Article here. Excerpt:

'Tonight [9/27/10] at 7 p.m., first-year men at Hamilton College will be attending a mandatory presentation of "She Fears You," a program at which they will be pressed to acknowledge their personal complicity in a "rape culture" on Hamilton's campus and to change their "rape-supportive" beliefs and attitudes. First-year men were informed via e-mail that attendance was required and that they needed to bring their ID cards. "She Fears You" will be presented by Keith Edwards, "a national speaker and trainer on diversity and social justice and college men's issues."

"She Fears You" is based on the theory that men need a "combined cognitive and emotional intervention" in order to change their "rape-supportive beliefs."'

I accidentally came across this article in Elle magazine about men's reproductive rights. It actually does a fairly good job of presenting both sides of the issue. It includes quotations from Mel Feit and Kim Gandy (ex-president of NOW). Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

The best thing that ever happened to me was losing my balls...”

Barry Munday utters the words to a rugged – and horrified – guy sitting next to him at the bar. An aspiring ladies’ man, Mr. Munday suffers an injury to his testicles, learns he’s a father and grows into a better man in the film named after him, opening Oct. 1 in theatres.

The movie is just the latest in a string of emasculating offerings in popular culture. In April, bloggers seized on an oxytocin-laced “cuddle spray,” rumoured to entrance your guy into snuggling after sex instead of cozying up with ESPN.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In its earliest and most benign form – the political campaign to achieve equality under the law and equality in economic opportunities – feminism was a necessary and welcome reform movement. No rational person could be less than delighted to see barriers to a full range of educational and career options for women fall by the wayside.

The feminism I take exception to today is not the mild and blameless right of a woman to self-actualize that all women absorb by osmosis from the cultural air we breathe, but the radical ideology that has come to dominate the movement’s academic and institutional elites over the last 40 years.

Via email submission:

This afternoon the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to hold a mark-up hearing on the proposed International Violence Against Women Act (S. 2982). The purpose of the hearing was to consider any final amendments on the bill before a vote by the Committee, and subsequent referral to the entire Senate for a vote.

But just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, committee Chairman John Kerry of Massachusetts announced the hearing would be canceled. Senate insiders believe the cancellation marks a decision by Sen. Kerry to avoid an embarrassing defeat of the bill. Sen. Kerry was a lead sponsor of the bill, along with senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME).

While Sen. Kerry may attempt to secure passage of the bill during the upcoming “Lame Duck” session of Congress, Senate insiders believe such a move is unlikely.

Column here. Excerpt:

'We live in an era where it’s no longer acceptable to make fun of particular groups.

Except men, of course.

Curiously, while we are expected to treat others with sensitivity and respect, men are still fair game.
...
And if the mass media portray men as idiots, it’s not surprising that such misconceptions end up colouring people’s views of men in real life.

Case in point: the long-standing myth that men are incapable fathers. Tiptoeing into that cultural minefield is Luc Bouchard, provincial co-ordinator of the Alberta Father Involvement Initiative.

His mission? To convince the skeptics that just because men parent differently doesn’t mean they’re bad dads — and to help social service agencies design parenting programs that reach out to dads as well as moms.'

Article here. The author, Andrea Mrozek, is a Conservative Christian and Manager of Research and Communications for the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.

'For the one smiling face of dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford there are thousands upon thousands more who are weeping, waiting for the despair to end, living lives filled with drugs, sedatives, physical and sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Their stories were ignored in Justice Susan Himel’s decision to overturn Canada’s prostitution laws on Tuesday.

Reasonable evidence was likewise ignored, evidence that shows lax prostitution laws increase the exploitation of women, help organized crime and increase human trafficking.

Parliament has 30 days to decide how to act on this decision. It must be overturned, and failing that, something more stringent put in its place. Following the path of Sweden by criminalizing Johns is one possible solution, with considerable support among women’s groups and anti-human trafficking activists across the globe.

The Swedish model prosecutes the buyer.

From an IA newsletter:

'With the American Academy of Pediatrics conference happening this weekend, it's more important than ever to write to the AAP and demand that they listen to America's parents, and the rest of the world: circumcision is not an effective tool against AIDS, it isn't medically necessary, and it inflicts needless pain and suffering on helpless infants. Email them here.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'But I’m not going to do that. Instead I’m going to tell it like it is. And what it is is this: statistically speaking women have a huge advantage as entrepreneurs, because the press is dying to write about them, and venture capitalists are dying to fund them. Just so no one will point the accusing finger of discrimination at them.

