Category: English

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Three weeks into the U.S. war with Iran, it seems increasingly evident that President Donald Trump and his administration miscalculated how Iran would respond to attacks.

Besides appearing unprepared by the escalation of war, the president has offered contradictory statements on the U.S. rationale for bombing Iran, including that Iranian missiles could “soon” rain down on American cities.

The administration’s inconsistent rationale for waging war was laid bare on March 18, 2026, when Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee and declined to say whether her agency had made an estimate of if and when Iran would threaten the U.S. mainland.

“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard said.

The statement was especially odd given that the briefing’s subject was the U.S. intelligence community’s latest global threat assessment. It’s clear to me that neither Gabbard nor other members of the intelligence community were part of Trump’s decision-making about going to war.

Besides serving as chair of the National Intelligence Council in the Barack Obama administration, I was a staff member of the National Security Council in the Jimmy Carter administration. I know that this apparent lack of a coordinated policy on Iran is a far cry from the war preparation and planning done during previous presidential administrations.

National Security Council

Typically, the National Security Council, which consists of the Cabinet secretaries of the national security agencies, does its work through its committees, including the Deputies Committee, which is made up of the top deputies in those departments. The Deputies Committee reviews plans and assesses options, usually presenting a recommendation to the principals, including the president.

In that sense, the National Security Council is seen within an administration as the honest broker, especially in balancing the roles of the two main foreign affairs departments: the State Department and the Defense Department.

To be sure, different administrations have used the National Security Council in different ways.

President Dwight Eisenhower created the modern National Security Council. His was an elaborate structure, with groups for both assessing options and overseeing implementation. It reflected his wartime experience, with careful staffing from a general staff whose responsibilities ranged from operations and logistics to intelligence and plans.

Other administrations have favored less formal arrangements. John F. Kennedy, for instance, kept discussions with the National Security Council secret during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. But all the National Security Council stakeholders were represented, and Kennedy reached out to consult outside expertise on the Soviet Union.

Lyndon Johnson made Tuesday lunches his forum for debating decisions about U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Beginning with just his secretaries of state and defense, the lunches became a National Security Council meeting but in less formal circumstances. The CIA director, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the press secretary were later added to the group.

In other administrations at war, including the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations in Iraq, the Deputies Committees would meet daily to assess progress and review options for what came next.

In the Obama administration, the National Intelligence Council I chaired supplied the intelligence support to the Deputies Committee. We provided a steady stream of intelligence assessments across various subjects. Those included pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring in the 2010s to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The intelligence assessments provided the information – about where wars stood and what may come next – used for discussion among the deputies. They were discussions informed by experts on the Deputies Committee and from staff on the National Security Council who specialized in the region or military affairs.

This was nowhere better illustrated than in negotiating the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran. The deal required bringing together experts on Iran and regional dynamics in the Middle East with experts on nuclear fuel cycles and the making of nuclear weapons.

Hardly seen

The Trump administration cut the National Security Council staff in half in May 2025, to around 150. The plan was to streamline and restructure national intelligence under Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Since White Houses always want to pretend they are cheaper than they are, most staff with the National Security Council are seconded – or loaned for free – from one of the agencies. The process saves the White House money. But it also provides it with invaluable in-house expertise and exposes those seconded officials to presidential policymaking.

A friend and colleague who served as under secretary of defense quipped that every time he saw a State Department counterpart coming to a Deputies Committee meeting, he knew what was coming in substance: a request for a military solution to a geopolitical problem.

His stock answer: “Yes, we can do that, but it’ll require 100,000 soldiers and cost US$10 billion.” That answer was his quip, but the Deputies Committee provided a forum for arguing about the merits of the case.

The Trump administration in January 2025 outlined the National Security Council structure in familiar terms. But the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and director of national intelligence, both a regular presence in debates in previous administrations, were made situational rather than regular members. They would attend as needed, not automatically.

But the National Security Council has hardly been seen since, unlike Trump’s Cabinet, which gathers occasionally at meetings that often begin with Cabinet members lavishing praise on the president.

Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio asked Trump on March 13, 2026, about that inner circle.

“In your Cabinet with the vice president, secretary of state, what is it like, what are the dynamics when you have a big decision like Iran or Venezuela?” Kilmeade asked. “Are people speaking up and speaking their minds?”

Trump’s answer spoke volumes.

“They do,” the president said. “I let them speak their mind, and they do. And we have some differences, but they, they never end up being much. I convince them all to, let’s do it my way.”

