Is Feminism Getting In The Way of "Male Studies?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'The creation of the Foundation for Male Studies was announced on Wednesday at Wagner College in New York, along with a proposal for male studies as a new discipline. While gender studies, women’s studies and men’s studies already exist, the scholars behind the new discipline insist that colleges need to start fresh in order to examine the current state of boys and men.

The interdisciplinary study would examine the experience of modern males, particularly those under 35, in a moment in history when they are the minority of college graduates, the majority of suicide victims, have shorter life spans and increasingly suffer psychological problems.

To be sure, these are valid and interesting pursuits, deserving of our attention--now more than ever. However, it’s the distinction from current men’s studies programs that’s raising eyebrows.

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UK: Rape claim is a set up, court hears

Story here. Excerpt:

'A DOG-OWNER accused of rape claims he has been set up by a woman who changed her mind about selling her pet to him.

Stephen Tuggey, 42, is alleged to have crept into the 57-year-old’s bedroom and forced himself on her after arranging to drive more than 100 miles to bring her beloved dog back to South Wales to see her on her birthday.

She called police to her Cardiff home after her daughter saw blood on her dressing gown and she broke down saying she had been attacked.

But Tuggey told police who arrested him: “She consented – going up to bed together was her suggestion, she was waiting for me on the landing.”
...
They still had a pub lunch together as planned but when they got back and he fell asleep, her mother started crying and said she wanted him out of the house.

Tuggey denies rape and sexual assault. The woman cannot be named.'

"The woman cannot be named." - but the man can.

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Watch out women's studies, here comes male studies

Article here. Excerpt:

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Maine Commission Moves to Ban Gender Specific Bathrooms, Sports Teams in Schools

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Maine Human Rights Commissions taking heat over a proposal to ban schools from enforcing gender divisions in sports teams, school organizations, bathrooms and locker rooms, saying forcing a student into a particular room or group because of their biological gender amounts to discrimination.

The issue came to light last year when the commission ruled that, under the Maine Human Rights Act, a school had discriminated against a 12-year-old transgender boy by denying him access to the girls' bathroom.

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Tennessee Mother Ships Adopted Son Back to Moscow Alone

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Tennesee mother's decision to send her 7-year-old adopted son back to Russia, alone and with a note that she no longer wanted him, has horrified officials and adoption experts in both countries.

Angry Russian officials are calling for a halt to all U.S. adoptions until the two countries could hammer out a new agreement that spelled out the conditions and obligations for such adoptions.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the boy's abrupt return "a monstrous deed." The Russian president told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that he had a "special concern" about the recent treatment of Russian children adopted by Americans.

Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn., put 7-year-old Artyem Saviliev -- renamed Justin Artyem Hansen in the U.S. -- on a plane to Moscow's Domodedovo airport with a note in his pocket saying she ws returning him, that the boy had severe psychological problems and that the orphanage had lied about his condition.

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Inner-city Chicago charter school has perfect college acceptance rate

Story here. How about that!? Geez, if you give a whit about them and teach them the way they need to be taught, boys CAN actually succeed and even EXCEL in school! Wow, what a novel concept! And it works for girls, too. It's just that that particular approach has been applied to all our public schools, and so, the results are well-known there: fast-diminishing graduation and college acceptance rates for boys while girls continue to increase their level of excellence -- at the boys' expense. Excerpt:

'Chicago – In Chicago, the graduation rate for African-American boys is about 40 percent, and only about half of all students are accepted to some form of college. The chances of young black men going to college – particularly young men from the poorest neighborhoods – are not good.

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NOW calls for a woman to replace Justice John Stevens

Story here. This shouldn't come as a surprise. I have no problem with women on the highest court, but to nominate someone based on gender is unacceptable. Excerpt:

'The National Organization for Women also weighed in on Stevens' retirement. The group called on the president to nominate a woman to the high court, which counts Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg among its nine members.

"NOW is dedicated to achieving gender parity on the Supreme Court, and we call on President Obama to nominate a woman to fill this seat," NOW President Terry O'Neill said in a statement. "The Supreme Court is out of balance, with women making up a mere 22 percent of the bench. That's simply not enough."'

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Inmates sue over jail conditions

Story here. Excerpt:

'Eleven inmates have filed lawsuits against the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center in U.S. District Court over living conditions.

Inmates claim they’ve suffered malfunctioning toilets and showers, don’t receive prescription medication in a timely manner and have no emergency call system in their cells, among other things, according to complaints filed between Feb. 16 and March 15.

Robert Hooper, who chairs the Orangeburg-Calhoun Law Enforcement Commission, says some of the issues arose during the 2009 annual state Department of Corrections inspection.
...
Last July, the Regional Detention Center was cited for housing sentenced and pre-trial inmates together. Other violations cited were the lack of two-way emergency intercom systems in individual cells and failure to give inmates required outdoor exercise time due to staffing shortages.

