Nobody cares for men anymore: Affective-discursive practices around men’s victimisation across online and offline contexts

Men’s victimisation is a central topic in online discussions, particularly in the manosphere, where its emphasis is often combined with a strong anti-feminist stance. This article examines the interplay of affects and discourse in meaning-making around men’s victimisation both in online discussions and among social and crisis workers asked to comment upon meanings circulating online. By using the concept of affective-discursive practice, the analysis shows how this meaning-making reiterates socially shared interpretative repertoires and positionings that mobilise affects based on sympathy, anger and hate. Furthermore, the article demonstrates how the practitioners respond to these affective meanings by adopting positions of responsibility, while also redirecting and neutralising online affect. The article contributes to knowledge on the interaction between online and offline meaning-making around men’s victimisation, and to building an understanding of affects and discourse in seemingly moderate meaning-making around this topic that however resonates and links with the more extreme anti-feminism of the manosphere.

Suicide Exposure in Crisis Workers

Background: Crisis workers provide services to individuals who are in acute distress. There is no research examining personal and occupational exposure to suicide in these workers. Aims: We aimed to examine the prevalence of personal, occupational, and colleague suicide exposure among crisis workers, the mental health outcomes associated with suicide exposures, and perceived professional preparedness for client suicide. Method: Crisis workers ( n = 115) completed an online survey assessing suicide exposure, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Results: Over a third of participants (33.9%, n = 37) reported that they had lost at least one client to suicide, with an average of 2.30 clients ( SD = 4.47) lost to suicide. Over three quarters (77.1%, n = 81) of study participants reported they had experienced at least one personal loss to suicide. Those who perceived their relationship to the personal suicide as close or very close had significantly greater PTSD symptoms ( M = 3.29, SD = 2.23) than those who perceived their relationship as not at all close, not close, or somewhat close ( M = 1.38, SD = 1.69), t(20) = −2.10, p = .049. Limitations: Snowball sampling is the study's main limitation. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates that a substantial percentage of crisis workers are exposed to suicide and additional research is needed to determine how exposures impact practice and personal symptoms in this population.

Occupational Suicide Exposure and Impact on Mental Health: Examining Differences Across Helping Professions

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship of suicide exposure with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder across three occupational groups likely to be exposed to suicide (i.e., first responders, crisis workers, mental health professionals). An online survey was completed by 1,048 participants. Results indicated that first responders, mental health professionals, and crisis workers were all exposed to suicide in the routine course of their occupation. Exposure to suicide significantly impacted mental health, specifically on depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. The level of exposure to suicide was associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Negotiating the New Urban Sporting Territory: Policing, Settler Colonialism, and Edmonton’s Ice District

The new urban sporting territory in Edmonton’s city center was constructed within the framework of continued settler colonialism. The main catalyst for this development was sport-related gentrification: a new, publicly financed ice hockey arena for the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers, and a surrounding sport and entertainment district. This two-year ethnography explores this territory, in particular the changing interactions between preexisting, less affluent city-center residents and police, private security, crisis workers, and hockey fans. It reveals how residents navigate the physical and spatial changes to a downtown that are not only structured by revanchism, but by what Rai Reece calls “carceral redlining,” or the continuation of White supremacy through regulation, surveillance, displacement, and dispossession.

Healing Our Heroes

Societies rely on first responders to save lives. What happens when the wellbeing of these crisis workers is compromised by daily exposure to crisis and trauma? This chapter describes a developed and tested arts-based intervention aimed at mitigating the trauma response through positive resource reinforcement. Specifically designed to be used in a non-clinical setting, the intervention features the drawing of a mandala capturing images and symbols of safety and was tested to ascertain the efficacy of its ability to increase positive affect, decrease negative affect, and reinforce connections to positive resources in participants.

Peacekeepers, Cred, and the Street

Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention, secondary sources of Black Lives Matter, and Trump and anti-Trump rallies, I examine the collective interests, ideology, and role performances of a seldom studied group involved in demonstrations—“peacekeepers.” My findings suggest that as members of this group attempt to create a peaceful order between police and protesters on the street, their activities are marked by a unique set of contradictions. These contradictions emerge as a result of two primary roles—those of crisis workers and “human involvement shields”—performed by peacekeepers, as they attempt to build and leverage credibility with both protesters and police. I theorize this process by outlining phases of interaction— milling, miming, and crossing—between peacekeepers and these groups once peacekeepers are out on the street.

Too Little, Too Late: Prosecutors' Pre-court Preparation of Rape Survivors

Little research has been conducted on the behaviors of prosecuting attorneys and their interactions with rape survivors between charging and court events. Yet this period, during which prosecutors prepare rape survivors for their witness roles, may be crucial for obtaining successful convictions. Using intensive interviews with 32 rape survivors and background interviews with prosecutors, victim witness advocates, and rape crisis workers, I evaluated the nature of directives and information given to rape survivors and the frequency with which directives were conveyed before preliminary hearings and court events. I concluded that prosecutors employ 20 modes of preparation to construct rape survivors as credible victims for judges and jurors. They orient the rape survivor to the scope of the witness role and her place in the interaction with legal actors, direct her to enhance the credibility of her story, and enhance the credibility of her self'presentation. Research showed that prosecutors prepared respondents more thoroughly for trials than for preliminary hearings, but little overall. A large minority of respondents, consequently, reported dissatisfaction with the preparation they received. On the basis of the findings, I call for an extension of Martin and Powell's “politics of victim's needs,” attention to the importance of maintaining a perception of procedural justice among rape survivors, and further research into pre-court preparation.