Category: Social Science

Social Science
A groups of masks, with a red and golden jester's mask in the centre

Social Science of Masquerade

Social Science Insights

Social psychologist Efrat Tseëlon is interested in feminist readings of fashion and culture. Tseëlon argues that while the English dictionary might define the practice of wearing masks and disguise as an attempt to conceal and misrepresent, masquerade is something different. Masquerade is not about portraying something false, but rather it is a way to understand the intricacies of identity. Masquerade draws its meaning through historical context, as the way in which we present our ideal selves in public changes over time.

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Social Science
Letter tiles spell out: Mental health

Aboriginal People, Incarceration and Mental Health

Social Science Insights

The Conversation recently featured a new study that finds that Aboriginal people who are incarcerated are in dire need of mental health support services. Aboriginal people make up 26 percent of the prison population in Australia, despite the fact that they comprise less than three percent of the general population.

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Social Science
A white man holds out a jar with money

Economic inequality of CEO wages

Social Science Insights

This infographic doesn’t include Australia, where I live, but I did some digging and Australian CEOs earn 63 times more than the average full-time worker.

Data by Shields (2005) via Australian Council of Trade Unions.

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Social Science

Thoughts on ‘2011: A good year to be gay’

Social Science Insights

Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, recently celebrated the progress made on the depiction of ‘gay culture’ in American TV shows. He writes in The Guardian: In many ways the transformation of attitudes has been ongoing for decades, accelerated in large part by the impact of Aids, which reconfigured gay identity around community and relationships. In TV shows such as Glee and Modern Family, gays are no longer comic stooges or punchlines, their relationships treated with the same respect as those of their straight counterparts. They hold hands, they kiss, they even share the same bed. This was a quantum … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘2011: A good year to be gay’