2.5% of the US population, and after multiple waves of migration over the past two centuries, the continental population is now larger than the population on the island itself.

What they say
must be true:
I am smart,
but I have a bad attitude.

- Martin Espada

Check out the entire radio program; an interview by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez with poet Martin Espada and his father, Frank Espada, by clicking on the post title above.