Perhaps this casual approach to national security from the Trump administration should not surprise Americans after “Signalgate” – when administration officials in 2025 used the messaging app Signal rather than secure government modes to discuss U.S. military strikes on Yemen and inadvertently included a journalist in the communications.

But when lives are at stake, not to mention Americans’ pocketbooks and the global economy, I think the nation deserves better. Conducting a war requires a hard-headed process for assessing progress and evaluating next steps. In other administrations, the National Security Council would have provided that.

Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How the National Security Council typically functions to plan and fully assess risks when presidents consider going to war – https://theconversation.com/how-the-national-security-council-typically-functions-to-plan-and-fully-assess-risks-when-presidents-consider-going-to-war-278513

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Valerie M. Fridland, Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno

With the war in Iran a topic on everyone’s lips, you might have noticed an inconsistency in the way that nation’s name is said, varying between a more native-like “Ih-ron” pronunciation and a more Americanized “Ih-ran” one.

An everyday listener might just chalk this up as being the result of regional differences or the version we learned growing up, like the alternate ways Americans have of saying “data” or “roof.”

But as a linguist who studies what our accents reveal about our histories and social identities, I know that the way we pronounce things often gives off clues about who we are and what we believe in.

That appears to be the case with these two distinct pronunciations.

The sound of politics

It’s probably not a big surprise to learn that listeners often hear certain words or accents as indicating someone’s political inclinations.

That’s because people are primed to notice patterns that mark group membership – be it a style of clothes or pronouncing “fire” more like “far.” Once they notice these patterns, people then tend to assign whatever traits are believed to characterize that group to the sounds of their speech.

For instance, researchers examined how people perceived potential political candidates with a Southern vs. non-Southern American accent. They wrote in 2018 that they discovered listeners perceived Southern-sounding politicians as more likely to be conservative and to hold right-leaning views on issues such as gun rights and abortion. All that from hearing someone pronounce “pin” like “pen” or say “bah bah” for “bye.”

This suggests that even a small difference in the way a vowel is pronounced can suggest a lot more about political ideology than you might imagine, even if that suggestion is not always accurate.

Nationalism and names

Going back to the question of what drives variation in the pronunciation of Iran, a linguistic study examining politics and pronunciation during the Iraq War offers some insight.

In analyzing 2007 House of Representatives debates about sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, linguists found that a congress member’s political party affiliation was the strongest predictor of how the “a” vowel in Iraq was pronounced.

Republicans preferred the anglicized short “a” pronunciation closer to “ear-RACK,” while Democrats preferred a more “ah”-like one, as in “ear-ROCK.” The authors suggest that the Democratic preference, approximating a more native pronunciation, was motivated by greater multicultural sensitivity.

The pronunciation of the “i” vowel also exhibited a more anglicized option, as in “EYE-rack/rock,” which was also examined. Unlike the “a” vowel, a more “eye”-like pronunciation by itself did not significantly correlate with partisanship.

Two later studies, in 2011 and 2018, of everyday speakers who were asked to pronounce Iraq in nonpolitical contexts discovered no significant difference by political affiliation. The biggest predictor favoring an “ear-ROCK” pronunciation was that a person spoke multiple languages, as the “ah” vowel sound is more frequent in languages commonly spoken in the U.S., such as Spanish, French and Italian.

Despite not directly patterning with politics, when people in the 2018 study were questioned explicitly about how saying “ear-RACK” or “ear-ROCK” tied into political views, the “ah” pronunciation of the vowel was indeed heard as linked with liberalism, an association particularly strong for those who used “ah” and were liberal themselves.

This suggests that people might have picked up on this pattern from hearing politicians. They were aware of the fact that this vowel variation had become, in relevant contexts, symbolic of liberal vs. conservative stances.

Respect and pronunciation

In looking more generally at the pronunciation of borrowed words written with the letter “a,” like that of “pasta” or “tobacco,” linguist Charles Boberg suggests that Americans generally follow two possible paths, either pronouncing it with the short “a” like in “bat” or with the “ah” like in “father.”

Boberg suggests that attitudinal factors play a role in the choice between the two. Since many Americans associate the “ah” pronunciation with more education and sophistication, given its connection to upper-crust British use in words like “bath” or “aunt,” there has been an increasing tendency for Americans to use “ah” in words borrowed since World War II, as with “origami” or “nacho.”

