Boys & Girls & Reading

According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, boys have lower reading skills than girls by the end of primary school. This gap has been reported for more than twenty years with "girls outperforming boys in 51 of the 57 participating education systems, with an average difference of 19 points". In addition, boys report less enjoyment of reading; 46% of girls say they like reading compared to only 37% of boys enjoying reading (via).

photogrpah by Vivian Maier via

But Against the System

"I do not fight against men, but against the system that is sexist."

Elfriede Jelinek

photograph via

The Shaping of the Face Space in Early Infancy: Becoming a Native Face Processor

Abstract: Face perception remains one of the most intensively researched areas in psychology and allied disciplines, and there has been much debate regarding the early origins and experiential determinants of face processing. This article reviews studies, the majority of which have appeared in the past decade, that discuss possible mechanisms underlying face perception at birth and document the prominent role of experience in shaping infants’ face-processing abilities. In the first months of life, infants develop a preference for female and own-race faces and become better able to recognize and categorize own-race and own-species faces. This perceptual narrowing and shaping of the “face space” forms a foundation for later face expertise in childhood and adulthood and testifies to the remarkable plasticity of the developing visual system. (Slater et al., 2020)

- Slater, A., quinn, P. C., Kelly, D. J., Lee, K., Longmore, C. A., McDonald, P. R. & Pascalis, O. (2010). The Shaping of the Face Space in Early Infancy: Becoming a Native Face Processor. Child Development Perspectives, link
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

Hunger has a Female Face

49,7% of the world population is female, however, women and girls make up 60% of the 309 million people extremely hungry right now. 126 million more women than men struggle securing their next meal (via). In countries facing hunger due to conflict, women often eat least sacrificing for their families. In two thirds of countries, women are more likely to report food insecurity than men. One in three women has anemia, a diet-related iron deficiency, which can damage organs if it is untreated (via).

photograph by Vivian Maier via

The Coded Gaze

"You've likely heard of the 'male gaze' or the 'white gaze. This is a cousin concept really, about who has the power to shape technology and whose preferences and priorities are baked in — as well as also, sometimes, whose prejudices are baked in.“

Joy Buolamwini

"The goal of AJL is to create a world with more inclusive technology by fighting “the coded gaze”, my term for bias in artificial intelligence that can lead to exclusionary experiences or discriminatory practices. The coded gaze is a view that posits any technology created by humans will reflect individual or collective values, priorities and if unchecked, prejudices. To address bias, the coded gaze must be acknowledged. Exploring the coded gaze can inform ways to make artificial intelligence more inclusive. AJL fights the coded gaze through a bias-busting strategy that (1) highlights bias by raising public awareness on the shortcomings of artificial intelligence through media production, public talks, and exhibitions, (2) identifies bias by conducting research and building tools that practitioners and researchers can use to check datasets and algorithms for demographic and phenotypic bias, and (3) mitigates bias by providing inclusive benchmarks and best practices to create more inclusive artificial intelligence." (Buolamwini, 2017)

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- Buolamwini, J. (2017). Gender Shades: Intersectional Phenotypic and Demographic Evaluation of Face Datasets and Gender Classifiers. MIT: MA Thesis.

- photograph by Vivian Maier via

The Tenor of American Emotional Life

"There’s an American can-do attitude that can be bad for people, and I’m not sure it’s lessening. I have cancer now, and you’re supposed to have a good attitude. To hell with it. How are you supposed to have a good attitude? It would be cuckoo to have a good attitude. There’s something about that general tenor of American emotional life. I consider it a very American problem: the inability to tolerate unpleasant emotions. Some emotions are unpleasant, some experiences are unpleasant, some things are very sad, some things are very frustrating. And that’s okay. You can’t fix it. That’s the way life is."

Susanna Kaysen

photograph by Vivian Maier via

Demarcating "Old Age"

"Old age" is what is defined as "old age" and the perception very much depends on the age of the persons asked. In a study, participants (n=300, 150 men and 150 women, mean age 58.8) were interviewed using a quetionnaire on the age perceived as old. 

