Cordelia Fine: Delusions of Gender

Sex differences in the brain are sexist, argues this psychologist, in a rousing talk on neuroscience and sexism. Theories involving fetal testosterone, multitasking, and other science standbys are criticized. An appearance at the 2010 Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House. See also: a debate on science and gender between Elizabeth Spelke and Stephen Pinker.

The Full Story – Soften the Fck Up

Mental health issues and young men, in an awareness campaign about depression, anxiety, suicide, shame, and social issues from male perspectives. Clips of personal narrative in a simple, accessible video. Check out other videos and the whole campaign at the Australian web site.

Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation 2008 Lecture

Ian Hickie presents research on mental health issues in the Australian legal profession. He discusses help-seeking behaviours, productivity, disability, economic burden of illness, suicide and prevention efforts, substance use, neurobiology, treatments, gender and age differences, stigma and discrimination, and more. Extremely well-researched presentation with many statistics and perspectives. The 40 minute lecture is followed by a panel discussion, a Q&A session with the audience, and a brief talk by organization co-founder George Jepson. The Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation works to “raise awareness, improve education and build effective models of support which focus on mental health wellbeing” in the legal profession, and funds relevant research including that of Prof. Hickie.

Why Women Apologize more than Men: Gender Differences in Thresholds for Perceiving Offensive Behavior

Pubcast accompanying an article in Psychological Science. A co-author describes a psychology experiment in which men and women were monitored to see how many apologies they gave and received. The women they studied apologized more, but the gender difference was due to perceptions of whether or not an offense had taken place that warranted an apology.

Meeting of Minds: Sex and Stigma

A conversation between Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the Nobel laureate who discovered the link betweeen the HIV virus and AIDS, and a young female physicist. Barre-Sinoussi discusses social stigma, religion and HIV and how that impeded her research. They both talk about their respective careers, and discrimination faced by women in science. Her advice to young scientists: “Just be persistant. Show them that women in your field can be successful.”

[Image by looking glass]

Alcohol: A women’s health issue

Seven women recount their experiences with alcoholism. Close captioned.

Pink Brain, Blue Brain

Mythbusting sex differences in the brain: author/neuroscientist Lise Eliot discusses her book.

[Image from BL1961]

Women Who Served in Our Military: For Veterans and Families
Jane Pauley hosts a documentary about the experiences of American women veterans, and their mental health. Close captioned. PDF transcript. There’s also a 01:10:00 version for service providers, here. For more info, email ncptsd@va.gov or call the PTSD Information Line at (802) 296-6300

[Above video features highlights; full episode premieres July 19.]

Most Popular

Would you answer a casting call like this? Contestants wanted: be judged by 100 women on your attractiveness, moral character, likeability, and fashion taste. Answer personal and embarrassing questions on camera. Crowd members will make quick, catty comments about why they don’t like you, if voted off. … Some women have very strong self-esteem and/or a strong drive to appear on TV, so here’s Most Popular, a new game show. 91% of 894 adult women polled by WEtv ”usually judge someone based on their appearance before they get to know them.” This idea underlies the show’s Moral Wheel (spin for questions about scruples, inner self, relationships – and looks) and competitive wedding gowns. Most Popular involves social psychology, evo psych, pop psych, feminism and more. It isn’t a science program, but it is an entertaining cultural experiment.

I’d never watched WEtv before this preview, and their store sells plastic flip-flops with a pink heart pattern – which caused me to form a snap judgment, as a critical woman who likes shoes. Then I challenged the stereotype, got to know the show on its own merits, and feel more positive about it.

The first episode premieres Sunday July 19 at 10:00 pm EST.

[Short clip embedded above; link to full video below.]

title The Gender Puzzle
description Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, genetics, intersex, and gender beyond chromosomes or culture. A pay per view video on demand (PPV VOD) costing one British pound but worth it. An excellent documentary. From the description: “Scientists are now looking beyond chromosomes to ‘brain sex’ and the role of newly discovered genes. By studying transsexuals and people on the gender extremes, they believe they can unlock the gender puzzle.”
producer Janine Cohen, for ABC Australia
featuring Janine Cohen, Christie North & family, Vince Harley, Andrew Sinclair, Louise Newman, Andie Hider & family, Garry Warne, Fintan Harte, Craig Andrews and many more
format Flash
date 17/11/05
length 00:44:50
link http://www.booserver.com/projects.php?ProjectID=2394

Tags: brain video documentary PPV sex gender genetics intersex transsexual transgender bioethics LGBT