But in looking at variability in the pronunciation of Iraq, other linguists hypothesized that the “ah” vowel is only heard as more sophisticated when a source language is held in high esteem – as with the British-derived “ah” in “aunt” – or when those speaking foreign languages are well regarded.

In contrast, when there is less respect for a people or a place, the choice of an Americanized vowel rather than the more accurate native one might be preferred. This attitude difference may well explain much of the variation in politicians’ pronunciation of Iraq – and possibly Iran.

Not surprisingly, in their study of congressional variation in pronunciation of Iraq, these researchers found that, beyond party affiliation, the politician’s war stance – for or against sending additional troops – was a significant determinant of which vowel was used. If they used the “ear-RACK” pronunciation, they were more likely to favor sending more troops to the country.

Trump and ‘I-ran’

While there is, as of yet, no similar study comparing politicians and their pronunciation of Iran, it is interesting to note that both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance say the name in the more anglicized fashion, using the same vowel as in “ear-RACK” – that is, as “Ih-RAN” not “Ih-RON.”

Considering the highly contested nature of this war, this presidential preference for the anglicized version of the name may be driven by a similar politicized positioning to that found for the pronunciation of Iraq. Trump and Vance may be underscoring their “pro-America” focus by creating a linguistic and ideological distance with the named nation and its speakers.

A similar linguistic contrast was made during the Vietnam War, when “VietNAM” was commonly pronounced as having the same short “a” sound as in “bat,” including from the lips of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Now, years later, the “VietNOM” pronunciation dominates, and the “NAM” version is virtually absent in those born in more recent eras.

In the same way, Americans might eventually find a linguistic middle ground in the current pronunciation debate over Iran. But it might be a while before peace in the Middle East prevails long enough to give the next generation a linguistic clean slate.

Valerie M. Fridland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Is it ‘Ih-ran’ or ‘E-ron’? Inside the politics of pronunciation – https://theconversation.com/is-it-ih-ran-or-e-ron-inside-the-politics-of-pronunciation-278954

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Zeb Hogan, Professor of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno

Hidden beneath the surface of the world’s rivers, some of Earth’s great animal movements unfold – migrations that rival, in sheer biomass, the famous mass movements of zebra and wildebeest across the Serengeti.

For centuries, fish migrations were as predictable as the seasons. Salmon, sturgeon, giant catfish and many other species moved through rivers in vast numbers, guided by rising water, flood pulses and evolved biological cues.

These species are extraordinarily diverse, ranging from beluga sturgeon – massive fish that can live for more than a century and produce the world’s most prized caviar – to giant river carp, tropical eels, gold-flecked shad and goliath catfish, all of which travel to survive, in some cases over hundreds or even thousands of miles.

Their journeys can span continents. But the fish and their migrations are disappearing.

For most migratory fish, movement is not optional; it is how they survive. When dams block routes, when fishing intensifies at migratory bottlenecks and when floodplains and spawning grounds are cut off or degraded, most migratory fish do not simply go somewhere else. They cannot. First the migration thins, then it falters. In some rivers, especially those blocked by dams, it disappears altogether.

A new global assessment I led for the March 2026 international meeting of parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals provides the clearest picture yet of this decline – and what’s needed to stop it.

My co-authors and I reviewed more than 15,000 species of freshwater fish, identified which of them migrate, and assessed their conservation status, or risk of extinction. We then focused on migratory species with declining populations and identified those where countries will have to work together to help them recover and thrive.

The results are sobering.

We identified 325 migratory freshwater fish species as candidates for coordinated international conservation actions under the Convention on Migratory Species treaty. Many of the largest species, the giants that make the longest and most dramatic journeys, are in the most trouble. Among migratory fish already listed under the Convention on Migratory Species, 97% are at risk of extinction. In Asia, populations of migratory freshwater megafish have declined by over 95% since 1970.

The disappearing giants of the Mekong

For the past 25 years, I have studied the world’s largest freshwater fish as a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno; host of Nat Geo Wild’s Monster Fish documentary series; and the Convention on Migratory Species councilor for freshwater fish.

One of these extraordinary animals, the Mekong giant catfish, grows to more than 650 pounds. It once migrated hundreds of miles along the Mekong River, supporting fisheries and cultural traditions across the region. Today it is critically endangered because dams are blocking its route to spawning grounds and overfishing at migration bottlenecks is killing the large adults that the population depends on.

In Cambodia, small migratory fish known as trey riel are so significant that they gave their name to the national currency. In South Asia, one migratory shad, the hilsa, is so culturally important that it is sometimes given as a wedding gift, wrapped in ornate cloth and adorned with flowers.