According to the sample, 73.7 years is the lower bound of "old age" (answers ranged from 45 to 100 years). A closer look at the participants' age shows an impact their age had on their definition: Participants under 65 reported 70.5 years to be the beginning of old age while participants over 65 marked 77.4 as the beginning of old age - a difference of almost 7 years. In other words, the older a particpant, the later the beginning of old age. 

Men perceived old age 3 years before women and those reporting good health perceived it 3.9 years earlier than those with excellent health. In fact, health deterioration was "the most reported factor in the perception of old age" (Daignault, Wassef & Nguyen, 2021).

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- Daignault, M., Wassef, A. & Nguyen, Q. D. (2021). How old is old? Identifying a chronological age and factors related with the perception of old age. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 69(11), 3330-3333.
- photograph by the great Vivian Maier via

Italian Children No Longer Automatically Named After Father

The constitutional court has ruled that Italian children should be given the surnames of both parents (alternatively parents should choose one surname together) and no longer be automatically named after their fathers since this practice was "discriminatory and harmful to the identity" of the child (via).

photograph by Vivian Maier via

A Curious Study on Gender, Touching One's Face and Subconscious Sniffing

According to a study carried out at the Weizmann Institute of Science, people shake hands to smell each other. Subjects were filmed to see how often they touched their own faces after shaking hands. Results showed that face-touching with the right hand increased by more than 100% after a handshake with a person of the same gender (shaking hands with someone of the opposite sex increased the likelihood to smell the left hand). 

In addition, the people observed did not just touch their faces but sniffed their hands ... subconsciously since sniffing openly is considered a taboo ... and, according to the researchers, to pick up chemical signals and find out more about the people around them (via and via).

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photograph by Vivian Maier via

Designing cities for the mythical average person, erasing older people from urban planning

"Design of public spaces can exclude groups of people. Whyte (1980) calls this a drowning out of certain groups by designing for one group over another, or simply overlooking the needs of one group. Studies on gentrification have examined how the needs of people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds get dispplaced as investment is put into developing an area. This can also be felt by older people, expecially in many areas where older people have lived for a long time, but new younger families, perhaps from different backgrounds and cultures are encouraged into an area. Older people feel somewhat displaced and that their needs are unmet (Kelley, Dannefer, & Al Masarweh, 2018; Lewis, 2017; Phillipson, 2007); as Yarker (2019) notes, 'older people can often be 'erased' from urban planning and rendered invisible in their own communities' (p. 12). (...)



There is also the issue that if spaces are designed for other groups, then the space contains infrastructure that might not just be inappropriate for older people, but might actually physically or psychologically exclude older people. On some occasions, the exclusion is deliberate; increasing privatisation of space can design elements of the public realm to create more commercial interactions and comercial intersts of the landowner and tenants are placed above those of the individual. (...) An example might be a shopping centre or mall, to encourage use and spending, a sense of busyness is created, lack of benches and places to stop and dwell are found to drive people into shops and cafes and spend money. Ageist stereotypes may also work to keep older people out of certain public realm spaces that the landownder wants to keep looking young, vibrant and fresh. Across many western and developing cities, redevelopment and redesign of city centres, for example, are often geared around economic growth with the stereotypical view of a vibrant young wealthy workforce. Hence, homes and commercial space are at best developed for a mythical average person, a hypermobile worker with no dependents and at worst developed for the younger affluent wokrer, excluding the older person from living in that space." (Musselwhite, 2021)

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- Musselwhite, C. B. A. (2021). Designing Public Space for an Ageing Population: Improving Pedestrian Mobility for Older People. Emerald Publishing Limited.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

... and the fear might evaporate.

“If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends on might evaporate.”
George Orwell, 1984



photograph by Vivian Maier via

World Osteoporosis Day

Since osteoporosis still has the image of being a so-called women's health issue, it is often overlooked in men and becomes an unrecognised and untreated condition leading to higher mortality and morbidity rates in men (Rao, Budhwar & Ashfaque, 2010).



