Father's Day is always a bit ambivalently marked here at MANN, not unlike Veterans Day. The issue is that for some men, being a dad (like being a veteran) has turned out to be very fulfilling and a source of pride, satisfaction, etc. But for others, not so much.

So to all the dads out there, I can only say this: I hope this day for each of you is as good as it can be for whatever your personal situation is.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Forget the contrived “war on girls”, I’ve been saying there is a war on boys before it was cool. My impending, and always accurate, sense of doom began exactly ten years ago with the birth of my son. From the very first play date where all the moms repeated to their toddler sons, “Don’t hit. We don’t use our hands for hitting”. The “happy hands” philosophy later evolved into restricting their sons from playing with guns and toy weapons.
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You know what else sets my teeth on edge? Reading about innocent little boys, 5 and 6 years old, being ostracized and suspended from school for doing what they are naturally wired to do. As far as I am concerned this blatant intolerance and reverse sexism is terrorizing our male children. It’s child abuse under the guise of political correctness. A perfect example of this terror can be found here, where a five year old is interrogated for two hours and becomes so frightened he wets his pants.

Simply put, any teacher or school administrator that doesn’t understand how little boys work doesn’t deserve to be working with children. Instead of admonishing children for chewing pop tarts in the shape of a gun, we fire every single teacher and principal who takes leaves of their damn senses. Lose your common sense, lose your job.'

Article here. Excerpt:

There's much more of interest in this book. About, for example, the inculcation of virulently anti-male attitudes at all levels of the Swedish educational system. ("Boys cry when they hear how bad they and their father are and men have always been.") About how the system rewards irresponsibility on the part of young unmarried mothers and the men who impregnate them. ("With a baby, a single parent sidesteps all waiting lines and the child may be the only means to an apartment for decades.") About a national self-hatred so fierce that "schools have asked pupils not to wear [Swedish flag] t-shirts or wave the yellow and blue flag as it could be interpreted as racist." About a country where adults admire and envy youth beyond all reason, and accordingly exhibit greater levels of hedonism and infantilism than their counterparts anywhere else on the planet. And about levels of anti-Semitism that made international headlines yet again just the other day, when Israel's Eurovision delegation was harassed and threatened on the streets of Malmö.

Article here. Excerpt:

'This won't be popular with many people and will be viewed as reprehensible by those who profit from the continuing war on boys in public education, but the truth is that our cherished public educational institutions are growing more militantly anti-male with each passing generation.

This should be glaringly obvious to anyone familiar with the intellectual ailments now infecting an entire generation of boys. A full 80 percent of America's 3.7 million teachers are women. The numbers in elementary schools are even more slanted, with many schools reporting a 100 percent female faculty and administration.
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Many elementary schools have part-time male faculty with men filling in most often as physical education or music teachers. You don't find a lot of guys at the elementary level, but when you do they are almost always exemplary teachers. They have to be, just to survive.
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When did having a Y chromosome become a debilitating condition? No one in authority will admit it, but we are losing an entire generation of young men. The future for boys looks bleak.

Perhaps Thucydides was right. When self interest replaces rational thought, and fear drives out truth, there is no honor, only vengeance.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON, Jun 10, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A father's love and full involvement in his children's lives is crucial to their health, well-being, and development.

Fathers influence the physical well-being of their children in a number of ways -- by being engaged in their lives, supporting a mother's health, or by ensuring that children get the preventive services, such as vaccinations and well-baby checkups, they need to stay healthy. Fathers make a difference.

Studies have shown a father's own health makes a difference to their children's health. Active toddlers, for example, are more likely to have fathers with a lower Body Mass Index than less active children.

National Men's Health Week, June 10-16, which concludes with Father's Day, is a good time to focus on how men can take care of their own physical and mental health for themselves and for the well-being of their families. That means eating right, being active, and getting health insurance to ensure their families' security and peace of mind.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Father's Day is the annual celebration of men's fertility. It is not a celebration of "good fathers" but, rather, any man who contributes sperm to create a child. We have arrived at a point in our culture where violent men are considered "good enough" fathers. We are in the midst of a crisis in masculinity where male violence is excused and normalised. The media writes stories of men, like Andrew Parsons, who brutally murder their partners but who are still classed as "good fathers". The losers in our culture are women and their children.
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This Father's Day, we should examine the realities faced by women and children in our capitalist-patriarchal culture. Why do so many men assume that they should face no consequences for fathering a child? And, why does the government support the right of these men to fuck women with impunity whilst "slut-shaming" those women for having sex? Why are women the only ones who have to take responsibility for the consequences of having sex? Why does the government think it should punish some women for withholding contact from abusive men without punishing those same men for the abuse or their failure to pay maintenance? Why do men get to do whatever they want whenever they want with no legal or moral requirement for them to act like an adult?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'We live in an era of "men deserts", says the Centre for Social Justice. One day my children will look on me with worshipful eyes and say: "Mother, how did we survive the man drought of the early 21st century?" as if I'm some Mad Max of the spunkless years. This Sunday is Father's Day, the traditional time to pay tribute to any man you haven't driven screaming from your fanny ghetto after mating. But what to buy?
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The report criticises agencies that intervene in cases of domestic abuse for failing to recognise fathers as caregivers, on the grounds that "many perpetrators desire a more positive relationship with their children, and this can be a powerful motivator for change." Here, the CSJ is subordinating the safety of children to the potential self-improvement of abusers. Because this report, with its wobbly stats and its exaggerated claims, isn't actually about what's best for children: it's about the fear that some women and children might be perfectly OK without a masculine hand hanging over the household.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former sixth-grade teacher and mother of two pleaded guilty to having sex with a student, Southern California authorities said Friday.

Malia Brooks, who taught at Garden Grove Elementary in Simi Valley, pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of lewd conduct with a child under 14, said Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Erin Meister.

The judge indicated that Brooks will likely receive a six-year prison term when sentenced on August 23, Meister said. Bail was set at $2 million for the 32-year-old Brooks, who remains in custody.

"Malia Brooks has a mental illness. For 31 years, she was a law-abiding citizen," her attorney, Ron Bamieh, said. "Something had to occur for her to drastically change who she was. It's not like she is attracted to 12 year-old boys."'

Article here. Obama remarked that a better child support system would get fathers more involved?! Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says there's no substitute for the love and support that fathers provide.

In his weekly Internet and radio address, Obama is wishing Americans a happy Father's Day. He laments that his own father wasn't around and says he's still working to be a better father.

Obama says being a dad isn't easy for anyone - gay, straight, grandparent or foster parent. He says he wants to encourage marriage and strong families by reforming child support laws to get more fathers engaged. He says businesses, faith groups and communities have a role to play.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Assume for a moment that your employer let you decide when and where you worked — you might arrive early so you could leave in time to care for a child, or work part of the week from home. Or perhaps you want to reduce your hours for a while to care for an aging parent. How would you be perceived if you raised your hand for one of these options?

"Many times these policies are on the books, but informally everyone knows you are penalized for using them,” said Joan C. Williams, founding director of the Center for Work-Life Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, referring to the array of flexible work arrangements some employers offer. “I invented the term ‘flexibility stigma’ to describe that phenomenon. Recent studies have found that it is alive and well, and it functions quite differently for women than it does for men.”

For some women, it gives employers a reason to view them through the lens of motherhood, prompting the strongest form of gender discrimination. Mothers are seen as less competent and less committed to their work, she said, citing other studies. But more surprising is that men who seek work flexibility may be penalized more severely than women, because they’re viewed as more feminine, deviating from their traditional role of fully committed breadwinners.
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