Here Are a Few of the Most Absurd 'Academic Studies' of 2016

Including the "appropriation of cupcakes from women."

1.3.2017

It would be impossible to reflect on 2016 without addressing some of the most absurd "academic studies" faculty have participated in at institutions of higher learning across the West. Parents -- unless of course they too are far left-wing ideologues -- might want to soak in just how egregiously their hard-earned money is being carelessly flushed down the toilet.

From "toxic masculinity" to "feminist glaciers" and "the appropriation of cupcakes from women," TheCollegeFix compiled a brief roundup of the asinine and absurd. Bear in mind, most of these professors' "academic papers" come from taxpayer-funded schools, and often, the research is funded by government grants:

Pushing the boundaries: ‘Weeds,’ motherhood, neoliberalism and postfeminism

Published in the journal Outskirts: Feminism Along the Edges, Edith Cowan University Prof. Panizza Allmark argued that the Showtime series Weeds “presents a world in which a woman can achieve success by embracing masculine, capitalist, individualistic endeavours whilst still adhering to feminine behaviours.”

According to the Fix, Allmark received a $530,000 grant over four years to study the "communication of intergenerational welfare dependency."

One of perhaps the best research papers to grace the list concerns the gender appropriation of cupcakes. Yes, Men Have Appropriated Cupcakes From Women. The Fix reports:

Are men culturally appropriating cupcakes from women? According to Prof. Irina Michalache of the University of Toronto, the “versatility and rather loose historical associations of cupcakes” have — get this — “allowed for its appropriation by a most unexpected population— men.”

The author also alleges that cupcakes are “both a feminist statement and proof of postfeminist domesticity.”

The "white authenticity" of Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus performances was the focus of a research paper at University of South Florida, where communications Prof. Rachel E. Dubrofsky says, "Cyrus and Swift operate in a post racial context where people of color and racialized aesthetics are featured, but where race itself is unimportant, and racism is a thing of the past."

Other absurd research studies include:

Safe Sex Videos are Marginalizing to Queer and Disabled People

The article “Viral Transmissions: Safer Sex Videos, Disability, and Queer Politics” was published in the peer-reviewed Disability Studies Journal.

“This study explores how risk reduction techniques [regarding safe sex] have been historically linked to imperatives of compulsory able-bodiedness, precluding alternative expressions of queer/crip [disabled] life,” says the abstract of a paper by Karisa A Butler-Wall, who is now a professor of women’s studies at the University of Minnesota.

How to Make Glaciers Feminist

Perhaps the most infamous case study of 2016 rammed us with “feminist glaciology” in the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Human Geography. The study, published in January, notes that “relationships among gender, science, and glaciers” have been “understudied” (who knew they were being studied at all?), and it seeks to solve that by “proposing a feminist glaciology framework.”

For the record, feminist glaciology, whose primary author is Professor Mark Carey of the University of Oregon (of course it's a "man"), was funded to the tune of a $412,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, according to the Fix.

Other academic papers from around the world include a Swedish study focused on "Planning Cities So Women Feel Safe'" in which Umea University researcher Linda Sandberg published her seminal work in the Journal of Feminist Geography.

Apparently geographic principles change according to gender.

This is the kind of mind-numbing indoctrination our future generations are undergoing. Might be time to rethink vo-tech schools.