SIRC in the News 1998
- Western Daily Press – 10.10.1998
Why women are drinking men under the table. Kate Fox, director of the Social Issues Research Centre based in Oxford, questions whether society should be overly concerned about the increase in female alcohol consumption. She points out that research showing drinking per head of the population may not always be an accurate indicator of whether an alcohol problem exists in society … She argues that Nineties women feel less worried about going into pubs, and claims the boozer is now as much part of female culture as it is men's. "Women don't tend to have the 'pub argument' like men," she says. "Instead, they tend to agree with each other, compliment each other and share stories. I don't see many problems with that." Which is just as well, because if recent figures are anything to go by, the female drinker is here to stay. - Guardian – 09.11.1998
Oi! Here is the latest menace to society on our roads: White Van Man. Renault have hired the Social Issues Research Centre to examine the phenomenon, and to find out whether White Van Man (hereafter referred to as WVM) is as bad as we think he is. How bad do we think he is? Close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting behind the wheel of your nice car. Let us say that the traffic is fluid, if a little packed for comfort. Now, let the image of a white van float into your consciousness. What is the driver of this white van doing? Is he (a) waving you into a gap in the traffic with a courtly nod? (b) charging into the tiny space in front of you as if contemptuous of your very existence? … - Race News.
Corporate Hospitality. "Although big races at prestigious meetings may offer more advertising coverage, all of the ‘corporate bonding’ benefits can be achieved by sponsoring a race at a small local racecourse." Kate Fox. Anthropologist, Social Issues Research Centre - Irish News – 03.11.1998.
New women drinking their men under the tables. Kate Fox, Director of The Social Issues Research Centre, based in Oxford, questions whether society should be overly concerned about the increase in female alcohol consumption. - Evening Standard – 26.10.1998
Misunderstood: White Van Man. A month-long roving study of more than 250 White Van Men by the Oxford-based Social Issues Research Centre, designed to get under the skin of Britain's most reviled road users, has concluded that "the public and media perception of White Van Man is a gross caricature of reality". - Sunday News – 15.09.1998.
Our 'tribe' must be preserved too. In the midst of damaging political procrastination and industry thinking bedevilled by parochialism, it is nice to discover an anthropologist has cut her way through the crap and rediscovered the soul of racing. In a report publicised by the Social Issues Research Centre, Englishwoman Kate Fox concluded: "The racing tribe proved to be the kind of friendly, tolerant, obliging natives that most anthropologists only encounter in their dreams." - Financial Times – 17.08.1998.
Food scare hype proves hard to swallow. Does the public's obsessional interest in food scares carry a price? The Social Issues Research Centre, an Oxford-based think-tank believes it does. A constant stream of contradictory advice about health risks causes unnecessary confusion, anxiety, fear and even serious mental health problems, it said. "A diet of worry-inducing headlines based on dubious science is not beneficial to public health." - Observer – 28.06.1998.
Saings of the week. "The solution {to sexual harassment} is not to ban flirting but to educate men to be better at it" Kate Fox of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford. - Guardian – 22.06.1998
When is a flirt not a flirt? Kate Fox, director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, who recently authored a report on flirting for Martini, believes a new puritanism imported from America is causing flirtophobia. 'There is a confusion of harmless flirting . . . with the serious problem of sexual harassment. Men do have a problem picking up on signals and can mistake friendly behaviour for sexual availability. The solution is not to ban flirting but to educate men to be better at it.' Or shoot them. Whichever is easiest. - Times – 20.06.1998
Faces that tell tale of a nation. Peter Marsh, of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, has given his own commentary on our photographs of fans at the World Cup. Strong nations with a record of football success are often confident enough to steal others' national symbols: "This German is a good example. His team are playing the United States; he's stealing the opposition's icons and using them to show the superiority of his own. "There's a native American headdress and the large silly gloves that are so popular with baseball and American football crowds. But it's quite clear he's a German; the colours of his warpaint show that. It's a nice irony that he's picked the Indian headdress, because what he's doing is very similar symbolically to American Indians scalping their victims." - Independent – 14.06.1998
There there, it's only a game. Social Psychologist Dr Peter Marsh, Director of the Social Issues Research Centre explains that we need to create excitement because our lives lack the old-fashioned thrill of survival. "People like to put their emotions on the line. Investing in England's fortune in football, or the cricket provides us with an excitement in our rather risk-free lives."
- Evening Standard – 18.03.1998.
Bright future. According to psychologist Dr Peter Marsh, some people do find bright colours literally mind-blowing. Different shades have different effects on the brain. "Light blues and greens are less stimulating, while red is very stimulating and produces more cortical arousal. Extroverts can cope with more intensity of colour than shy people." - Sunday Independent – 15.03.1998
Danger: men at large. Some single mothers might decide that struggling on their own with government hand-outs is better than living with a man involved in petty crime who takes no responsibility for the situation. "There is possibly a new family structure of mother, baby and government official," explains Kate Fox, a social anthropologist and director of the Social Issues Research Centre. "We are reverting to a 'mammalian' system where mother and child are the main focus of society and the males are peripheral. Women may be using men as sperm donors and retreating into the mother/baby unit. Men may feel a sense of failure of not being able to provide, which is their traditional role. They end up feeling functionless and think 'Why should I sit around and have that staring me in the face?'" - Independent – 01.03.1998
The joy of single sex. Nothing could be more natural or normal than sex-segregated activities, whether their purpose is leisure, work or education, explains Kate Fox, social anthropologist at the Social Issues Research Centre, an Oxford-based think tank. "In all cultures across the world, there is far greater segregation than we experience, right through social life and the division of labour," she says. "And it is not assumed that the male structure is more valuable or desirable. In this culture, however, we seem to have a notion that we want to desegregate just for the sake of it, rather than because we actually want to take part in the activities that we demand to be part of." - Times – 28.02.1998
All hands on desks. Kate Fox, director of the Social Issues Research Centre, says the problem stems from losing the art of playful, harmless flirtation. "It's sad and pathetic," she says, "that management thinks a flirtatious exchange is a prelude to a sexual encounter. By stopping it they only rule out the possibility of educating people." … Is it a thing we can learn, though? Apparently yes. According to research at the Social Issues Research Centre, first impressions are based 55 per cent on appearance, 38 per cent on style of speaking and only 7 per cent on what is said. In other words, it's all a question of reading the signs, a bit like learning the highway code. Management could provide L-plates for staff who put their foot down too hard on the accelerator. - Times – 21.02.1998
Men who want to go along just for the ride. In 1976, 69 per cent of British men held full driving licences. By 1996, it was 81 per cent. Half of all modern British males hold a full licence by the time they're 20. Most of the other half will have one by the time they're 30. This is not surprising. As Dr Peter Marsh of the Social Issues Research Centre puts it: "Driving is a means of achieving mastery over something. It gives a sense that you are in charge of your own destiny."