- Rao, S. S., Budhwar, N. & Ashfaque, A. (2010). Osteoporosis in Men. American Family Physician, 82(5), 503-508.
- photograph by the amazing Vivian Maier via

Intergroup Contact Theory

According to Allport (1954), four conditions are essential to enhance positive effects of intergroup contact: equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and support of authorities.



Equal status
Equal status needs to be perceived by both groups within the situation. Research findings vary and range from a) contact with outgroup members of lower status showing negative effects to b) being insignificant and equal status within the situation being the key factor.

Common goals
An active, goal-oriented effort (as given in athletic teams) means that teams need each member to achieve their goal.

Intergroup cooperation
Intergroup competition is seen as a barrier to enhancing a positive intergroup contact; cooperation should be the way how common goals are reached.

Support of authorities, law, or custom
Explicit social sanction fosters the acceptance of intergroup contact since norms of acceptance are established by authorities.

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- Pettigrew, T. F. Intergroup Contact Theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65-85.
- photograph by the magnificent Vivian Maier via

The Elderly, the Pandemic, ... Our Indifference.

(...) Notice how the all-too-familiar rhetoric of dehumanization works: “The elderly” are bunched together as a faceless mass, all of them considered culprits and thus effectively deserving of the suffering the pandemic will inflict upon them. Lost entirely is the fact that the elderly are individual human beings, each with a distinctive face and voice, each with hopes and dreams, memories and regrets, friendships and marriages, loves lost and loves sustained. But they deserve to die—and as for us, we can just go about our business. (...)



What does it say about our society that people think of the elderly so dismissively—and moreover, that they feel no shame about expressing such thoughts publicly? I find myself wondering whether this colossal moral failure is exacerbated by the most troubled parts of our cultural and economic life. When people are measured and valued by their economic productivity, it is easy to treat people whose most economically productive days have passed as, well, worthless.

From a religious perspective, if there is one thing we ought to teach our children, it is that our worth as human beings does not depend on or derive from what we do or accomplish or produce; we are, each of us, infinitely valuable just because we are created in the image of God. We mattered before we were old enough to be economically productive, and we will go on mattering even after we cease to be economically productive.

Varied ethical and religious traditions find their own ways to affirm an elemental truth of human life: The elderly deserve our respect and, when necessary, our protection. The mark of a decent society is that it resists the temptation to spurn the defenseless. It is almost a truism that the moral fabric of a society is best measured by how it treats the vulnerable in its midst—and yet it is a lesson we never seem to tire of forgetting. “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old,” the Bible says—look out for them and, in the process, become more human yourself.

Shai Held (president, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar)

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potograph by wonderful Vivian Maier via

Being Black in this Pandemic

In England and Wales, Covid-19 patients from black African backgrounds die at more than triple (3.5) rate compared to white people (via), black men are 4.2 times more likely to die than their white counterparts (via) (chances of dying are 1.7 times higher for people of black Caribbean heritage, 2.7 times higher for those with Pakistani heritage). The victims also show the tendency to be younger.



According to a report, ethnic minorities are dying in excess numbers in hospitals, among them a striking number of ethnic minority healthcare workers. This fact that can only be explained considering different factors for different groups. For instance, while black Africans are more likely to be affected because of the key worker roles they are employed in, older Bangladeshi men have health conditions that make them more vulnerable (via).

More than 20% of black African women are employed in health and social care roles while Pakistani men are 90% more likely to work in healthcare roles than their white British counterparts. Similarly, while Indian people make up just 3% of the working population in England and Wales, they account for 14% of doctors, according to the research.

