MMAcademics Profile

Latest Blog Posts

• Reifying Racial Stereotypes?
  on Sep 17, 2013
  Via here.
• Check out SociologyInFocus.com!
  on Aug 28, 2013
  ...
• Contemporary Slavery in Thailand
  on Dec 9, 2012
  Over at Sociology in Focus, I have a completed 4-part series on contemporary slavery in Thailand based on a recent trip I took in August with Global Exchange.Part 1 is titled "Contemporary Slavery: Developing and Preying on Vulnerability". It explai...
• Let's Hold Obama To It
  on Nov 7, 2012
  Okay, so Obama pulled it off. I'm happy, but more so relieved that Romney didn't win. In typical Obama fashion, a well delivered victory speech:@ 11:00:"We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America open to the d...
• Voting for Romney is Voting for Patriarchy
  on Nov 5, 2012 in patriarchy gender health care
  Patriarchy is defined as “…a form of social organization in which cultural and institutional beliefs and patterns accept, support, and reproduce the domination of women and younger men by older or more powerful men. Literally the ‘rul...
• Obama, Romney, the 2012 Presidential Election and Diversity
  on Nov 4, 2012
  Within the party, leadership admits Republican disapproval directed towards President Obama is tied heavily to ongoing racist values.  Via the Huffington Post: Such trends noted above by Lawrence Wilkerson help to explain that which has b...
• The Sociology of MMA: MMA Compared to Pro Wrestling and Other Sports
  on Sep 22, 2012
  Shane Logan has an interesting 15-minute presentation through TED on masculinity and MMA. There's some good sociology in the talk (good conceptually, I would have liked to have seen more empirical evidence from his 2 years in the field, but he only h...
• The Sociology of MMA: Feminized Labels as Insults
  on Sep 14, 2012
  Just another quick example here of how men in sport - particularly those in "rough and tumble" sports where women are largely excluded - continue to put down their adversaries by feminizing them. In this example, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)...
• “Invisible Children” Approach to Preventing Violence in Uganda Admirable, but Missing Key Elements for Sustained Social Change
  on Mar 8, 2012 in stealth conflicts collective violence consumerism
  National Public Radio (NPR; United States) recently joined in to address a grassroots effort led by the organization, “Invisible Children.” Invisible Children seeks admirably to end the severe, diverse, and extensive forms of violence cutting a...
• Hegemonic Masculinity in 2012 Super Bowl Commercials
  on Feb 20, 2012 in sports masculinity media
  Got a new post up over at SociologyInFocus.com titled, "Hegemonic Masculinity in Super Bowl Commercials. It analyzes the three commercials shown below, within the hegemonic masculinity framework:Check it out. Come on, lots of people watch the Super B...
• "Linsanity": Post coming
  on Feb 11, 2012 in sports
  Look, I cannot just sit back and let Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks keep blowing up without posting something about it. I have something coming up in Sociology In Focus, but there's a bit of a lag. Dude just knocked down 38 on the Lakers while pla...
• "Linsanity": Post Up
  on Feb 11, 2012 in sports
  UPDATE: The post is now up -- "Linsanity: Jeremy Lin: Dispelling the Model Minority Myth."Look, I cannot just sit back and let Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks keep blowing up without posting something about it. I have something coming up in Sociolo...
• The Sociology of MMA
  on Feb 7, 2012 in MMA
  The other thing I've started at Sociology In Focus is a series on the sociology of mixed martial arts. Thus far, I've made three posts in the series:The Sociology of MMA: How Do You Define Violence?The Sociology of MMA: Hegemonic Masculinity Unleashe...
• Post-Holiday Sales and Contemporary Slavery
  on Feb 7, 2012 in slavery
  I have been completely neglecting my "Grumpy Sociologist" blog here since also blogging over at Sociology In Focus. Back in January, while walking around one of the innumerable mini-malls in Irvine, California, I noticed as I do every year in January...
• Police Force, Legal-Rational Authority, and State Violence
  on Feb 7, 2012 in collective violence social movements
  Okay, one more entry I've posted over at Sociology In Focus uses Max Weber's element of legal-rational authority to dissect the pepper spraying that happened at the University of California, Davis back in November 2011, as well as the London uprising...