Risk-taking behaviors in adolescent men who have sex with men (MSM): An association between homophobic victimization and alcohol consumption

Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether homophobic victimization was associated with alcohol consumption and riding with an intoxicated driver or driving a car while under the influence of alcohol or drugs among adolescent men who have sex with men (MSM). Methods Cross-sectional analysis used baseline data from a national HIV prevention trial (NCT03167606) for adolescent MSM aged 13–18 years (N = 747). Multivariable logistic regression models assessed associations between homophobic victimization (independent variable) and alcohol-related outcomes (dependent variables), controlling for age, parents’ education level, sexual orientation, health literacy, race, and ethnicity. Results Most participants (87%) reported at least one form of homophobic victimization in their lifetime, with verbal insults being the most frequently reported (82%). In the bivariate analysis, alcohol consumption and riding with an intoxicated driver or driving a car while under the influence were associated with many forms of victimization. Exposure to at least one form of victimization was associated with increased odds of alcohol consumption (OR: 2.31; 95% CI: 1.38–3.87) and riding with an intoxicated driver or driving a car while under the influence (OR: 2.25; 95% CI: 1.26–4.00), after controlling for covariates. Conclusion Increased risk of alcohol consumption and risky alcohol-related behaviors were found among adolescent MSM who experienced homophobic victimization. Interventions should address homophobic victimization and its impact on adolescent MSM, as well as disentangling motivations for underage drinking, riding with an intoxicated driver or driving a car while under the influence.

Gender aspects of gaslighting as a form of psychological violence in the family

The article reveals the problem of psychological violence in the family and considers the gender aspects of the manipulative phenomenon of gaslighting. Manipulations are aimed at forcing other people to perform exactly the actions that the manipulator needs. These actions lead to certain consequences that the manipulator wants to get in accordance with his motives. In a family relationship, the gaslight partner does not care what the victim partner wants and aspires to. It is important to him that others obey. Because the victim partner does not always agree to submit to this pressure, the gaslighter uses manipulation to indirectly influence the motivation, decisions and actions of the victim partner. Manipulative techniques are often veiled in such a way that the victim cannot understand the harmful effects that the partner has on him. The aim of the study was to study the concept of “gaslighting” in the environment of interpersonal relationships of marital partners; studies of gender features of gaslighting; identification of verbal and nonverbal means of manipulation characteristic of a gaslighter; development of practical recommendations on ways to counteract the gaslighter. The results of our study showed that destructive statements to victim partners characterize the specifics of gaslighting as a kind of psychological, emotional violence in family relationships. Women are more told about their mental illness, inferiority, humiliation, success. Men in their address more often hear from partners statements about the wrong perception of reality. The most common manifestations of gaslighting in the family relationships of respondents are: humiliation of the person by the partner, devaluation of feelings and the importance of important events, as well as the transfer of responsibility to the partner. Regarding the manipulative actions used by gaslight partners towards the respondents, we highlighted accusations from partners, ignoring feelings, verbal insults and rejection of the lifestyle of partner victims. The key strategies for resolving family conflicts that respondents use are rivalries and adaptations. In general, based on the results, we found that there is no gender variation in the use of gaslighting by marital partners in family relationships – since both women and men are equally faced with the manifestations of this phenomenon in the family Key words: gaslighting, manipulator, gaslighter partner, victim partner, psychological violence, family relations.

Remaking the People

This chapter explains how a democracy weakened by damaged social foundations and corrupted governing institutions breeds despotism. The governing party machine, in the hands of a big boss leader, stirs up talk of ‘democracy’ and ‘the people’. It neuters the courts and other power-monitoring institutions and turns them into empty shells. Demagogic talk of ‘democracy’ and the need for firm rule backed by ‘the people’ grows louder, and more militant. Elections become rowdy plebiscites. Rumours, exaggerations, and bullshit are spread by its loyal media organs. The signature tactic is stirring up trouble about who counts as ‘the people’. Elections are turned upside down, they become an exercise in electing an alternative people, a ‘true’ and ‘pure’ people rid of misfits and miscreants. The government votes in the people. India is pushing in a similar direction, with the country’s 200 million Muslim citizens as the ‘non-people’ that strongman Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party seeks to disempower. They are the prime targets of verbal insults, institutional discrimination, police inaction, political propaganda, and street-level thuggery. But the country’s intrinsic plurality and a well-entrenched democratic culture remain a powerful bulwark against centralized state power.

Gender-related differences in the use and perception of verbal insults: the Bosnian perspective

The paper explores potential gender-linked differences in the use and perception of insulting language among Bosnian university students. The respondents were asked to provide one-word answers to four questions about the worst male-directed and female-directed insults, and about one-word descriptions of a male and female person who they view as the most detestable. The results indicate that the male and female respondents have a similar perception of the worst male-directed (lack of masculinity) and, to a lesser extent, femaledirected insults (sexual looseness). Surprisingly, insults of homosexual nature, as well as those pertaining to being unethical and physically unattractive were rarely mentioned. The results also reveal significant gender -of-insulter differences in the use of offensive words in reference to the most disliked person, as well as the tendency by the respondents of both genders to avoid using those insults that they perceive as the harshest.

