Grease Cowboy Fever; or,the making of Johnny T

Through a mix of theory, memoir and performance narrative, this chapter examines the making of drag persona Johnny T. as part of a king movement where the dominant cultural paradigm of gender is reconsidered and remastered. As seen in Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy, pop culture icon John Travolta's particular blend of 50s greaser, faggy 70s disco, and 80s country masculinities are shown to be prime drag king conditions, particularly for a dyke who came of age during the 70s Travolta fever. While drawing from personal experience as a king, current trends in the king movement, and gender theory, this essay calls into question the lines between performing masculinity on and off the stage, inviting us to see both the work and play, the parody and realness, the struggle and liberation that make up the transgressive world of drag kinging and gender variance. Drawing upon gender theorists Judith Butler and Judith Halberstam, gender is exposed as a social construction both produced and performed, and as such, drag kinging is framed as an arena where gender is reconfigured.     

Gender differences and attitudes towards homosexuality

The aim of this research is two-fold. First, it examined individuals' attitudes towards homosexuals in Singapore. Second, it also investigated whether gender differences in attitudes towards homosexuals exist. Respondents comprised 365 students and data were collected through the use of questionnaires. Results generally suggested that respondents harboured negative attitudes towards homosexuals. The prevalence of such ambivalent attitudes seemed to suggest that respondents were still generally quite conservative in their attitudes towards gender roles and homosexuality. Our findings also revealed that, generally, women reported that they were more comfortable in working closely with male homosexuals while the reverse was true for men. Implications of our findings were discussed.     

A revolution in genetics: changing medicine, changing lives

The sequencing of the human genome is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the beginning of a revolution that many predict will transform medicine. How will genetics research affect physicians and patients and the practice of medicine? When investigators identify the function and association of human genes with common chronic diseases, diagnosis, treatment, and classification of human diseases will be changed forever. Genetic susceptibility testing allows patients to know their predisposition to disease long before symptoms appear. Physicians can intervene with customized advice so that the patient can prevent, modify, or avoid the predisposed condition by better understanding both his or her genetic and environmental risk for disease. The promise of a genetic approach to drug therapy involves moving from one size fits all to personalized medicine tailored to the individual patient. Physicians will become mentors and counselors, advising patients on the best treatment path given their unique genetic predisposition--even in this sophisticated, high tech field, the physician-patient relationship is likely to improve, highlighted by individualized therapies and personal attention.     

The good leader

What are the traits of successful leaders and can they be applied to those of us in health care? Leaders must deal with conflict to get a group of people to move in the same direction. Successful leaders learn to have difficult conversations that increase understanding and morale and creatively deal with the inevitable interpersonal conflicts present in every organization made up of people. Another useful trait for a leader during uncertain and chaotic times is the ability to see things as they really are, rather than as we wish or believe them to be. Successful leaders are also usually optimists who level with their co-workers.     

Ethical Futures and Public-Private Partnerships: Peering Far Down the Track

This article employs an institutional perspective in formulating predictions about the ethical futures of privatization partnerships. Although this paper focuses on ethical concerns in the U.S. public sector, it incorporates a multinational dimension in (a) comparing the meaning of privatization among societies and (b) probing privatization financing in the global economy. Five assumptions that flow from institutional reasoning are made explicit as supports for subsequent predictions. The institutional logic shifts privatization conversation away from conventional debate about competition and efficiency toward centralizing forces in both sectors in response to globalization. In that regard, this study identifies the systemic erosion of (local) community integrity as the key privatization problem of the future.     

Does perceived discrimination affect health? Longitudinal relationships between work discrimination and women's physical and emotional health

This study uses longitudinal data to examine the causal relationships between perceived work discrimination and women's physical and emotional health. Using data on 1,778 employed women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, we investigate the structural and individual characteristics that predict later perceptions of discrimination and the effects of those perceptions on subsequent health. We find that perceptions of discrimination are influenced by job attitudes, prior experiences of discrimination, and work contexts, but prior health is not related to later perceptions. However, perceptions of discrimination do impact subsequent health, and these effects remain significant after controlling for prior emotional health, physical health limitations, discrimination, and job characteristics. Overall, the results provide even stronger support for the health impact of workplace discrimination and suggest a need for further longitudinal analyses of causes and consequences of perceived discrimination.     

An attribution model of public discrimination towards persons with mental illness

In this study, we build on previous work by developing and estimating a model of the relationships between causal attributions (e.g., controllability, responsibility), familiarity with mental illness, dangerousness, emotional responses (e.g., pity, anger, fear), and helping and rejecting responses. Using survey data containing responses to hypothetical vignettes, we examine these relationships in a sample of 518 community college students. Consistent with attribution theory, causal attributions affect beliefs about persons' responsibility for causing their condition, beliefs which in turn lead to affective reactions, resulting in rejecting responses such as avoidance, coercion, segregation, and withholding help. However, consistent with a danger appraisal hypothesis, the effects of perceptions of dangerousness on helping and rejecting responses are unmediated by responsibility beliefs. Much of the dangerousness effects operate by increasing fear, a particularly strong predictor of support for coercive treatment. The results from this study also suggest that familiarity with mental illness reduces discriminatory responses.     

Social context and adolescent health behavior: does school-level smoking prevalence affect students' subsequent smoking behavior?

This paper examines the links between individual adolescent smoking behavior and actual and perceived smoking behavior in the individual's school cohort. We hypothesized that students enrolled in schools with higher smoking prevalence among students in their grade are more likely to smoke subsequently. We also expected perceived school-level prevalence of smoking to have a greater impact than actual prevalence because the former is a more direct measure of perceived norms. Adjusting for demographics, actual school-level prevalence at baseline (grade 7) was strongly associated with smoking frequency one year later. However, the association disappeared after adjusting for individual smoking frequency at baseline. School-level prevalence did not moderate the association between individual's baseline and subsequent smoking frequency. Perceived prevalence of smoking among grade 8 students and two measures tapping the behavior of smaller peer groups--cigarette offers and exposure to friends and other peers who smoke--were associated with increased risk of smoking.     

Assessing nontraditional couples: validity of the marital satisfaction inventory--revised with gay,lesbian, and cohabiting heterosexual couples

Thirty-one gay male couples and 28 lesbian couples were compared with 36 cohabiting heterosexual couples using the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (MSI-R), a multidimensional measure of relationship functioning intended for use with both traditional and nontraditional couples. Analyses of scales' internal consistency and factor structure supported the construct validity of this measure with nontraditional couples. Analyses of mean profiles on the MSI-R indicated that cohabiting opposite-gender and same-gender couples were more alike than different, and were more similar to nondistressed samples of married heterosexual couples from the general community than to couples in therapy. Implications of current findings for clinical assessment and intervention are considered, and directions for future research are proposed.     

Effectiveness of couples treatment for spouse abuse

Despite its controversy, carefully conceptualized and delivered couples treatment appears to be at least as effective as traditional treatment for domestic violence, and preliminary data suggests that it does not place women at greater risk for injury. However, the body of research on which these conclusions rest is sparse. Only six experimental studies have been done, each using different eligibility criteria, outcome measures, and treatment approaches. Thus, further study of this modality is warranted. Marriage and family therapists have an important part to play in continuing to develop and test innovative ways of helping couples end violence and improve their relationships--an endeavor that promises to improve the quality of the partners' lives as well as those of their children.