Migrations of these fish, like migrations of buffalo on the American plains once did, shape ecosystems, livelihoods and culture. In the Mekong Basin alone, fisheries produce over 2 million metric tons of food each year, helping to feed tens of millions of people. When these fish disappear, people suffer.

Long migrations under threat

Declines are unfolding in other great river systems as well.

In the Amazon, some of the largest catfish on Earth migrate across much of the continent. The dorado, or gilded catfish, can reach six and a half feet (2 meters) in length and complete a migration of more than 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) between Andean headwaters and coastal nurseries, the longest freshwater fish migration ever recorded.

At Teotônio Rapids between Bolivia and Brazil, fishers once hung from wooden scaffolding above turbulent waters to spear dorado as they surged upstream – until the rapids were flooded by new dams. Altered river flows, barriers and overfishing are increasingly disrupting these journeys, and dorado populations in upstream Bolivia have plummeted.

Across the Northern Hemisphere, migratory fish such as salmon, sturgeon and shad have suffered major losses because rivers have been dammed and polluted, while many populations were heavily overfished.

In the Columbia River basin, dam construction transformed an immense river system into a series of dams and reservoirs and blocked fish from large parts of their historical range.

In South Asia, fish such as mahseer, goonch catfish and hilsa are also declining under pressure from dams, overharvesting, sand mining, pollution and habitat loss, even as they remain central to fisheries and river cultures across the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus basins.

Why migratory fish are struggling

Migratory freshwater fish depend on long, connected river corridors, often across multiple countries. Dams, habitat fragmentation, pollution, overfishing and climate-driven changes are breaking those connections. Once routes are cut, populations can collapse quickly.

This is increasingly an international problem. More than 250 rivers and lakes worldwide cross national borders, and about 47% of Earth’s land surface lies within shared river basins. Yet freshwater fish are still too often managed at a local or national scale, as if rivers and fish movements stop at political boundaries.

That is why international agreements matter. The Convention on Migratory Species is the only global treaty specifically designed to encourage countries to work together to conserve migratory animals.

For freshwater fish, cooperation can begin with something as simple as countries sharing data and can extend to coordinated actions to reduce overharvesting, protect floodplains and spawning grounds, and keep rivers connected. The most fundamental solution is to manage rivers as connected ecological systems rather than as isolated national waterways.

Of the 325 species we identified as priorities, many could be considered for listing under the convention. Listing does not automatically save a fish, but it provides a mechanism to enable countries to coordinate monitoring, management and conservation across borders. That matters because freshwater fish remain underrepresented in international conservation policy, despite the scale of their decline.

We found that the river basins where international cooperation is now most urgently needed include the Amazon and La Plata-Paraná in South America, the Danube in Europe, the Mekong in Asia, the Nile in Africa and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in South Asia.

How to bring back migratory fish

Restoring migratory fish populations means keeping healthy rivers free-flowing, reconnecting rivers fragmented by dams and channelization, improving fisheries management, protecting floodplains and wetlands, and restoring habitats that have been drained, cleared or isolated by development.

There are examples of success. In Washington state, dam removals on the Elwha and White Salmon rivers reopened habitat that had been inaccessible for migrating fish for about a century, allowing Chinook, coho, steelhead and lamprey to return.

The world’s great fish migrations have not disappeared everywhere, but they are fading. This new assessment offers a clearer picture of where international cooperation is most urgently needed. It is up to humanity to protect these extraordinary aquatic animals, which support millions of people enrich their lives, and make the world a more wondrous place.

Zeb Hogan receives funding from private foundations, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal government grants. He is employed by the University of Nevada, Reno and serves in a volunteer capacity as the COP-appointed Councilor for Freshwater Fish for the Convention on Migratory Species.

– ref. The world’s great fish migrations are collapsing – that’s a problem for millions of people – https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-great-fish-migrations-are-collapsing-thats-a-problem-for-millions-of-people-278970

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Ann Juliano, Professor of Law, Villanova University

Imagine you’re a server at a busy restaurant that requires you to wear a form-fitting, polyester shirt as part of the uniform. When a hot flash hits, you are a sweaty mess. You really wish your employer would let you wear a cotton T-shirt instead.

If you live in Philadelphia, relief is on the way.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, the city of Philadelphia will prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause, and it will require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for needs related to these conditions.

