A Male Poetics

All French literary fiction, Coquillat contends, from Madame de Lafayette to Philippe Sollers, can be shown to repeat a single representation of gender, a single, scarcely varied pattern: man is transcendence, woman contingency. Man defies death through his immortal m uvre , woman 'creates' only living beings that must die. The romantic hero, the male intellectual adventurer, continues even now to be the creator's alter ego and occupies the centre of French literature, from avant garde to mainstream. By definition, he is in aloof rebellion against a 'bourgeois society' that suppresses genius. His politics as such are more often than not an 'apolitical' conservatism, his misogyny averred, in and out of his writing. If he is intrinsically more valuable it is precisely because he can rise to the singular status of the creator-genius, while women remain biologically and sociologically rooted in the mass. Rousseau was the first to theorize this vision of male superiority in his Reveries of a Solitary Walker , celebrating creativity as a male-orgasmic return to essence of which women are by nature incapable. Rousseau's most hysterical attacks on women's literature are contained in the pages of this work.     

Adolescents’ Social Status Goals: Relationships to Social Status Insecurity, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior

Peer status is an important aspect of adolescents’ social lives and is pursued actively by them. Although extensive research has examined how social behaviors are related to peer status (e.g., social preference, popularity), little attention has been given to adolescents’ social goals to obtain a desired peer status. Thus, this study examined two types of social status goals, popularity goal and social preference goal, and their relationships to social status insecurity and social behaviors among 405 ethnically diverse early adolescents (267 girls; M age = 12.92 years; age range = 11–15 years). After accounting for adolescents’ attained peer statuses (popularity and social preference), both social status goals were related distinctly to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as measured by self reports and peer nominations. Specifically, higher endorsement of the popularity goal was related to more self-reported relational aggression, but less peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In contrast, higher endorsement of the social preference goal was linked to less self-reported overt and relational aggression, but more self-reported and peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In addition, this study reveals that adolescents’ social status insecurity was related positively to both social status goals and had an indirect effect on adolescents’ social behaviors through the mediation of popularity goal endorsement. There were variations in goal endorsement as shown by groups of adolescents endorsing different levels of each goal. The group comparison results on social behaviors were largely consistent with the correlational findings. This study provides new insights into adolescents’ social cognitive processes about peer status and the implications of the two social status goals on adolescents’ behavioral development.     

The Living Present as a Materialist Feminist Temporality

Abstract

Bringing together the work of Barad and Deleuze, this article develops the concept of the living present as a frame for an emerging feminist temporality. Within feminist and queer theories, there has been much discussion of the value of non-chronological time in opening up a transformative and unknown future. The author expands on this arena by discussing not only the future, but also the echoes, resonances and traces of the past—a past whose material effects continue to act as living, changing forces on the present and the future. Described as the present of retention and expectation, the living present is never a static ‘now’, but always a stretching between past and future as it contracts all past experiences and expects those yet to come. As it builds on the work of Grosz, Colebrook and others, the living present encourages non-linear, open-ended readings of past events, and therefore represents a new lens through which to approach documented and assumed histories. By opening up collaborative lines of flight between new materialism, Deleuze and feminism, the thick time of the living present reveals a past of forceful, intra-active materialities. It is a realm of possibility to which one is accountable, but not bound.     

Cooperation in PD Games: Fear, Greed, and History of Play

The impact of the cardinal relationships amongpecuniary payoffs, and of social history and reputation, on thechoice of strategies in four one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma games isexperimentally examined. The results suggest that normalized payoffvalues linked to ``fear'' and ``greed'' are important as predictorsof behavior in the PD games. Success in coordinating on the payoffdominant equilibrium in previous plays of coordination games alsoincreases the probability of cooperative play in the PD games. Theeffect of past play is strongest when individuals are matchedrepeatedly with the same person in previous play, as contrasted tobeing matched randomly with another player.     

Expanding access to health care for Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries: early findings from the accelerated benefits demonstration

Most Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries must complete a 5-month waiting period before they become entitled to DI cash benefits and an additional 24-month waiting period before Medicare benefits begin. The Accelerated Benefits (AB) demonstration is a randomized experiment designed to test the effects of providing newly entitled DI beneficiaries who do not have health insurance with a generous health benefits package during the Medicare waiting period. This article presents early findings on the prevalence of health insurance coverage among newly entitled beneficiaries and the characteristics of those without health insurance. It also examines the effects of AB on health care utilization, the extent to which AB reduces unmet medical needs, and the costs of providing the AB health benefits package.     

Front‐line Regulators and their Approach to Environmental Regulation in Southwest Ohio

Regulatory approaches and strategies are frequently the subject of study in various literatures, but that examination focuses on practices rather than looking more deeply at the nature of regulatory interactions. Also missing is a more thorough look at what it is front‐line regulators—in this case, environmental inspectors and site coordinators—desire in their interactions and how they perceive their regulatory counterparts. Interviews with regulators in Southwest Ohio reveal that 82 percent of them think the regulated community intends to comply with regulations. Additionally, 71 percent of regulators say that their interactions are positive with the regulated community with three‐quarters indicating that trust plays a role in these interactions. Only 36 percent of interviewees prefer a clear cut and consistent approach while the rest favor a collaborative approach or some combination thereof. These findings should impact discussions concerning regulatory approaches in environmental policy, particularly conversations concerning next‐generation policies.     

Do Anti-Bullying Laws Reduce In-School Victimization,Fear-based Absenteeism,and Suicidality for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Questioning Youth?

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are at heightened risk for bullying and other forms of in-school victimization. Anti-bullying laws are a potential policy mechanism for addressing this issue, yet there has been little investigation of the impact of such policies for this population using generalizable samples or quasi-experimental designs. The current study explores whether the presence of state anti-bullying laws predicts lower likelihood of bullying victimization, fear-based absenteeism, in-school threats or injury with a weapon, and suicidality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning high school students in the United States. Based on Youth Risk Behavior Survey data across 22 states from 2005–2015, coupled with data about the presence of general and enumerated anti-bullying laws that include sexual orientation as a protected class, this study analyzes this topic using a quasi-experimental design (linear difference-in-difference models). The results indicate that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning youth (particularly boys aged 15 or younger) experienced less bullying victimization in states with general or enumerated anti-bullying laws. There was modest evidence of a reduction in fear-based absenteeism among boys in states with such laws. However, there was little evidence of a relationship between such policies and in-school threats or injuries or suicidality. Further, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning girls’ likelihood of victimization, absenteeism, or suicidality was generally not related to the presence of anti-bullying laws. The results suggest that general and enumerated anti-bullying laws may help reduce bullying victimization for gay, bisexual, and questioning boys.     

Relationship Trajectories and Psychological Well-Being Among Sexual Minority Youth

Dating in adolescence plays an integral part in the development of sexual and social identities. This process is particularly salient for sexual minority youth who face additional obstacles to their identity formation due to their marginalized status. We investigated the influence of participating in a same-sex relationship (SSR) or an opposite-sex relationship (OSR) on sexual minority youths’ psychological well-being (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety and internalized homophobia, and self-esteem) in an ethnically-diverse sample of 350 youth (55% male) between the ages of 15–19 years, recruited from three GLBT drop-in centers in the New York City area. Using longitudinal data, we examined youths’ SSR and OSR over time. Multivariate regression analyses suggest that involvement in a SSR was positively associated with changes in self-esteem in males, and negatively correlated with changes in internalized homophobia in females. We discuss the implications for positive development in sexual minority adolescent populations.