Links, Monday 20th March

Two of the substances hypothesised to function as pheromones in humans appear to have no effect on sexual desire

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This is infuriating. Despite headline-writers' love of the term "sex slaves" and its synonyms, so-called "pop-up brothels" involve - surprise! - extremely few cases of actual coercion. They're mostly just forcibly deporting destitute migrants, as per usual.

Oh, and the whole "pop-up" phenomenon is itself a product of the police occasionally forcing sex workers to move, under the threat of prosecution.

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Is it just me, or is this exactly how you go about building a police state? You identify an unpopular minority (in this case, migrants who have the wrong colour skin or speak the wrong language), and gradually corrupt every public and private institution to monitor, harass and punish people in that minority. Then the architecture of repression is already in place for the next time.

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There's a lot to reflect on here for all men who identify as feminist allies. It's really easy to comfortably broadcast our politics in the hopes of receiving praise. My mind definitely goes back to times when I've posted feminist content on here and enjoyed watching the engagement roll in (mostly from women, it should be noted). That also applies, of course, to the praise we direct at ourselves.

It's also easy to use feminist politics as a way of deflecting attention from those occasions where our behaviour actually hasn't been that good (both the attention of others and our own self-criticism). I may or may not be a "good man", but I'm definitely not the best man I can be.

All welcome to comment of course, but I would particularly love to hear from other men on this topic!

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A really fascinating look at underground psychedelic therapy. People are taking real risks to help others.

[CN: sexual violence, drugs]

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[CN: sexual violence]

Great, nuanced piece on the 'South of Forgiveness' controversy at Women of the World. Very much speaks to what I was talking about earlier.

"...had Tom Stranger decided to speak at the Southbank’s Being A Man festival, I would have at least seen the point. Men are overwhelmingly the people who rape. Repentant rapists should look towards other men, not at women who have their own trauma to deal with."

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"It's really strange that only humans have chins. When we're looking at things that are uniquely human, we can't look to big brains or bipedalism because our extinct relatives had those. But they didn't have chins." Atlantic

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"Andrew Lilico, a thoughtful proponent of leaving the EU, told me during the campaign that he wished the bus had displayed a more defensible figure, such as £240m. But Lilico now acknowledges that the false claim was the more effective one. “In cynical campaigning terms, the use of the £350m figure was perfect,” he says. “It created a trap that Remain campaigners kept insisting on jumping into again and again and again.”" Financial Times

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"When they hear if you go to the doctors, the Home Office might be knocking on your door, they choose to stay away. The results have serious implications; we see women who are nine months’ pregnant coming to our clinic. We assume that some people are giving birth at home" Guardian