In addition, there are differences when it comes to economic vulnerability:

Bangladeshi men are four times as likely as white British men to have jobs in shutdown industries, with Pakistani men nearly three times as likely," she said. This is partly because of their heavy concentration in the restaurant and taxi sector, she suggested. "Household savings are lower than average among black Africans, black Caribbeans and Bangladeshis," she added. "By contrast, Indians and the largely foreign-born other white group do not seem to be facing disproportionate economic risks.
Lucinda Platt

While only 2% of white British households experienced overcrowding from 2014 to 2017, 30% of Bangladeshi households, 16% of Pakistani households and 12% of black households experienced this, according to a study of the English Housing Survey. (via)

To put it in a nutshell, it is complex:

To try to understand how much of the difference in Covid-19 morbidity was to do purely with ethnicity, the statisticians adjusted for age as well as region, rural and urban classification, area deprivation, household composition, socio-economic position, highest qualification held, household tenure, and health or disability as recorded in the 2011 census. (via)

The fully adjusted results show differences in risk between ethnic groups that are specific to those ethnic groups and are not caused by any of the factors listed on which members of the groups might differ. (via)

In the US, Covid-19 fatalities are extremely high among black Americans:

As of Tuesday, black people made up 33 percent of cases in Michigan and 40 percent of deaths, despite being just 14 percent of the state’s population. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, where blacks represent 26 percent of the population, they made up almost half of the county’s 945 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths, according to a ProPublica report. In Illinois, black people made up 42 percent of fatalities but make up only 14.6 percent of the state’s population. In Chicago, the data is even graver: Black people represented 68 percent of the city’s fatalities and more than 50 percent of cases but only make up 30 percent of the city’s total population.
In the South, the numbers are also grim. In Louisiana, black people accounted for more than 70 percent of deaths in a state population that is about 33 percent black. About 33 percent of the state’s 512 deaths as of Tuesday morning have occurred in Orleans Parish, where black people make up more than 60 percent of the population and where 29 percent of people live in poverty, according to 2018 census data. (via)

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photograph by the amazing Vivian Maier via

How Hot are Women with Rectovaginal Endometriosis? Yes, This Study Has Been Published.

The official objective of this study? "To evaluate physical attractiveness in women with and without endometriosis". Implications? Clinical utility? Contribution to medical science? None. Interventions? "Assessment of attractiveness by four independent female and male observers." Conclusions? "Women with rectovaginal endometriosis were judged to be more attractive than those in the two control groups. Moreover, they had a leaner silhouette, larger breasts, and an earlier coitarche."



Yes, this bunch of sexists seriously started judging female patients's attractiveness based on vulgar criteria, asked them about their first intercourse, checked their body mass index, waist-to-hip-ratio and breast-to-underbreast-ratio. Inclusion criteria were e.g. age between 20 and 40 and Caucasian origin. The subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire investigating general information in the first part and sexual history and sexual habits in the second part (62 refused to compile the sexual part of the questionnaire). Since this was not awkward enough, women afterwards "underwent a physical examination by the two trained physicians, including weight and height assessment, measurement of hip, waist, breast and underbreast circumferences. Once this overall evaluation was completed, other four different physicians (...) gave a judgment, based on direct evaluation, on patient attractiveness on a 5-point rating scale (5 = very attractive; 4 = rather attractive; 3 = averagely attractive; 2 = little attractive; 1 = not at all attractive)". On the basis of the mean scores, three categories were defined: very/rather attractive, averagely attractive, little/not at all attractive (29 were unwilling to undergo physical assessment). The would-be scientists "found out" that women with rectovaginal endometriosis had a significantly higher breast-to-underbreast ratio, leaner silhouette, larger breasts, earlier coitarche, and appeared more attractive than those with peritoneal and/or ovarian endometriosis, as well as those without endometriosis. And yes, this "study" is truly gross.

