Category
In the News
Masculinity
An interesting article from the Guardian, to look at in discussions about gender and the media and masculinity.
Same-Sex Marriage in Australia
Australia is the most recent country to legalise same-sex marriages with an overwhelming majority of MPs voting in support of the change to the Marriage Act.
Cultural Capital: 11+ Tests
Rather than a news article, I found this interesting question posed to the column ‘Private Lives’ in The Guardian focusing on a reader’s dilemma about whether they should pay for additional...
The Nordic Dream
The following article highlights some stark differences in the gender gap between countries like the US and the UK versus Nordic countries such as Finland and Sweden.
New research about child poverty
There has been new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about child poverty and a number of news stories about social mobility. This article places the blame at the feet of recent...
Tackling Social Mobility
Social mobility can be described as the movement of people between different social strata within society, for instance, if someone was to marry someone wealthier than themselves this could be seen...
Little Miss Engineer
A new female character is joining the Mr Men and Little Miss book series called Little Miss Engineer who has been created to be a ‘positive role model’ for girls, although I would also argue for...
State of the Nation: Social Mobility
A fascinating report on social mobility in the UK and particularly in which areas of the country people from disadvantaged backgrounds can progress and where they cannot, which reveals a "postcode...
Zuckerberg for President?
Some social commentators argue that with an increasingly complex and globalised world, traditional notions of roles and status have changed not just within the family and the workplace but also...
Flat Earth Society
Earlier this month the Flat Earth International Conference took place in North Carolina, USA. The following video interviews some of the attendees and the reasons behind their views.
The Crisis of Masculinity: An interesting article in the Guardian
In various sociological topics - not least Families and Households and Culture and Identity - we talk about masculinity. The Guardian has an interesting article to help facilitate a discussion on...
'The Masculine Mystique'
The following article offers an interesting insight into what could be seen as the ‘baggage of being a bloke’. Traditional gender roles such as breadwinner and housewife it is widely held are now...
Conservative Politics in the USA
I had never heard of Steve Bannon before the 2016 US Presidential election, however his name is now largely synonymous with conservative politics and Donald Trump (with Bannon serving as the Chief...
Rohingya Refugees
It was widely celebrated around the world when Nobel Peace prize winner and human rights activist, Aung San Suu Kyi was elected the leader of Myanmar in 2015. ‘The Lady’ as she is sometimes known...
#SexualHarassment
In mid-October, Ronan Farrow published a powerful piece of investigative journalism about the movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein in The New Yorker. The piece consisted of how, over the course of...
Media Topic: Today's Front Pages
A good starter activity during some lessons in the Media topic is to look at the front pages of many of the daily newspapers in the UK. What messages are they putting across to the public? In whose...
The Paradise Papers
It has been hard to miss in the international press recently an investigation into the use of 'tax havens' by the wealthy.
Social Class and Oxbridge
Recently released data has shown that four-fifths of students who attend either Oxford or Cambridge university end up in some of Britain’s highest positions in society, such as senior managers,...
Indian village run by girls
In an inspiring story, The Guardian has reported about the village of Thennamadevi in India where a proportion of the teenage girls have formed a ‘young girls’ club’ to help tackle village issues...
Zuckerberg's advice to his Daughter
Mark Zuckerberg recently had an addition of a new daughter to his family. He released a letter to her giving advice about what she should do to have a good childhood. One of the main pieces of...