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Survey Reveals Public's Concerns About Prescription Medication Overdose Risks Following Death Of Michael Jackson
Survey results released by The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) revealed the effects of publicity around Michael Jackson"s alleged prescription drug misuse. More than 200 pharmacists who work in home, ambulatory, and chronic care practices responded to the survey conducted on July 1, 2009.
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Drop In Access To Abortion Would Reward Antiabortion-Rights Violence, Opinion Piece Says
After the murder last month of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, "there is a very real danger" that the availability of abortion later in pregnancy "will end in this country -- not after public deliberation, legislative debate and majority vote, but because antiabortion absolutists on the fringe have intimidated and blacklisted doctors and successfully threatened violence against them," Jim Buie, author of the blog The Buie Knife, writes in a Newsweek.com opinion piece. Buie writes that his parents in the early 1950s chose to institutionalize his three-year-old-brother, who was born with severe Down syndrome, after their attempts to care for him left them with "severe emotional distress" and unable "to meet the needs of their healthy children."Buie continues that he "cannot say that the option of a late-term abortion would have been the right one for my parents." However, "some of the arguments advanced by pro-life forces disturb me," he says, especially a "tendency to romanticize, sentimentalize and idealize life with a cute, forever-young Down-syndrome "angel child."" Buie adds, "It"s an argument I find off-putting, especially when it"s espoused by people who have never been through the wringer trying to care for a child whose disability level is on the most severe end of the scale." He continues, "At the same time, it is very disturbing that until recently, the majority of Down-syndrome fetuses were aborted without expectant mothers receiving proper information or support."Because of Tiller"s murder, it is "possible there won"t be any doctors in the country willing to perform" abortion later in pregnancy, "even if prenatal tests indicate severe retardation," according to Buie, who adds that this would mean that "domestic terrorism could win." He concludes, "It would mean that parents like my own would no longer have a choice, and would instead be forced to endure the same harsh realities that were present in the 1950s" (Buie, Newsweek.com, 6/17).
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Antiretrovirals Can Be Used To Prevent Spread Of HIV/AIDS, Model Shows
In addition to acting as life-saving therapy to people living with HIV/AIDS, WHO researchers say antiretrovirals (ARVs) may also be able to prevent the spread of HIV, Health-e/allAfrica.com reports. Reuben Granich, of the WHO, used a model to estimate the use of ARVs for the prevention of HIV transmission, and presented his findings to delegates gathered at the 5th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention meeting in Cape Town, South Africa (Thom, 7/20).
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Disney Elevates Heterosexuality To Powerful, Magical Heights

In the world of Disney, falling in heterosexual love can break a spell, save Christmas, change laws, stop wars and even, in the case of The Little Mermaid, cause an individual to give up her personal identity. While such dramatic plot twists may keep kids glued to television and movie theater screens, they send a memorable message to impressionable young viewers that heterosexual love is not only the norm, but that it is also exceptional, powerful, transformative and magical, concludes a new analysis of top-grossing G-rated children"s films. The findings, published in a paper in the latest issue of Gender & Society, challenge the notion that such movies are without sexual content. The determinations could even help to explain why multiple prior ethnographic studies suggest children understand the normativity of heterosexuality by the time they enter elementary school, relegating homosexuality to the abnormal, unusual and unexpected, necessitating explanation. According to co-authors Karin Martin and Emily Kazyak, "The media are an important avenue of children"s sexual socialization because young children are immersed in media-rich worlds." The University of Michigan sociologists point to other studies that show thirty percent of children under the age of three, and forty-three percent of four-to six-year-olds, have a television in their bedrooms, with many also owning a VCR/DVD player. For the new study, Martin and Kazyak analyzed all G-rated movies released, or rereleased, between 1990 and 2005 that grossed more than $100 million in the United States (see Supplemental Materials). Three trained research assistants extracted story lines, images, scenes, songs and dialogue that addressed anything about sexuality, including depictions of bodies, kissing, jokes, romance, weddings, dating, love, where babies come from, and pregnancy. The text describing this material was inductively coded using a qualitative software program. The analysis found the films "depict a rich and pervasive heterosexual landscape," despite the assumption that children"s media are free of sexual content. The movies repeatedly mark relationships between opposite sex lead characters as special and magical. "Characters in love are surrounded by music, flowers, candles, magic, fire, balloons, fancy dresses, dim lights, dancing and elaborate dinners," the researchers observed. "Fireflies, butterflies, sunsets, wind and the beauty and power of nature often provide the setting for - and a link to the naturalness of - hetero-romantic love." The analysis of the films further determined heterosexuality is construed through depictions of overtly feminized women and masculine males, with the male characters spending much of their time longingly gazing at the former. Toys and other products tied to the films later reinforce the images. Such heavily gendered depictions and glorified portrayals of heterosexual relationships appear to maintain old ideals presented in 19th century Brothers Grimm fairy tales, many of which inspired Disney films. In a separate, earlier study, Western Illinois University"s Lori Baker-Sperry and University of Central Florida"s Liz Grauerholz explored the extent to which "feminine beauty" is highlighted in fairy tales. They discovered attention to female attractiveness has likely become more prevalent over the past century, with beauty in fairy tales most often associated with "being white, economically privileged and virtuous." "We suggest that this emphasis on a feminine beauty ideal may operate as a normative social control for girls and women," the researchers added. Together, the two studies indicate children are frequently exposed to powerful, influential media messages concerning both attractiveness and sexuality. President Obama may have declared June to be Gay Pride Month, but entertainment for children therefore continues to perpetuate a less inclusive message, leaving those outside its confines with little to build their own dreams of happily ever after. As Martin and Kazyak conclude, "Both ordinary and exceptional constructions of heterosexuality work to normalize its status because it becomes difficult to imagine anything other than this form of social relationship or anyone outside of these bonds." Jessica Holden Sherwood Sociologists for Women in Society


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