That WSJ article also criticizes Y Combinator for having just 14 female founders out of their 208 startups to date. But I know that Y Combinator wants – really, really wants – female founders and that there just aren’t very many of them. I know this because Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston has told me how excited they are to get applications from women, and that they want to do everything they can to get more female applicants. What they probably won’t admit, but I suspect is true anyway, is that the rate of acceptance for female applicants is far higher than for male applicants.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Morinville, Alta., teacher on trial for sexual assault has been found not guilty of all charges.

Michael Dubas, 55, faced two charges each of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation involving two female students at G.H. Primeau School in the town about 30 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. In delivering his decision in St. Albert provincial court Friday afternoon, Judge Brian Fraser said he believed Dubas when he denied touching the girls.

"In my opinion, Mr. Dubas, you have suffered a tremendous injustice," the judge said.
...
The girls, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, alleged Dubas groped them in two separate incidents in February and October of 2009.

Fraser said the testimony of one of the girls was unreliable and pointed to a surveillance video showing the hallway at the time she said she was groped. The video showed no evidence the attack occurred, the judge said.'

I wonder how women's studies professors can find a way to make this all about the Evil Patriarchy? A female judge rules in favor of the plaintiffs: three prostitutes just chomping at the bit to ply their trade publicly. You can practically hear the gears grinding away as The Machine tries desperately to find some kind of output that has a man to blame for it all. Excerpt:

'A Toronto judge has struck down Canada’s prostitution laws, effectively decriminalizing activities associated with the world’s oldest trade.

“These laws, individually and together, force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Justice Susan Himel of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice said in Tuesday’s landmark decision.
...

Article here. Great mention of the economy, yet no mention of The Great Unspeakable Marriage Strike, but somehow with plenty of misandry squeezed in there, too. Excerpt:

'Fewer Americans are married than at any time in recorded history, according to Census data released Tuesday.

Just 52 percent of adults 18 and older said they were married in 2009, compared with 57 percent in 2000. For the first time, the 46.3 percent of adults aged 25 to 34 who said they had never married outnumbered the 44.9 percent who were currently married.

The recession was causing more adults to linger outside the church before walking down the aisle, experts said.

"Men's employment has taken a big hit, and when the guy doesn't have a stable job, couples are more hesitant about tying the knot," said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, noting that employed men are "not getting drunk on a Wednesday night; work is helpful to civilize a man."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Despite surviving from Roman times, the humour no longer considered acceptable, according to officials at the London Borough of Barnet.

The edict was issued in a 12-page booklet entitled Cultural awareness: General Problems which came to light through a Freedom of Information request.

It states: “Humour can be incredibly culture-specific, and is very open to misinterpretation or even offense [sic] by other cultures. And don’t forget when you don’t know what people are laughing at, it is very easy to imagine that they are laughing at you.”

The guide adds: “British mother-in-law jokes, as well as offensively sexist in their own right, can also be seen as offensive on the grounds that they disrespect elders or parents.”

Barnet, the second largest population of the 33 London boroughs, where women outnumber men by 170,000 to 161,500, had been accused of a “sense of humour by-pass” by writer John Sessions.'

Story here. Two women were recently charged in separate cases. One case involved a lesbian couple. The other involved a woman who convinced a boyfriend to beat up her 62-year-old ex.

Hell does occasionally freeze over. Excerpt:

'Two Denver women were formally charged today in separate domestic-violence cases.

Annette Martinez, 47, was charged with second-degree assault resulting in serious injury. She allegedly kicked her partner of 10 years in the face on Wednesday, breaking her nose, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.

Sophia Newson-Westlund, 47, allegedly drove to her ex-husband's home on Sept. 19 and lured the 62-year-old out of his house.

Another man who was with Newson-Westlund punched and beat her ex-husband repeatedly. Newson-Westlund was charged with third-degree assault of an at-risk adult.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Ontario Chief Justice Warren recently recommended “dramatic” changes to the family law justice system that would deny litigants access to the courts if they didn’t go through mediation or arbitration first.

“(O)nly in the event that the alternative dispute resolution process is unsuccessful would access to the costly, time-consuming, adversarial and sometimes acrimonious court process be available to litigants” Justice Winkler said earlier this month in a speech marking the opening of Ontario courts for the current session.

Apparently fine-tuning the system is of little value and a new approach, “a fresh conceptual approach,” is required.

But a report on family law by the Law Commission of Ontario questioned the effectiveness of mediation. It’s no big surprise that our family justice system was found to be lacking, indeed the title of the report refers to our “Broken Family Justice System.”