Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

1 1

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · 9d

Contributor: I'm an intersex professor. Am I supposed to lie by teaching 'only male and female'?

A campaign against teachers who acknowledge realities of human biology forces a choice: Teach truth and risk your job, or lie and maybe keep it.

www.latimes.com

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · 10d

www.borowitzreport.com/p/furious-ki...

Furious Kim Jong Un Claims Trump Stole His Idea of Gathering Generals

“That asshole totally ripped me off.”

www.borowitzreport.com

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rep. Ami Bera, M.D. @bera.house.gov · 24d

This is damning testimony from Susan Monarez.

She was fired from her job as CDC Director for refusing to rubber-stamp RFK Jr.’s unscientific orders.

Her testimony confirms what we already know: RFK Jr. is unfit to serve.

He must resign.

68 760 2.7K

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social · 25d

it's not great www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Trump's war on wind power has one very big exception

The president's sons are using scarce clean energy to mine for bitcoins.

www.motherjones.com

4 27 58

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · 28d

a fun time at UT Austin, speaking with Chris Williams' undergrads and a sociology department colloquium about The High School, and then getting a tour of the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports with Jan Todd, the strongest woman in the world.

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Sep 8

"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" by Michael A. Messner

Watch this short video from the author of "The High School" concerning turbulent debate about violence and injury in high school football.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur6R...

#Sports #HighSchool #Football #FlagFootball

"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("Tackling Football")

Trump claims Chicago is ‘world’s most dangerous city’. The four most violent ones are all in red states

Reposted by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Sep 6

But Trump obviously does not care about actual facts and crime data
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Jackson, Birmingham, St Louis and Memphis had the highest murder rates in 2024 – all are Republican-led states

the gentrification of the WNBA

1 2

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · Sep 6

As the Liberty continue pricing out their longtime season ticket holders (mostly POC &/or LGBTQ+), a reminder that I wrote about this very thing before the season began:

While “investment in women’s sports” is often uncritically celebrated among league owners and the media, reality is much more complicated.

open.substack.com

2 39 100

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Sep 6

Shithead

Kate Burns @katerqburns.bsky.social · Sep 6

And to clarify- it’s an anti-war protest www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/se...

Trump vows to remove White House Peace Vigil, which has endured for 44 years

President Trump pledged Friday to remove the makeshift blue tent that has sat directly across from the White House since 1981 and is the nation’s longest continuous peace vigil.

www.washingtontimes.com

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Kate Burns @katerqburns.bsky.social · Sep 6

And to clarify- it’s an anti-war protest www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/se...

Trump vows to remove White House Peace Vigil, which has endured for 44 years

President Trump pledged Friday to remove the makeshift blue tent that has sat directly across from the White House since 1981 and is the nation’s longest continuous peace vigil.

www.washingtontimes.com

1 11 26

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Sep 4

Guardsmen have been frustrated to see money spent on “performative” deployments in LA and DC, a military birthday parade that “nobody cared about,” and an anti-woke campaign to change back military base names—all while “soldiers’ barracks are falling apart”...

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · Sep 4

“This is an encroachment on everything we signed up for and it feels like a violation.”

Schuyler Mitchell spoke with Alex, a National Guard recruiter, who said the DC mission has deterred potential recruits and pushed already-disillusioned soldiers to their breaking points.

The National Guard soldier pissed about Trump’s DC takeover

“This is an encroachment on everything we signed up for and it feels like a violation.”

www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · Sep 4

The National Guard soldier pissed about Trump’s DC takeover

“This is an encroachment on everything we signed up for and it feels like a violation.”

www.motherjones.com

37 220 660

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Sep 3

for kids, reading entire books for pleasure opens up worlds, helps to build empathy, as it enhances creativity.

The 74 @the74.bsky.social · Sep 3

Why are so few kids reading for pleasure? @gtoppo.bsky.social reports

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?

Doomscrolling. Poor literacy instruction. Overscheduling. These are some of the reasons cited for a generational decline in students reading for fun.

www.the74million.org

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

The 74 @the74.bsky.social · Sep 3

Why are so few kids reading for pleasure? @gtoppo.bsky.social reports

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?

Doomscrolling. Poor literacy instruction. Overscheduling. These are some of the reasons cited for a generational decline in students reading for fun.

www.the74million.org

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Aug 27

Looking forward to my September 18 USC Levan Institute Book Chat about The High School with CJ Pascoe, Jeff Montez de Oca, and Alice Echols. Register for this virtual event here: calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-...

Levan Book Chat—Michael A. Messner, The High School

calendar.usc.edu

1 2

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Aug 25

A great op-ed about football and gender equity in the Los Angeles Times today by Michael Messner, author of THE HIGH SCHOOL: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor... @mam52.bsky.social

Contributor: If tackle football isn't safe for girls, why do we let boys play?