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- Vercellini, P., Buggio, L, Somigliana, E., Barbara G., Viganò, P. & Fedele, L. (2013). Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study. Fertility and Sterility, 99(1), 212-218.
- photograph by the amazing Vivian Maier (Chicago, 1961) via

Gender Differences in Borderline Personality Disorder

According to earlier research, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is more common among women (female to male gender ratio of 3:1) (Sansone & Sansone, 2011). Generally speaking, literature on BPD focuses on women while research on its occurrence in men is rather scarce (Johnson et al., 2003). More recent research, however, suggests that there are no differences in prevalence based on gender but with regard to personality traits. Explanations range from "a subtle female gender bias with regard to the diagnosis of BPD" to sampling bias not reflecting the real gender distribution and an uneven expression in BPD (Sansone & Sansone, 2011).



Men with borderline personality disorder seem to "demonstrate an explosive temperament and higher levels of novelty seeking" and antisocial personality disorder while women show the tendency to "evidence eating, mood, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorders". There are also differences in treatment histories: Men are more likely to be treated for substance abuse, women with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy (Sansone & Sansone, 2011).

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- Johnson, D. M., Shea, T., Yen, S., Battle, C., Zlotnick, C., Sanislow, C., Grilo, C. M., Skodol, A. E., Bender, D. S., Mcglashan, T. H., Gunderson, J. G. & Zanarini, M. C. (2003). Gender differences in borderline personality disorder: Longitudinal Personality Disorders study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 44(4), 284-292.
- Sansone, R. A. & Sansone, L. A. (2011). Gender Patterns in Borderline Personality Disorder. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(5), 16-20.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

Elderspeak

Elderspeak is a register of speech similar to "babytalk" with the difference that it is used with older adults. Typical characteristcs are: slow speech rate, exaggerated intonation, elevated pitch and volume, simple vocabulary, reduced grammatical complexity, diminutives, repetition, and collective pronoun substitution (Corwin, 2017).

There are at least four possibilities: an inclusive we, an exclusive we, a "royal we" and a "patronizing we." (...) In a "patronizing" form, we might function more like you and not include the speaker (as in an interaction where a doctor asks a patient "how are we feeling today?") (...)
Wortham & Reyes (2015:48)

Not only is elderspeak linked to communication problems and decreasing communicative competency triggering negative self-assessments of compunicative competence. It is also associated with increased dependence, increased restiveness to care, social isolation, cognitive decline, negative behaviours, and negative social and psychological health outcomes. Older adults consider it to be disrespectful and patronising (Corwin, 2017).

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- Corwin, A. I. (2017). Overcoming Elderspeak. The Gerontologist, 58(4), 724-729.
- Wortham, S. & Reyes, A. (2015). Discourse Analysis beyond the Speech Event. London & New York: Routledge.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

Slow. Or Absent.

"It appears that the recognition, even among social scientists, that age can serve as a potent attribute from which psychological and social benefit or harm can radiate has been slow in coming."
Levy & Banaji (2002)



"Recently, the literature has blossomed with definitions, commentary and research about microaggressions. The term microaggresion has been expanded to include broader social disparities in society such as sexism and heterosexism. However, ageism in relation to microaggresion is glaringly absent."
Gendron et al. (2015)

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- Gendron, T. L., Welleford, E. A., Inker, J., & White, J. T. (2015). The Language of Ageism: Why We Need to Use Words Carefully. The Gerontologist, 56(6), DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnv066
- Levy, B. R. & Banaji, M. R. (2002). Implicit Ageism. In T. D. Nelson (ed.) Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons (49-75). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
- photograph by the amazing Vivian Maier via

White vs Black Offender + Length of Prison Sentence

According to an analysis of cases in which offenders were sentenced in the U.S. between 2011 and 2016, 1) black male offenders received sentences that were on average 19.1% longer than White male offenders sentenced for similar reasons, 2) black male offenders were 21.2% less likely to receive a non-government sponsored downward departure or variance and in case they did, their sentences were 16.8% longer than white male offenders' departure or variance, 3) in case of violence in an offender's criminal history black male offenders received sentences which were on average 20.4% longer than those of similar white male offenders, 4) female offenders received shorter sentences than white male offenders no matter what ethnicity (United State Sentencing Commission, 2017).



photograph by Vivian Maier via