Perimenopause is the transitional period before menopause, marked by fluctuations in the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Menopause marks the end of the reproductive years, defined by not having a period for 12 consecutive months.

Both life stages are having a moment.

Social media is rife with influencers and life coaches selling supplements to relieve night sweats, clear brain fog and sustain libido. Many encourage strength training, walking with weighted vests, hormone replacement therapy and creatine, a compound that works to add muscle mass.

As a law professor at Villanova University, I teach and write about employment law and gender discrimination. I often focus on solutions to real-world problems for women and girls in the workplace.

Recently, I’ve taken up strength training, protein shakes and needlepoint. I’m clearly leaning into my identity as a woman over 50.

I believe the Philadelphia ordinance is a model for other cities and states to provide relief for workers suffering from symptoms of hormonal cycles and changes while balancing the needs of employers.

Following Rhode Island’s lead

Women’s health advocates have brought attention to the lack of training for medical professionals on the issues girls and women face resulting from menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.

In 2022, for example, a national survey of 145 OB-GYN residency program directors found that fewer than one-third of programs included curriculum on menopause. This is despite the fact that every single woman, if she lives long enough, will go through it.

While some progress has been made in the medical field, there has been even less when it comes to workplace protections.

To address this gap, in July 2025 Rhode Island became the first state to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menopause. Rhode Island also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees experiencing menopause-related symptoms.

The Philadelphia City Council said: “Hold my weighted vest.”

In December 2025, the council amended the Philadelphia Code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause. For example, if an employer fires an employee because of heavy menstrual bleeding resulting in leaking, that would violate the new law.

In addition, the City Council amended Section 9-1128, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for needs related to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition. That list now also includes “symptoms of menstruation, perimenopause or menopause” – provided the employee requests the accommodation and it does not cause an undue hardship for the employer.

Experts in medicine and public health and described the physical and emotional symptoms women and girls may face during these life stages. These symptoms include abdominal or pelvic cramping, fatigue, mood changes, headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, sleep disturbances and cognitive changes.

One expert noted that 23% of women who are experiencing perimenopause have symptoms severe enough to “.”

Employers will not have to accommodate every symptom, only those that “substantially interfere with an employee’s ability to perform one or more job functions.” Although the new ordinance does not define “susbtantially interfere,” the intent is to require accommodations when a worker cannot perform some part of her job – for instance, if period pain is so high that a retail worker cannot stand for their shift, or if hot flashes prevent a food service worker from staying in the kitchen.

Clear and explicit protections

In light of existing antidiscrimination laws, why is such a targeted law necessary?

Federal, state and local laws already prohibit employers in Philadelphia from discriminating because of sex. They also require employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.

Federal, state and local laws also prohibit employers from discriminating against people with disabilities and require reasonable accommodations to allow them to perform the essential functions of the job.

But menopause and menstruation protections do not clearly fall within these protections.

There are a few cases across the country in which an employee successfully challenged their firing for a condition related to menstruation. But other employees have lost cases under federal law when courts ruled that menstruation is not covered by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act or Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Further, people seeking protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act for menstruation complications such as endometriosis, which occurs when tissue grows outside of the uterus and often causes severe pain during menstrual cycles, face an uphill battle. Instead of requiring employees who experience these sorts of symptoms to fit their cases into other statutes, Philadelphia’s new ordinance makes protection clear and explicit.

Reasonable accommodations

During a hearing on the proposed legislation, council member Nina Ahmad, who introduced the bill, noted that the accommodations envisioned are not costly. She and other council members gave : access to bathrooms and drinking water, brief flexible breaks, breathable uniforms, temperature control to manage hot flashes, fans or ventilation, ability to layer clothing, stocked period products and brief scheduling flexibility.

The type of accommodations necessary will change depending on the employee’s industry. Many women who experience symptoms already can decide what they wear to work, when they take a bathroom break and maybe even whether to work remotely. However, for workers in retail and service, or other workplaces with strict break policies, the ability to request a bathroom break or to drink water during a shift could significantly ease symptoms.

Just as the accommodations required will differ by job and industry, the employer’s ability to demonstrate undue hardship will also differ. Under the Philadelphia Code, undue hardship is an individualized assessment that considers such factors as the cost of the accommodations, the size of the workforce and the employer’s financial resources.

The devil is in the details, of course, but come January 2027, relief should be on the way for workers who are just trying to do their jobs while suffering from symptoms caused by menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack.