An explosion of enthusiasm for girls’ flag football has led some to wonder why we're protecting one sex while celebrating the sport's dangers for another.

www.latimes.com

2 6

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Aug 15

www.latimes.com/00000198-a5a...

Sociologists are concerned about L.A. citizens during a year of unrest

Citizens in L.A have witnessed a summer of unrest including wildfire recovery, ICE raids and protests. Elisha, a video intern for The Times , reached out to sociologists to see how they examined recen...

www.latimes.com

1 1

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Aug 7

It's hard to decide which Trump admin daily outrage to spotlight, but this one hit home for me today: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US national parks staff in ‘survival mode’ to keep parks open amid Trump cuts

Park bosses say they’re running visitor centers and even cleaning bathrooms as remaining staff try to keep sites open

Minnesota Softball Has A Title IX Problem | Defector

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Aug 1

Maggie Mertens shows in close-up how high schools still struggle to provide equity for girls’ sports: Minnesota Softball Has A Title IX Problem - defector.com/minnesota-so...

On May 11, 2023, Ellerie Ulfers was pitching for Washburn High School against district rival Southwest in a varsity softball game in Minneapolis, Minn. The start time had been moved back 15 minutes, t...

defector.com

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Matt @mattlibrarian.bsky.social · Feb 4

The fash have been emboldened by demagogues and a misplaced sense of invincibility but we will win this war if we stand together!

ACLU sues on behalf of librarian fired after opposing book censorship effort

Patty Hector lost job after being targeted by campaign urging restriction of books with race and LGBTQ+ themes

The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024 ("Gender Equity")

1 37 290

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Mar 11

Women’s History Month reminds us that how we remember the past matters. In "The High School," Michael Messner unveils the surprising ebbs and flows of gender equity in girls’ sports over 120 years. Progress is never linear.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl27...

#GenderEquity #WomensHistory

"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("Women Coaches")

1 5

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Mar 17

Why are women so underrepresented in high school coaching? Women’s History Month invites us to reflect on this question with the observation that in the opening decades of the twentieth century, girls’ sports teams were thriving, and nearly all had women coaches.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN4c...

"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("Cheerleaders")

3 9

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social · Apr 2

The American Sociological Association leads a coalition of sociological organizations, issuing an open letter defending the role of sociology in universities and society and condemning federal actions threatening academic inquiry and free speech. Read the letter here: https://bit.ly/ASAOpenLetter.

18 30

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Apr 7

The history of high school cheerleaders...
dornsife.usc.edu tuckercenter.bsky.social womenshistnet.bsky.social maggiemertens.bsky.social edgeofsports.bsky.social thefrankiedlc.bsky.social socwomen.bsky.social edgeofsports.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Yp...

#Cheerleaders

shows.podcastle.ai/sport-in-soc...

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Rutgers University Press @rutgersupress.bsky.social · Apr 30

Chris Knust of The Ohio State University Sports and Society Initiative interviews Michael A. Messner, author of "The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024".

bit.ly/4jBCS7H

Reposted by Michael A. Messner

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · Jun 13

I know there's a lot going on, but the Secretary of Homeland Security declaring that federal troops are in California and Los Angeles to "liberate" the state and city from its duly-elected leaders really is a fourteen-alarm fire.

Sylvia Chi 齊思涵 @sylviachi.bsky.social · Jun 13

It's mind-blowing how little attention this extraordinary statement has received. It's briefly mentioned in a couple news articles, but this MSNBC opinion piece is the only extended discussion of it I've seen: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

310 3.5K 11K

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Jul 24

S2 EP 9 - Producing Feminist Sports Knowledge

Michael Messner (USC) and Michela Musto (Brown Univ) join us to talk about how feminist sociology helps us to produce new, useful knowledge about sports and the social world. This is a companion epi...

shows.podcastle.ai

Reposted by Catherine Baker

Michael Messner @mam52.bsky.social · Jul 18

houghtful piece by one of my favorite sociologists, on Trump's Man-of-Steel post: inequalitybyinteriordesign.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/s...

Superman Trump and the Crisis of Masculinity by Design

On July 10, 2025, the official White House X account posted an AI-generated image of Donald Trump as Superman. He’s shown in the red-and-blue suit, cape flowing, mid-flight. The caption reads: “A T…

inequalitybyinteriordesign.wordpress.com

1 2 7

Reposted by Michael A. Messner, Catherine Baker, Malcolm MacLean

Jules Boykoff @julesboykoff.bsky.social · Jul 4

My latest @theguardian.com "The IOC handed LA the 2028 Olympics. Now Trump is weaponizing them." Trump has a secret weapon to turn the Games into a national-security crackdown—the National Special Security Event designation, (NSSE)—& we need to be talking about it www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...

The IOC handed LA the Olympics. Now Trump is weaponizing them | Jules Boykoff

As the IOC ushers in new leadership, Donald Trump’s second term is already wreaking havoc on LA 28 – and turning a global celebration into a national security crackdown