Archive: Oct 2012

Privileged moms like Victoria Beckham and Tori Spelling, with four cesareans each, have given rise to the idea that some women are “too posh to push,” scheduling their births instead.

Not so, say Louise Marie Roth and Megan Henley (Social Problems, May 2012), who examined data from 3.7 million U.S. births in 2006.  At first pass, higher levels of education appeared to be associated with greater odds of cesarean birth. But once race, age, pregnancy characteristics (pre-term birth, multiples, low birth weight, etc.), and complications of labor and delivery were taken into account, white women with greater privilege were shown to be the least likely to have surgical births. Other studies have shown that highly educated white women also choose home birth more than any other group.

Roth and Henley suggest class and race play a big role in the quality of medical care women receive. C-sections, which now make up one-third of all U.S. births, are associated with increased maternal deaths and other post-surgical complications. Minority women of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have cesareans for less urgent reasons, suggesting that what looks like “posh” medical treatment on the surface might actually be a sign of low quality maternity care. Apparently, with privilege comes the ability to exercise more control in the delivery room and avoid, rather than choose, surgical delivery.

While the pains of eviction have been felt broadly across the U.S. in recent years, Matthew Desmond (American Journal of of Sociology, August 2012) shows that women in poor, predominantly African American neighborhoods have taken the hardest hit.

Analyzing Milwaukee County records from 2003 to 2007, Desmond found that, even before the recession, half of all evictions occurred in predominantly black, impoverished, inner-city neighborhoods. Women in these neighborhoods were disproportionately affected: they accounted for just 9.6% of Milwaukee’s total population, but 30% of all evictions.

Based on surveys and ethnographic research, Desmond argues that both structural factors (falling incomes relative to rising housing costs) and gendered responses in the face of impending eviction (for example, women may try to reach out to personal networks for help, but these personal networks may offer fewer resources) contribute to black women’s disproportionate eviction rates.

Even so, from the start, women in these neighborhoods face an unequal risk for eviction simply because they are more likely to sign rental agreements: criminal convictions increasingly bar African American men from the rental process. Eviction and conviction are, thus, intertwined forces that restrict housing options for African Americans.

The basketball court, like other sporting venues, is supposed to be a place for meritocratic values: success is determined not by skin, but by skill. In a recent journal article (Ethnic & Racial Studies, June 2012), however, Kathleen S. Yep contends that race continues to matter in elite-level sports, even if prevailing beliefs suggest otherwise.

Implementing historical data analysis and in-depth qualitative interviews with former non-white “barnstorming circuit” basketball players, Yep argues that media portrayals of today’s non-white NBA players largely echo those from the 1930s. One possible example is the trifecta of Demarcus Cousins (portrayed as the hotheaded and volatile black threat), John Wall (the skilled and coachable black hero), and Jeremy Lin (the hard-working Asian American novelty act). While all joined the NBA in 2010, the words used to describe them are remarkably similar to those used 70+ years ago for teams such as the Harlem Globetrotters (the black threat), the Bearded Aces (the white hero), and the Hong Wah Kues (Asian American novelty act). Though some black players, like Wall, are now elevated to hero status because of their superb skill and work ethic, not all non-white players are viewed as quite as deserving. Such disparities, Yep insists, are a sign of the contradictions inherent in a sporting world that pushes the rhetoric of liberal multiculturalism while still relying on discourses of white supremacy.

Sports are making plenty of headlines this year, so we were caught by this experiment that assesses how newspaper readers evaluate the validity of reporting based on the race and gender of the reporter. Turns out readers are more likely to trust while males in nearly all sports categories, except for gymnastics (a traditionally female sport). Football provided one surprise: the authors expected this sport, with its predominantly African American players, to correlate with favorable ratings for black reporters, but again, white males were the most trusted scribes.

School counselors take note: the effects of a breakup can be more detrimental to teens than we may think. In this recent Criminology piece, Matthew Larson and Gary Sweeten (August 2012) offer another angle on the effects of teenage broken hearts. Using National Longitudinal Study of Youth data, Larson and Sweeten find that a romantic breakup is directly related to a range of negative outcomes. Young men (aged 12-16) who experience a breakup show an increase in criminal offending and substance use, while young women go straight for the substances, particularly in the form of binge-drinking.

Digging a bit deeper, the authors believe the loss of love results in the loss of relationships, which may lead to negative behavior—ideas stemming from classical criminological strain and informal social control theories. The gender difference, speculate the authors, may derive from a tendency for young women to resort to coping strategies that are more likely to be damaging to themselves, not to others.

One final caveat? Larson and Sweeten find that the negative criminal effects of breakups can be alleviated by one thing: entering a new relationship. Oh, to be young and in (and out of and in again) love.