Kids and Adults Can Now Build Women's Soccer Games with Legos

As of June 6, Lego will be offering an international version of women's soccer. Featuring four star players, Megan Rapinoe (USA), Yuki Nagasoto (Japan), Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria), and Sam Kerr (Australia), the kit features half a soccer field with a goal and VAR station, stands with a scoreboard, a ceremonial stage and more.

This sports centered toy is marketed not just for females, but for all soccer enthusiasts. Just as the assumption has been made for years that men's sports will appeal to everyone, Lego has assumed the same for women's sports.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/icons-of-play-40634

No More Diversity Training in Florida Public Higher Ed

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made sure that the  state's public colleges and universities will not teach diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

"If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination," DeSantis said. 

Earlier this year, DeSantis put conservative allies in control of the board of New College of Florida to put it in a more conservative direction. DeSantis signed the bill at the college.

Hierarchy supporters are going to amazing means to keep hierarchies alive, now insisting that diversity itself is negative, and recognizing that fact hurts the top of the hierarchy. 

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/15/1176210007/florida-ron-desantis-dei-ban-diversity

Lewis Hamilton to Wear Rainbow Flag on Helmet in Miami Grand Prix

"It's no different to when we were in Saudi." 

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton blasted Florida’s recent slate of anti-LGBTQ laws Thursday ahead of the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. 

The lead driver for Mercedes compared legislation signed by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, including the "Don't Say Gay bill, to conditions that Hamilton has protested when F1 races in the Middle East.

https://www.outsports.com/2023/5/5/23712008/lewis-hamilton-f1-miami-grand-prix-florida-anti-lgbtq-protest?fbclid=IwAR2svdVYEKqGJY-HBr_qE0bHQpDUeV4Ol38_HKc8egkmtdZVXXKab1hwStU

Oklahoma Governor Vetos Funding for Public Broadcasting Saying "Clifford the Dog" Included a Lesbian Character

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has vetoed H.B. 2820, a routine bill that would have approved funding for the Oklahoma Education Television Authority (OETA) – which broadcasts PBS in the state – through 2026. 

“I don’t think Oklahomans want to use their tax dollars to indoctrinate kids,” Stitt said at a press conference. “And some of the stuff that they’re showing, it just overly sexualizes our kids. There are parents defending child transition on PBS that’s being played. There’s elevating LGBTQIA2S+ voices.”

A Stitt spokeswoman provided examples of this LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” explaining that OETA had put on Pride Month programming over the past few years and also mentioned a PBS Newshour segment in which the parents of a trans child spoke about the benefits of gender-affirming care. She also decried episodes from two children’s cartoons (Work it out Wombats! and Clifford the Big Red Dog) that included lesbian characters.

These Republicans are certainly committed to keeping hierarchies alive, in this case sexual identity. 

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/05/gop-governor-rejects-funding-for-pbs-because-clifford-the-dog-indoctrinates-kids/?fbclid=IwAR2rsmgs6UmgxQwBl679-cvUpMx20qXLmKk1R8h9K4mh-mkMFNTmXDPeZqo

Not Close: Gun Violence Higher in Red States

The region where New York City is located is far and away the safest part of the U.S. mainland when it comes to gun violence, while the regions Florida and Texas belong to have per capita firearm death rates (homicides and suicides) three to four times higher than New York’s. On a regional basis it’s the southern swath of the country — in cities and rural areas alike — where the rate of deadly gun violence is most acute, regions where Republicans have dominated state governments for decades. 

Violence and the threat of violence has always been control tactics of hierarchies. In the United States, it appears from this article that states dominated by Republicans, who are mostly hierarchy-builders, have a higher level of gun violence than blue states. No surprise at all. 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/23/surprising-geography-of-gun-violence-00092413

Most Adults Value Reproductive Rights When Deciding Where to Go to College

A new poll shows that incoming and current college students are thinking about whether their school is in a state with reproductive rights and available health care. 

Among adults in the United States ages 18 to 59 who are not enrolled in a college and do not have a degree, 60% said reproductive health laws are at least somewhat important to their decision about whether to enroll in a particular college or university.

The survey results may foreshadow a particular problem for states that are hostile to reproductive rights. The data show that students may be more likely to consider leaving their state for college or ruling out going to school in a state that otherwise would have been a contender.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/health/reproductive-rights-college-decisions-wellness/index.html

What's The Matter With Men

Idrees Kahloon, in an article in the New Yorker, states that "In academic performance, boys are well behind girls in elementary school, high school, and college, where the sex ratio is approaching two female undergraduates for every one male. (It was an even split at the start of the nineteen-eighties.). Men have a greater tendency to drop out of the workforce, and have a higher suicide rate than women. 

He also states that how men are faring in school and at work may not arouse everyone’s concern, but how men choose to pursue politics inevitably affects us all. For instance, the turn to support of the Republican Party by Hispanic voters is mostly because of Hispanic men. 

Our studies have shown that as men are being forced to relinquish many of the perks they received from the gender hierarchy, they have not been historically made to cope with such possibilities. They have, instead, relied on control tactics of the hierarchy, not taking responsibility for the results of their actions expecting someone else to pick up the pieces. 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/whats-the-matter-with-men?source=Paid_Soc_FBIG_CM_0_DPA_0_NYR_US_Prospecting%28Broad%29_CM_PAC_Facebook_Desktop_Feed_NYR&utm_source=facebook&utm_meduim=Paid_Soc_FBIG_CM&utm_brand=tny&utm_campaign=DPA&fbclid=IwAR1k7wHl7L_x4xuX5B1siCSZM18q-RnY4CLlzejs_y-6MBNiQIjGWWonBvY