Was Rhoda Insulted? Re-Reading the Translation of Acts 12:15 in the Asante-Twi Bible

Bible translation is among the most difficult exercises in scholarship, for it needs careful analysis of the biblical texts in the light of the culture of the indigenous people to make the word of God acceptable in their culture, while not deviating from the original meaning. The Asante-Twi Bible (2012) is a product of Bible translation exercise in contemporary scholarship. However, there exist in it some translation problems; some texts which are said by Christians have been translated to carry verbal insults and derogatory remarks in the Asante-Twi language, which are not what the Greek texts intended. An example is Acts 12:15, which suggests that Rhoda was insulted by a group of Christians for saying the truth. Using Mother-tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and exegesis, the study has found out that the translation of οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπαν· Μαίνῃ… (hoi de pros auten eipan…) (“And they said: You are mad!”…) as “Na wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Woabɔ dam!...” (And they said to her: You are mad!...) in the Asante-Twi Bible should rather be: “Nanso wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Biribi ha wo!...” (But they said to her: You are troubled!...). The study has added to the interpretations of Acts 12:15 in Asante-Twi. It is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using “Na wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Biribi ha wo!...” in the translation of οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπαν· Μαίνῃ… (hoi de pros auten eipan…). Keywords: Insult, Bible translation, Mother-tongue, Asante-Twi and Woabɔ dam.

The urgent need for modification of scientific ranking indexes to facilitate scientific progress and diminish academic bullying

Academic bullying occurs when senior scientists direct abusive behavior such as verbal insults, public shaming, isolation, and threatening toward vulnerable junior colleagues such as postdocs, graduate students and lab members. We believe that one root cause of bullying behavior is the pressure felt by scientists to compete for rankings designed to measure their scientific worth. These ratings, such as the h-index, have several unintended consequences, one of which we believe is academic bullying. Under pressure to achieve higher and higher rankings, in exchange for positive evaluations, grants and recognition, senior scientists exert undue pressure on their junior staff in the form of bullying. Lab members have little or no recourse due to the lack of fair institutional protocols for investigating bullying, dependence on grant or institutional funding, fear of losing time and empirical work by changing labs, and vulnerability to visa cancellation threats among international students. We call for institutions to reconsider their dependence on these over-simplified surrogates for real scientific progress and to provide fair and just protocols that will protect targets of academic bullying from emotional and financial distress.

Understanding the Situational Context for Interpersonal Violence: A Review of Individual-Level Attitudes, Attributions, and Triggers

Research conducted with violent offenders demonstrates an overwhelming tendency for individuals in this population to frame their violent acts as tuned responses to perceived slights ranging from verbal insults to ostensibly nonviolent physical actions. To date, no review has characterized and categorized specific situational cues that are associated with interpersonal violence/ideation. Here, literature addressing attitudes, attributions, and triggers around reactive forms of violence and perspectives on violence deservedness was thematically and narratively reviewed using a theoretical framework focused on shame and threatened social bonds. Of the 29 articles that met the inclusion criteria, 11 statistically assessed relationships between attributions, attitudes, or triggers and subsequent violence/ideation, with 10 (90.1%) demonstrating, in subgroup analysis, statistically greater attitudes endorsing violence when shame or a threat to a social bond manifested. Overall, three primary axes of attribution, attitudes, or triggers toward interpersonal violence emerged from the review: (1) generalized intrapersonal justifications, (2) environmental and social group triggers, and (3) jealousy and triggers in the context of romantic relationships. These dynamics, both inside and outside of the United States, are reviewed, and a conceptual intervention model is presented. Findings illustrate that behavioral interventions specifically targeting individual- and community-level pathways to shame manifestation and emotion regulation represent an underutilized yet auspicious approach to curbing violence ideation and perpetration.

Haitian Vodou and Migrating Voices

This article looks at the relationship between Haitian vodou, sound recording, and migration. I argue that Haitian vodou has a special relationship with technologies of sound, understood in Jonathan Sterne's sense of media as embodiments of social desire. There is a parallel between vodou possession and the practice of pwen (throwing verbal insults), on the one hand, and, on the other, the tape recorder's ability to manifest a person through the sound of his or her voice, making him or her present both in Haiti for the Haitian vodou congregation and in the diasporic land, thus bridging the separation across oceans and time. This transnational character underscores how Haitian vodou, which has been much maligned and often misunderstood, is an incredibly flexible and adaptive religion, necessary as a means of cultural survival for citizens of one of most economically disadvantaged nations, harshly subject to insertion in global neo-liberal labour markets.

„Non intelligis stultitiam tuam impudentiae copulatam”. Św. Hieronim contra Pelagiusz

Reading the ancient scriptures of Christians of the first centuries, one can easily notice numerous invectives. From among the Fathers of the Church there are three who in particular deserve the title of “fathers of Christian invectives”. One of those who best can be described as such is St. Jerome of Stridonius. It should not come as a surprise, because in ancient times one did not reach only for intellectual arguments when defending their views. A logical elucidation was merely a part of argumentation. The other part, of no less importance, were arguments ad homi­nem, including also invectives. Verbal insults were integral part of argumentation and the lack of them would decrease the value of debate. In this article, based on St. Jerome’s of Stridonius writings, I portrayed his reactions to the phenomenon of pelagianism, as well as to the person of Pelagius himself. This subject has been analysed in many articles, but I presented it from a different angle. Namely, I em­phasized varied interesting invectives that St. Jerome – well-known for his sharp tongue – directed to Pelagius, basing on argumentum ad personam.