Can the Neoliberal Subject Condemn [Him]self?: Locating Masculinity at FOX News in Bombshell

Director Jay Roach’s 2019 film Bombshell draws on a series of real-life sexual allegations against FOX News founder Roger Ailes, depicting the climate in the newsroom and portraying a number of FOX personalities. As a film marketed for mass audiences, it is crucial to question the extent to which the film successfully serves to critique sexism in the FOX News newsroom. The purpose of this paper is thus to examine the portrayal of masculinity and sexism and FOX News in Bombshell. To explore the dynamic of this newsroom, this paper centers on interrogating Bombshell against the notion of a “feminist film”. I first attempt to analyze and locate gendered dynamics within Bombshell, then reflect on portrayed gendered dynamics with reference to the history of FOX News and the way competing masculinities work in the news organization. The FOX News newsroom is unique in the ways varying dynamics of gender manifest within its locale: in front of the camera, a kind of neoconservative “traditionalist” morality and gender order; behind the camera, an “amoral” gender dynamic that aligns with neoliberal free-market principles. I then explore how a gender order is upheld in contradiction, often by the very subjects who are subjected under a masculine-dominant gender order. I question the possibility of any future of gender egalitarianism at FOX News, and conclude by arguing that Bombshell misses the mark in interrogating a gender order, instead problematically framing sexism as chiefly upheld by individuals.

The Intersection of Racial and Gender Attitudes, 1977 through 2018

Intersectionality scholars have long identified dynamic configurations of race and gender ideologies. Yet, survey research on racial and gender attitudes tends to treat these components as independent. We apply latent class analysis to a set of racial and gender attitude items from the General Social Survey (1977 to 2018) to identify four configurations of individuals’ simultaneous views on race and gender. Two of these configurations hold unified progressive or regressive racial and gender attitudes. The other two formations have discordant racial and gender attitudes, where progressive views on one aspect combine with regressive views on the other. In the majority of survey years, the most commonly held configuration endorsed gender equality but espoused new racialist views that attributed racial disparities to cultural deficiencies. This perspective has become increasingly common since 1977 and is most prevalent among White women and White men, likely due to racial-group interest. Black women and Black men, in contrast, are more likely to embrace progressive racial and gender attitudes. We argue that White men’s gender egalitarianism may be rooted in self-interest, aimed at acquiring resources through intimate relationships. In contrast, Black men adopt progressive racial and gender attitudes to form a necessary coalition with Black women to challenge racism.

National culture and corporate carbon performance

This study investigates the effects of cultural, institutional and natural ecosystems on corporate response to climate change. We find that national cultural tendencies towards future orientation, uncertainty avoidance, gender egalitarianism and humane orientation strengthen corporate performance, whereas certain other cultural dimensions, such as in-group collectivism, pose barriers to optimal carbon performance. We suggest that culture provides an incremental explanation for corporate climate behaviours beyond socioeconomic or regulatory determinants. Our study contributes to the carbon literature by comprehensively examining the role of a country’s national culture in determining corporate carbon performance, and its findings may help in the implementation of international climate accords (such as the Paris Agreement of 2015) in countries with heterogeneous cultural values and natural environmental contexts. JEL Classification: G54, Q56, P48

The Intersection of Racial and Gender Attitudes, 1977 through 2018

Intersectionality scholars have long identified dynamic configurations of race and gender ideologies. Yet, survey research on racial and gender attitudes has tended to treat these components as independent. We apply latent class analysis to a set of racial and gender attitude items from the General Social Survey (1977 — 2018) to identify four configurations of individuals’ simultaneous views on race and gender. Two of these configurations hold unified progressive or regressive racial and gender attitudes. Two additional formations have discordant racial and gender attitudes where progressive views on one aspect combine with regressive views on the other. In the majority of survey years, the most commonly held configuration endorsed gender equality but espoused new racialist views that attributed racial disparities to cultural deficiencies. This perspective has become increasingly common since 1977 and is most prevalent among White women and White men, likely due to racial-group interest. Black women and Black men, in contrast, are more likely to embrace progressive racial and gender attitudes. We argue that White men’s gender egalitarianism may be rooted in self-interest, aimed to acquire resources through intimate relationships. Among Black men, progressive racial and gender attitudes form a necessary coalition with Black women to challenge racism.