Ann Juliano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Workplace relief is coming for employees with symptoms of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause in Philly – https://theconversation.com/workplace-relief-is-coming-for-employees-with-symptoms-of-menstruation-perimenopause-and-menopause-in-philly-275189

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jenna Vinson, Associate Professor of English, UMass Lowell

Bracket-busting upsets, Cinderella stories, OT buzzer beaters – March Madness is here! Or, as some urologists think of it, vasectomy promotion season.

Since 2004, urologists have been promoting vasectomies every March, promising patients who elect the procedure an excellent excuse to relax on the couch and watch college basketball.

There’s evidence that these “Vas Madness” promotional tactics – sometimes paired with food giveaways and cheeky swag – may be effective. At least one study has noted an increase in vasectomy rates in the U.S. during the month of March.

This spike in vasectomies illustrates how communication about this procedure – and its perceived relation to manhood – can make a substantive shift in public acceptance of contraceptive sterilization for men.

I am a scholar of rhetoric and gender studies, and I have been studying the language around vasectomies for years. In my forthcoming book, “Stop Saying Snip! The Rhetoric of Vasectomy,” which will be published in April 2026, I show that communication plays a significant role in prompting people to welcome, seek or avoid vasectomies. In fact, I’ve found that language about fertility and communication about contraception greatly influence all decision-making around preventing pregnancy, particularly who should bear the burden of it.

Gendered communication about contraception

For my book, I interviewed 17 people who rely on vasectomies to prevent pregnancies, and I asked them how they learned what a vasectomy was. Few knew for certain, and most did not remember at all.

This makes sense when you consider that information about this procedure is not routinely delivered to anyone. I have found that knowledge about vasectomies is not guaranteed to be covered through sex education in school, during annual doctor visits, through insurance coverage that encourages preventive health practices, or even in discussions with family and friends.

Rather, the rhetoric around preventing pregnancy places the onus of contraception on women. Throughout their lives, women receive messages from partners, parents, friends and medical providers that prompt them to think about their fertility and to take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. These messages subtly communicate that this is the most natural  or  normal way to prevent pregnancies.

In contrast, men do not often get this message that they should think about their fertility and take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. For example, men are rarely prompted to explain what they are doing to prevent pregnancies. One military father of two whom I interviewed for my book said that his primary care physician never discussed birth control with him at checkups. Yet each time his wife had a baby, her doctors would inquire whether she wanted to undergo tubal ligation, the sterilization procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut.

Rhetoric, including questions providers do or don’t ask, plays a role in the unbalanced sterilization rates among men and women. According to a 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 25% of the women surveyed were sterilized, in contrast to just 11% of the men. And according to data from the National Survey of Family Growth, in 2022-2023, 6.8% of men age 18 to 49 had vasectomies, whereas during the same time period, 11.5% of women age 15 to 49 using contraception underwent sterilization.

In fact, female sterilization is the leading method of contraception used in the U.S., even though it is riskier and less cost-efficient than vasectomy.

Manhood in the English language of fertility

The very language that English speakers use to refer to men’s fertility can conflate reproductive capacity with a positive vision of being a man. This makes acceptance of vasectomy quite tricky.

In medical articles, men’s reproductive capacity is discussed as “fertility.” But more colloquially, English speakers often use very different terms, such as “potency” and “virility.”

Potency comes from the Latin word potentia, meaning “power.” In English, potency refers to “power,” the “ability to affect something,” “authority” and “influence.” It also refers to the “ability to achieve erection or ejaculation in sexual intercourse,” to which the Oxford English Dictionary adds, “Also: fertility (of a male or female).” I have yet to encounter literature or messaging involving a potent woman — other than, perhaps, to refer to her scent.

Men who can reproduce may also be referred to as “virile,” from the Latin vir, meaning “man”. This inscribes a sense of “manhood” into language about men’s fertility: The Oxford English Dictionary defines virility as “mature or fully developed manhood or masculine force,” and “the power of procreation; capacity for sexual intercourse.”

The multiple meanings of these words help to explain the misconception that vasectomy, in curtailing fertility, threatens a man’s ability to influence others, access power and perform sexually. In this way, rhetoric around men’s fertility can interfere with broad acceptance of vasectomy.

After all, undergoing a vasectomy does require a willingness to be vulnerable. It involves talking to a medical expert about your sexual and reproductive desires, allowing medical staff to see and touch your otherwise private parts, and following another’s orders for what to do. This includes returning to the doctor’s office with semen to be analyzed in order to determine if the procedure was a success – a step many men skip.

