Teen Vogue reportedly spiked an article penned by Professor and Director of the IR Laboratory at Villanova University Patrick Markey who was writing on the lack of any links between video game playing and school shootings.
Markey was invited to write an article for Teen Vogue detailing the lack of connection between video games and mass shootings. The professor was using data he had gathered that pointed to a few constants within those that commit shootings such as education and poverty levels, but the editors at Teen Vogue wanted him to include other factors such as “toxic masculinity” and “misogyny.”
Markey refused to include “toxic masculinity” as a point of blame simply because there is no scientific data to support it. As a result, the editor spiked his article.
I don't want to start some kind of Twitter war with @TeenVogue but what the opinions editor at that publication said about why they "spiked" our op-ed (which they invited us to write) is simply not true. So weird because our piece was about race and shootings too (THREAD). https://t.co/o1y6RSUBdF
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 2, 2019
(1/6) Before the editor locked down her tweets she claimed she "spiked" our op-ed because we ignored data concerning gender in the context of school shootings and video games. However, this is not what occurred. What we did do was refuse to allow her to put information into…. pic.twitter.com/2T4S7ZqS5f
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
(2/6) ….our op-ed that was not yet backed by science. This happened way back in August and I never mentioned the spiking of the op-ed it because I felt, as the op-ed editor, she had the right to make this call. However, due to her tweet (which you cannot see anymore)….
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
(3/6) …..posted on 4/2 which falsely characterized the situation I felt it was important to set the record straight. At the end of the day – our op-ed was spiked not due to its theme or accuracy but simply because we didn't want to add in the word "toxic masculinity"..
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
(4/6)…as a cause of school shootings. It is ironic that the main theme of the op-ed was that when we wrongly blame things (like video games) for causing school shootings this sometimes has unintended consequences…..
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
(5/6)…with video games one of these consequences, affects not only perceptions of video games’ effects, but also reflects disparities in the culpability we assign to criminals depending on their race…..
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
(6/6)….With no empirical evidence linking "toxic masculinity" to such events we thought it was best to not mention this as a cause of school shootings. Anyone who it interested can read the original op-ed here (it was later picked up by SPSP): https://t.co/mEZPDsVyIF
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
Markey then posted screenshots on Twitter showing exactly where the Teen Vogue editors wished to insert the feminist catchphrases into the article.
Here is the insertion of the the words "toxic masculinity" into our op-ed by the editor. Again, we simply asked for these words to be removed because there isn't empirical research to back up this claim pic.twitter.com/O3Iu27Dmsq
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
And here is the addition of the word "misogyny" into our op-ed by the editor. pic.twitter.com/IgCRrradan
— Patrick Markey (@patmarkey) April 3, 2019
For those unclear as to what “toxic masculinity” is, it’s a made up term by social justice advocates and feminists that paints the very nature of men, both the noble parts and the sinister, as something detrimental to society. You’ve seen the concept become far more popular as time has gone on, with it being blamed for such things as the consistently disproven “wage gap.”
During the last Super Bowl, Gillette made a commercial that essentially made out many of the things men do, even the harmless things they do naturally, out to be negative. The idea has spread so far that some men even believe they are harmful by their very nature, and have begun acting more like women, with men forming cuddle groups to fight their toxic masculinity.
It’s no surprise that Teen Vogue is also injecting this social justice verbiage into the mainstream. This is the same magazine that has also declared that there are no sexes, and even allowed Hillary Clinton to guest edit an issue.
I want to be very clear here.
Teen Vogue wanted to push junk science on its readers and tossed an article out by a professor because he wouldn’t put blame mass shootings on unproven concepts. A concept, mind you, that essentially forces the public to look at the natural aspects of men as a mental illness.
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