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"Cops: Wiccan listed victim as 'sacrifice' in phone"

Story here. Excerpt:

'ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A self-described Wiccan had a man's phone number programmed in her cell phone under the word "sacrifice" before she stabbed him to death, then claimed he had tried to rape her, authorities said Thursday.

Angela Sanford, 30, is accused of killing 52-year-old Joel Leyba last month with a dagger after inviting him to join her in a Wiccan celebration of spring near a popular hiking trail east of Albuquerque.

She told police she stabbed Leyba three times in the stomach after he tied her up and tried to assault her.

But police say Leyba was stabbed 11 to 13 times, and a detective reviewing Sanford's cell phone found the nickname "sacrifice" instead of Leyba's name.

"It makes us absolutely confident there was something more here than her claims of self-defense," said Patrick Davis, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County district attorney's office.'

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Man falls 30 feet saving suicidal woman

Article here. We post a lot of 'women behaving badly' articles, and a lot of examples of men being treated poorly, as second class citizens, and often even as sub-human. This article should be a shining example to anyone who doesn't think men deserve basic respect of the type of selflessness and heroism men are capable of. It would be easy to attribute his actions to outmoded ideas of chivalry and sacrifice, or to suggest he should never have risked his life in the first place, but I choose to view it as a doctor doing all in his power to help a patient, an example of the type of person, man or woman, that we should all wish there were more of it in the world. Excerpt:

'An Allentown man saved a suicidal woman's life but suffered extensive arm fractures when they fell 30 feet from the roof of a Lehigh Valley personal care facility on Monday.

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Abusegate: May 6-7: Working for Men, Working a Miracle!

From Abusegate Bob:

Domestic violence laws are bad for men because they strip due process protections from the falsely-accused, deny services to male victims, and stereotype men as batterers. Some say the effect of our nation's DV laws is to turn men into a new social under-class.

Since 2008, a dedicated group of men and women has been working on Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers about the harmful effects of DV laws. Three times, this group has succeeded in blocking bad bills from being passed:

2008: International Violence Against Women (I-VAWA) Act
2008: National Domestic Violence Volunteer Act
2009: Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Act

But it's not enough to stop bad bills from becoming law. Now, we need to reform the existing laws, especially the Violence Against Women Act, so they are effective, inclusive, and respectful of civil rights.

On May 6-7, we will take our campaign to a new level. WE WILL WORK A MIRACLE.

Register here. Just do it.

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UK: New Fathers 4 Justice: General Election Demo

Announcement here. Excerpt:

'Date: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: CARFAX TOWER, OXFORDSHIRE
City/Town: Oxford, United Kingdom
...
NEW FATHERS 4 JUSTICE has a protest in the run up to the General election will be going to do a demo on our battle bus (open top double-decker bus). We will be targeting David Cameron (the likely new PM) in the run up to the election.

The bus is will be decorated with our banners and slogans and will be making 3 points of call:

1.OXFORD TOWN CENTRE
2.WITNEY OFFICE (David Cameron’s constituency)
3.DAVID CAMERON’S HOUSE

Spread the word.'

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Palin and Bachmann: Feminists in Naughty Monkey Peep Toe Heels

Article here. Excerpt:

'Poor, poor Tim Pawlenty. The earnest Minnesota governor brought his best zingers and one-liners to the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday, but he got his biggest applause at the GOP fundraiser only when he introduced Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The two brightest stars of the conservative movement were headliners for the event to raise cash for Bachmann's re-election campaign. On the charisma scale, he was chalk to their napalm.

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ACFC: Shared Parenting Rally in Chicago, Illinois, April 10, 2010

Via an ACFC release:

This Saturday, April 10th, there will be a rally in Chicago coinciding with the next meeting of the Illinois Family Law Study Committee. Awareness and the list of supporting organizations continues to grow. All are welcome to attend. Click here for details.

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Abusegate Action Item: Send your letter to incoming OVW head Susan Carbon

From Abusegate Bob:

Last Friday, Susan B. Carbon took over as director of the DoJ Office of Violence Against Women. As we work to reform VAWA and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (which funds abuse shelters and state DV coalitions), it’s important that the OVW understand and support the need for reform.

So I’d like to encourage your group to send a one-page welcome letter to her. The letter should outline your organization’s work to stop domestic violence, offer to work with the OVW in its continued efforts, and be polite and constructive in tone.

You may also want to include a paragraph to this effect (change the exact wording so it doesn’t sound canned):

Research shows men and women are approximately likely to abuse. The 2000 NIJ-CDC survey found approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States. More recent CDC studies have found women are more likely to be the perpetrators of abuse:

  1. Among young adults, 71% of perpetrators in one-way abuse are female: Daniel Whitaker et al. Differences in Frequency of Violence and Reported Injury Between Relationships With Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal Intimate Partner Violence American Journal of Public Health, May 2007.
  2. Teenage girls are substantially more likely to initiate physical aggression than teenage boys: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Factors. Behavioral Surveillance—United States, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review 2008; 57.
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