And vasectomy is a surgical procedure, so it also means facing some risk of harm, albeit small.

Taken altogether, undergoing a vasectomy means behaving in a way that may feel in direct opposition to dominant cultural understandings of being “a man” – someone potent, virile and always in control.

Broadening communication about vasectomies

“Vas Madness” promotional tactics are one of the few public campaigns about the procedure. Yet even after the “madness” is all said and done, women still tend to do the brunt of pregnancy prevention work, consuming pills, implanting intrauterine devices, receiving injections and undergoing tubal ligation surgery, while managing all the doctor’s appointments and side effects those methods entail.

In conducting my research, I found that women’s efforts to give their partners information about vasectomies and to share the burdens they bear in managing fertility are an important driving force in many men’s decisions to have the procedure.

One 35-year-old man I spoke with had been relying on his partner to use birth control methods to prevent pregnancy, including an IUD placement that went wrong and then a contraceptive implant. After research and discussion, they decided on a vasectomy to prevent pregnancies moving forward. The man told me that his partner is “very informed about medical things.” He continued: “Any sort of trepidation I had about it, it was very easy to talk to her about it and be like, ‘OK, this really isn’t that big of a deal at all.’”

But communication from more sources, beyond seasonal urologist campaigns and the individual efforts of romantic partners, could help inspire more people to see vasectomies as a normal, needed and helpful procedure to prevent pregnancy.

In the meantime, reproductive labor continues to be, overwhelmingly, women’s work.

Jenna Vinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. ‘Vas Madness’ shows the power of messaging on men’s contraceptive decisions – https://theconversation.com/vas-madness-shows-the-power-of-messaging-on-mens-contraceptive-decisions-278296

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, Penn State

I first heard the popular “Swasthani Vrata Katha” – a devotional text – recited in Sankhu, a village on the outskirts of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, some 25 years ago.

The text tells the story, or “katha,” of the ritual vow, or “vrata,” that women devotees perform to earn the favor of Swasthani, a local Nepali Hindu goddess.

Every day during the cold lunar month of January-February, 100 to 200 Hindu women, dressed all in red, carry out a ritual that requires them to bathe in the local river, eat only one meal per day, remain singularly focused and worship the Hindu god Shiva at midday. In the evening, they recite the devotional text or listen to it being recited.

This practice dates to the 16th century and continues today. Nepali families gather daily at their home or at a relative’s home to recite one of the 31 chapters of the text. The recitation is done even if no one in the family is participating in the ritual vow. Most devotees observe only a two-day ritual vow at the end of the month’s recitation, but some women perform the ritual vow for the whole month.

At the end of the month, devotees prepare a series of offerings to Swasthani for the concluding ritual. These include ritually specific cooked foods, fruit and flowers. After the ritual offerings are blessed by Swasthani, devotees give a portion to their husband. If there is no husband, then to their son. If there is no son, then to the son of a friend.

I have joined many families in their homes during my archival and ethnographic work over the past two decades. Like many Nepalis, I listened patiently to the Swasthani’s stories while waiting eagerly for the sweet treats that were given at the end of the nightly recitation.

As a scholar of gender and Hinduism in Nepal, I am aware of two readings of the text in Nepal: Some see it reinforcing patriarchal expectations, while many women find strength through the enduring hardships and perseverance of its female characters.

Stories in the text

The Swasthani text has a prominent place in Nepali culture. It is the only locally written work of Hindu literature that is actively read by lay Nepali Hindus. It is their primary source for key Hindu myths.

The first two-thirds of the text explain the creation of the universe and recount the most widely known myths associated with the supreme god Shiva. These are stories familiar to most Hindus.

For Nepalis, it is the last third of the text that is especially meaningful. Here, the focus shifts to the local and relatable stories of three mortals – Goma, Navaraj and Chandravati – and their devotion to the local Nepali Hindu goddess Swasthani.

Goma is married as a 7-year-old to a decrepit 70-year-old man. She dutifully endures marriage, motherhood and, too soon thereafter, widowhood. Her son, Navaraj, is obedient and dutiful. In contrast, his wife, Chandravati, is selfish as a daughter-in-law and disrespects Swasthani, leading to enormous misery for her.

Ultimately, all three experience social and economic transformation through devotion to Swasthani, which culminates in the crowning of Navaraj as a king and Chandravati and Goma becoming queen and queen mother, respectively.

