Here's a great move for men's health that could hopefully be imitated by other states: New York recently passed a law requiring the coverage of prostate cancer screening by insurance companies. Ed Bartlett's post to the Men's Health America list can be read here. Please take a moment to sign up with Ed's list if you care about men's health issues!

I received a couple of anonymous submissions about coverage of the recent report on the fragility of boy's health. The story was also distributed on Yahoo! News and also ABCNews. Although I'm glad to see this get more media attention, I have to wonder if it's being done to encourage the need to "resocialize boys" under the stereotype that masculinity is toxic.

We'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Happy Newtonmas/etc, and the best in the New Year! The Men's Activism News Network, now about six months old, has been our gift to help a movement that we strongly believe in. We hope as many people as possible can spend time with their families this season, and for those that cannot, we will continue to fight for you. Take care everyone.



Scott and Adam.

Here's some excellent work from the British Medical Journal about boys and masculinity, as this essay by Sebastian Kraemer tells us: "A typical attitude to boys is that they are, or must be made, more resilient than girls. This adds social insult to biological injury." He explores the basis of this vulnerability in greater detail in the essay, which you may read by clicking here. Also, be sure to send Sebastian an e-mail telling him how you much you hope he'll continue to do research on boys and masculinity since it gives men's issues some much needed credibility, and to put it simply, without scientific studies to back up our issues, we will not gain public support unless we can demonstrate some proof of our claims. So be sure to send him some praise and encouragement.

This piece in Irish Times by John Waters describes many journalistic attacks made on him by others offended by his columns on men's issues and criticisms of feminism. "What I have suggested is that men are in certain ways oppressed. Feminists, claiming a monopoly on suffering, do not like this. Nor do they like the fact that, by advancing a plausible case, people like us have had an effect on public opinion. We must be shamed into silence." It's a superb article - maybe we could write John some letters of support for standing up for men and not being shamed into silence.

ABCnews is reporting that a 14 year-old boy could face a felony charge of sexual assault for slapping a girl's butt at school. The mother of the victim was quoted as saying, "What he did wasn't right, but I wouldn't have pressed charges, given that it was just a slap on the butt." Likewise, I agree that the boy should be disciplined, but this is going way too far.

David Byron writes "The so-called discussion boards at NOW have realised they must censor and ban comments by non-feminists after several weeks of worrying about how censorship will hurt their public image. Without any announcement NOW has moved its discussion board to a new URL and has deleted many previous posts and threads at the same time placing many non-feminist posters on a banned list to prevent the truth about feminism getting out. Here is the old board and here is the new board.

The mass deletions, bannings and the move to a new URL were made secretly to prevent giving the impression that NOW supports censorship...." Please click "Read More" below to read the rest of his account of censorship...

So here's an example of how academic feminists spend their time: "Dr Tricia Cusack, of Birmingham University, has carried out a five-year study in the cultural meanings of snowmen, and now believes they are obsolete symbols of gender discrimination." Ananova News reported on this story - click here to read it.

David Byron has been submitting insightful news stories left and right lately, and writes "I have spent time looking at feminist sites on-line and trying to debate on feminist boards for a couple of years now, and in all that time of trying to find a sincere feminism, only one group has managed to convince me that they might really want sexual equality and are prepared to be honest. The site is now one year old and here's a quote from their newsletter: For slightly more than a year now, we have been making an all-out effort to heal the destruction wrought by gender feminism and to offer in its place a feminism that embraces men as equals, the free market as opportunity, sex as a source of joy, and civil liberties as every human being's right. My thanks to each and every one of you for sharing and contributing to our vision." Click "Read More" below to view more of David's comments and find out what site he is referring to...

Ed Bartlett's post from the Men's Health America list announces that a nine million dollar study has been sponsored by the NIH to research a prostate condition called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. "BPH refers to the non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland. This condition may make it difficult for men over 50 years of age to urinate. It is estimated that one in four men will need treatment of
BPH by the time they reach 80 years." Details of the study can be read here.

David Byron writes "Statistics say men sexually abuse children more than women do, but as with most definitions of sexual based crimes the definition itself is biased towards only describing male criminal behaviour. For example the FBI stll defines rape as something that only happens to women. This article in the Chicago Tribune is about a case where a single mother was forcing her 6 year old son to breast feed and sleep naked with her. The state called it sex abuse. She called it good parenting. The judge called it bad parenting but refused to say it was sex abuse. When will sexual crimes be seen as truly gender neutral and when will women's sexual crimes be recognised? The child is now in foster care."

David Byron writes "This article by the New York Times [free registration required] talks about how young boys are used in warfare in Colombia. As an issue I find that the treatment of men and boys in the third world is probably the last thing to be mentioned on men's sites. In a sense this is good, because it is a humanitarian issue not a gendered issue, but feminists have framed the third world as an area where only women are oppressed and it simply isn't true."

The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal had an editorial on the recent Brandeis false rape accusation case, where there was significant controversy over the way universities are allowed to enforce their own discipline codes. This is one of the most detailed stories about a false accusation of rape on a college campus that I know of, and is immensely valuable reading material. Please check it out. Update: I have changed the description of this article, arfter recieving some percpetive comments about it.

The latest UK Sunday Times reports that "The government's oft-criticised women's unit is in its death throes. Downing Street advisers and female ministers want it junked and replaced with a new outfit to combat discrimination against men and women...The new unit would be as likely to produce a green paper on the under-achievement of boys in state schools as low pay for women." All I have to say is...WOW, what a great idea! Could it be possible that people are looking to move beyond gender politics and are tired of one-sided feminism? Click here to read the story.

A group called the Equitable Child Maintenance and Access Society from Calgary, Canada is planning to legally challenge the public display of "most wanted" lists of "deadbeat dads." Photos of fathers in child support arrears on the internet violates the person's right to privacy, and consequently the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of Privacy Act, according to the group. The article from the Calgary Herald can be read here.