Whatifalthist takes on modernity and feminism, among other things, in this podcast on YT.

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'Gov. Maura Healey on Monday signed an executive order aimed at boosting women’s employment in the construction industry, and she celebrated the effort with what could be one of her final public collaborations with the Biden administration.

The order ( Executive Order 638) will direct state agencies issuing construction contracts to “do it in a way that we know creates better access to jobs for women and minorities,” Healey said at the event inside Sheet Metal Workers Local 17's Training Center.

That will translate to utilizing apprenticeship programs that boost women and people of color, the governor said, along with safety and anti-harassment training programs and supportive services like child care.

The order created a new body -- the “Diverse and Equitable Construction Workforce Participation Committee” -- which Healey said would coordinate the effort across state agencies and monitor projects over $35 million.'

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'The Railway Protection Force (RPF) prosecuted 304 men for travelling in women-only train coaches in the Eastern Railway zone in a six-day drive as part of 'Operation Mahila Suraksha', an official said on Tuesday.

The initiative, spearheaded by the RPF, focuses on protecting women passengers and ensuring their right to travel without fear or intimidation, he said.

The ER official said that between December 15 and 20, an intensive drive across Howrah, Sealdah, Malda and Asansol divisions of Eastern Railway led to the apprehension and prosecution of 304 men under the provisions of the Railway Act for unauthorised travel in women-only coaches.'

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'Why do boys disproportionately fall into the bottom tenth?

Fascinatingly, Autor and his colleagues found that boys suffered much more than girls from “adverse child-rearing conditions” and “that less favorable home environments differentially raise the prevalence of adverse outcomes among boys relative to girls.”

The consequences?

“Because these adverse outcomes are determinative of high school dropout rates,” they wrote, “this differential sensitivity could help explain the large gender gap in dropping out.”'

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'Women are disproportionately more likely to get Alzheimer's than men, which has long been attributed to living longer and genetic differences.

But now, a new study from Columbia University Irving Medical Center has blamed a new cause: sexism.

Researcher, who reviewed data on more than 21,000 people, said that inequality in access to resources and power was causing damaging changes in women's brains that leads to dementia.

They found that women in America's 'most sexist' states had nine extra years of cognitive decline compared to their peers in the country's least sexist states.

Dr Justina Avila-Rieger, an associate scientist who lead the study, said: 'Our findings suggest that addressing social inequities may be a powerful way to lower the burden of Alzheimer's among women.

'What we... know is that structural inequalities shape individual health outcomes by creating barriers to health-enhancing opportunities and resources.

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'It’s conventional wisdom that young people will be more progressive than their forebears. But although young people can often be counted upon to be more comfortable with risk and radicalism, that doesn’t mean they will always express that through left-leaning politics.

Young men may have helped hand President-Elect Donald Trump his victory, fueling the narrative about a growing gender gap among young voters. But this is not just an American trend. In South Korea, young men have been radicalized against feminism, opening up a large gender gap; in Poland, gender emerged “as a significant factor … with young men showing a strong preference” for the far-right political alliance; and in Belgium, the anti-immigrant and separatist Vlaams Belang party received significantly more support from young men than young women.'

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'Apparently the recent Wisconsin female school shooter, Samantha Rupnow was known to spew hatred towards men and to believe that all men needed to be killed in order for women to be free to create a new world. I don’t think she offered an explanation of where the sperm might come from in order continue propagating this paradise, but maybe she just didn’t think that far ahead? The media is staying fairly quiet about this. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if a male mass shooter openly stated that he wanted to kill all women. You would never hear the end of it.

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'Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman bluntly told his fellow Democrats they lost male voters to President-elect Donald Trump because they were “condescending” and “insulting.”

“It was clear [in 2016] that people were voting for Trump. And the Democrats’ response was, ‘Aren’t they smart enough to realize they’re voting against their interests?’ And that’s insulting, and that’s, I mean, that’s, that’s just not helpful,” the 55-year-old told the New York Times Thursday.

“It’s condescending. And if anything, that reinforces that kind of stereotype. Telling them that ‘I know better than you do,’ that’s not helpful.”'

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'A married schoolteacher is accused of grooming an 11-year-old boy with nude photos and $700 until they had sex on her bed.

Ashley Elizabeth Bardfield, 32, was arrested on Wednesday night in Mt Zion, Illinois, after the boy helped police with a sting operation.

The sixth-grade substitute teacher at Decatur Public Schools District was recorded telling the boy they could ‘do it again’ and she couldn’t get pregnant.

Bardfield was reported to police after the boy’s mother noticed him ‘acting differently’ after spending the night at the teacher’s home on March 29-30.'

Article here. If you see yourself in this article, please reach out to GA. Excerpt:

'A new type of addict is showing up at Gamblers Anonymous meetings across the country: investors hooked on the market’s riskiest trades.

At Gamblers Anonymous in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, one man called options “the crack cocaine” of the stock market. Another said he faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in trading losses after borrowing from a loan shark to double down on stocks. And one young man brought his mom and girlfriend to celebrate one year since his last bet.

They were among a group of about 60 people, almost all men, who sat in rows of metal folding chairs in a crowded church basement that evening. Some shared their struggle with addiction—not on sports apps or at Las Vegas casinos—but using brokerage apps like Robinhood.'

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'Ji Yeon, who also goes by her American name Canti, is a 27-year-old YouTuber and a graduate student in media and gender studies based in Seoul. American women might know her as the “Queen of 4B,” referring to the South Korean movement aimed at creating a world without men. 4B — shorthand for four Korean words that all start with bi-, or “no”: bisekseu (no sex), biyeonae (no dating), bihon (no marriage), and bichulsan (no childbearing) with men — is both an ideological stance and a lifestyle, and its ideas went viral in the U.S. in the weeks following the reelection of Donald Trump. Ji Yeon has been practicing 4B since 2018, which has since given her, she says, a true sense of liberation. “I realized, ‘Oh, I can just be myself. I don’t have to conform to what society deems acceptable.’” Since April of this year, she has been corresponding with and hosting social-media ask-me-anythings about the movement with mostly American audiences. Last week, we had a long talk about 4B’s rise in America and the power of global feminist solidarity.'

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'Cara Daggett, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Tech University, coined the term “petro-masculinty” in a paper she published in 2018. She used the term to describe the rise of authoritarian movements in the Western hemisphere and how they were being shaped by climate change denialism and misogyny in an appeal to men who felt they were being left behind by society.
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No longer just an energy source, fossil fuels have become wrapped up in the American identity, says Daggett. For conservative men in particular, that’s essential to a return to male-governed households and society, not only at the expense of women, Daggett says, but also the environment.'

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'David Hogg plans to fire consultants who helped lead the Democratic Party down their “path of failure” if he wins his recently announced bid to become Democratic National Committee vice chairperson.

Hogg, a 24-year-old gun control advocate who survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, joined MSNBC’s Chris Jansing on Tuesday after announcing his candidacy for a leadership position in the DNC. The activist revealed that part of his motivation was frustration with the Democratic Party, especially after he was shut down repeatedly during the 2024 presidential election for voicing concerns about the party’s outreach to young people, specifically men.'

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'Online friends of Rupnow identified an X account belonging to her, in which a photo was posted just minutes before the shooting. Police said they responded to the school shortly before 11 am local time, and a photo was posted to the account at 10:45 am showing a person in a bathroom stall showing the "OK" hand symbol.

An account on X called @PETR0GRAD claimed to have access to a Discord chat where Rupnow was detailing her mindset and plans. Later, it was suggested that this was part of an earlier draft of a manifesto.