Faithful wives – human and divine

Through its female characters, mortal and divine alike, the text highlights a woman’s principal role and identity as a faithful wife.

In addition to the pious, persevering Goma and flawed Chandravati in the mortal realm, in the divine realm there are the goddesses Sati and her reincarnation as Parvati. Both are known mainly for being devoted wives of Shiva. There are also wives of other lesser gods, semidivine beings and demons. They share in common unwavering devotion to their husbands but also regular subjection to the whims of their husbands or the gods.

Most notable of these other wives is Vrinda, the chaste wife of the demon Jalandhar. It is Vrinda’s chastity that protects her husband and prevents him from being killed by the gods for his brazen effort to seduce Shiva’s wife, Parvati.

To make Jalandhar vulnerable, the god Vishnu assumes Jalandhar’s form and debauches Vrinda. Her husband is immediately killed, and Vrinda is widowed through no fault of her own. She consequently commits sati, or self-immolation, on her husband’s funeral pyre – but curses Vishnu before doing so.

Patriarchy in Nepal

I have observed that in Nepal’s patriarchal culture, many women find strength in Goma’s plight and endurance. But that many Nepali feminists and youths question the treatment of women throughout the text.

Most Nepali women cannot inherit property and do not have equal citizenship rights. Child marriage remains a pervasive practice across Nepal and often results in girls dropping out of school to take on household responsibilities. According to the United Nations, one in three girls are married off before turning 18. Despite updates in Nepal’s 2015 constitution designed to remove gender discrimination, there remains a significant gap between the law and everyday lived experiences.

Marriage in Nepal is widely seen as “a woman’s destiny” and often gives the husband and his family “full authority to rule over a woman,” explains Luna KC, a scholar of global and international studies and gender studies. It is customary practice in Nepal and across South Asia for married couples to reside with the husband’s parents. As anthropologist Lynn Bennett and other researchers have demonstrated, this can be traumatic for the bride, who must leave her family and support system.

These dynamics play out in the Swasthani text and in current debates about its role in contemporary Nepali society.

Critics argue that the stories instill and normalize antiquated ideas and practices that reinforce gender inequality and impede women’s full participation in society and access to equal rights. “Our child marriage is based on this type of story,” according to a gender and human rights advocate I interviewed.

Rameshwori Pant, an independent researcher and journalist, echoes this when she describes how Goma’s story “haunted” her as a child because Pant’s own mother had also been married at age 7.

Finding hope in the text

Families often have centuries-old handwritten Swasthani manuscripts that are now family heirlooms. Increasingly, many also have a newly store-bought version. With their distinctive red wraparound cover, stacks of the printed Swasthani text stand out at local bookshops leading up to the annual recitation.

For many Nepali women, the Swasthani stories they learned as young girls linger and endure into their adulthood in complicated ways. As an adult, Pant was moved to write about the sociological, economic and gender aspects of the Swasthani practice. She asks, “Why is there violence against women and gender discrimination in a story written to celebrate women?”

Through my formal interviews and informal conversations over the years with Nepali women and devotees, it is also clear that many women find fortitude in the text’s description of familiar trials the women and goddesses face.

From this perspective, the Swasthani stories teach women that through perseverance, their hardships turn into triumphs and women’s suffering turns into strength. Goma is regularly invoked in popular discourse for her determination as a dutiful child bride, wife and mother who persists in the face of repeated adversity and ongoing lack of resources. These are the daily realities for many Nepali women living in a patriarchal society.

So while the text may not advocate for women’s social, economic or legal autonomy, it still offers encouragement: For some women, it provides a road map for working through life’s difficulties. This, too, can be empowering.

As a Nepali female lawyer explained to me: “The stories of the Swasthani have different life lessons to follow and apply. Just as the Buddha suffered and in the end found enlightenment, so, too, the Swasthani characters suffered but in the end found happiness.”

Staying power in modern times

I see and value both sides of the debates. They reflect the varied experiences, perspectives and concerns among Nepal’s diverse population. They also reflect the challenges of translating ancient and medieval beliefs and practices in the modern period.

What is striking is the text’s staying power. Its stories are centuries old – yet they are recited by many Nepalis every winter, even as the daily recitation now competes with many modern distractions, such as smartphones and social media.

The text remains an important piece of local Nepali heritage and culture. It offers a window into Nepal’s past, while also prompting reflections on Nepali values for the future.

Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal – https://theconversation.com/what-an-ancient-devotional-text-means-for-the-women-of-nepal-273901