GENDER EQUALITY AND RELIGIOUS LAW: THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN AS RABBIS IN THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AS A CASE STUDY

This article explores one tumultuous encounter between a religious legal tradition and the modern principle of equality—an encounter that also has the potential to shed light on a much wider cluster of questions. The author tracks the ways that the responsa written by prominent Conservative rabbis on the subject of female rabbinic ordination and gender equality implicitly (but unambiguously) reflect the push toward increased equality that weighed on the movement's trajectory, showing that the debate about the ordination of female rabbis reveals two principal trends in Conservative legal rulings, which differ in their responses to the challenge of egalitarianism and their visions of the law, and notes two outlier responsa that cannot be neatly classified within either trend. The author then examines the deep-seated historical, ideational, and sociological processes concurrent with the rise of what some have called the egalitarian age, which have produced these diverging responses and visions, and it determines an appropriate framework to understand them. The author shows that the fight for increased gender equality is situated within an intricate social context that imbues it with meaning and shapes its outcomes and modes of expression. In concluding, the author suggests applying the insights gained in the course of the analysis to other circumstances in which gender egalitarianism clashes with religious tradition. The framework by which the ordination of women in the Conservative movement is analyzed also proves useful, mutatis mutandis, in understanding and comparing the responses of other faith communities as they deal with challenges caused by the egalitarian age.

Economic Development and Modernization in Africa Homogenize National Cultures

The nation-building literature of the early 1960s argued that decolonized countries need to overcome pre-colonial ethnic identities and generate national cultures. Africa is the most critical test case of this aspect of modernization theory as it has by far the largest ethnolinguistic fractionalization. We use data from the Afrobarometer to compare the cultures of 85 ethnolinguistic groups, each represented by at least 100 respondents, from 25 African countries. We compared these groups and their nations on items that address cultural modernization and emancipation: ideologies concerning inclusive-exclusive society (gender egalitarianism, homophobia, and xenophobia), submissiveness to authority, and the societal role of religion. Previous research has shown that these are some of the most important markers of cultural differences in the modern world. Hierarchical cluster analysis yielded very homogeneous national clusters and not a single ethnolinguistic cluster cutting across national borders (such as Yoruba of Benin and Yoruba of Nigeria, Ewe of Ghana, and Ewe of Togo, etc.). Only three ethnolinguistic groups (3.5%) remained unattached to their national cluster, regardless of the clustering method. The variation between nations ( F values) was often considerably greater than the variation between ethnolinguistic groups. Medial distances between the groups of each country correlated highly with GDP per person ( r = −.54), percentage men employed in agriculture ( r = .64), percentage men employed in services ( r = −.63), and phone subscriptions per person ( r = −.61). In conclusion, economic development and modernization diminish cultural differences between ethnolinguistic groups within nations, highlighting those between them.

Traditional and new patterns of today's urban youth demographic behavior

The article analyzes specific features of the Russian urban youth demographic behavior.. The empirical base of the study is the data of the representative public opinion poll of the Russian city dwellers aged 18-35 that was conducted in 2019. The levels of reproduction of the traditional patterns and the scale of the spread of new demographic orientations are revealed in the course of the study. It is shown that the mechanisms of postponed marriage and childbirth are taking place in the sphere of young people demographic behavior. The majority of young men are married or plan to be married in future, but even in the age cohort of32-35 around a quarter of respondents are not married and do not have permanent partner. Young marriages are giving way to the tradition of creating family after 25-30 years old that is also preceded by cohabitation without marriage. The optimal age for getting married is being put off and this is particularly characteristic of men. More educated representatives of urban youth are clearly orientated at the model in which the major part is taken by development of educational potential and making career, and creation of family is temporarily postponed. Childbirth remains the unconditional value of Russian youth, however refusal from early reproductive orientations also becomes social norm. The strategy "childfree" becomes actual in the youngest age cohort at the level of 18% and significantly loses its rates to 6-7% when it is getting closer to the age of 30. Mass groups orientated at gender egalitarianism in family relations are clearly distinguished among modern urban youth: the proposed typology shows that around 40% of respondents are characterized by a low level of egalitarianism, and 15% — by the most egalitarian attitudes. In general, the spread of new demographic patterns goes on gradually, while individualistic motivations are combined with preservation of the value of family and childbirth.