Article here. Excerpt:

'AN OXFORD University student who set up a group championing men’s rights is hosting his first get-together at the weekend.

Alex Linsley, 20, a second year economics and management student at Merton College, launched the Man Collective-Oxford in November.

He set up the organisation to provide man-to-man support after noticing the high number of young men committing suicide in Oxford.

Now, working with friend Marc Quinn, he is hoping to bring like-minded men together at an event called The Gathering, to explore everything from healthcare to sexuality and gender policy.

He said: “Although there is quite an established network and movement of guys who are taking a stand and starting to challenge society’s expectations of them in the States, in the UK there is really nothing similar.”'

Video interview with the author here. Of course, men need fixing, and we are inherently flawed vis-a-vis women and we need to focus on "fixing" men relative to women. Our tendency to move to fix problems rather than emote about them is a big flaw that apparently needs fixing. She even uses the term "civilizing" when referring to men who are unfaithful to their mates. (Starts at time mark 1:48.)

"Civilizing".

As if to be civilized is equal to being faithful. So as in the examples they took (Tiger Woods and John Edwards), these men are by implication "uncivilized" since they are unfaithful. This would mean that John F. Kennedy was uncivilized. Indeed, most of our presidents have been uncivilized then, and virtually every man who has ever been a monarch has been uncivilized, and I wonder, would that also include the many female politicians and other kinds of leaders in history that also have been unfaithful to their mates? Are they also uncivilized?

Via email:

I am working with a group of academics, primarily psychologists and psychology professors. In response to a lack of understanding of male physiology, psychology, biology and behavior, their foundation is working to introduce a new program of male studies to colleges and universities worldwide.

In light of catastrophic issues men and boys face today - from hatred, disproportionate job losses, dwindling enrollment at colleges, and a biased legal system, this is a much-needed course of action.

I was wondering if you could take a few minutes and visit our site at http://www.malestudies.org/. Please help us by writing about our April 7 conference, in which scholars will introduce a new academic discipline.

Also, if you can suggest anyone else I can contact about this, I would be grateful.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Joseph Notovitz
wagnerconference-at-malestudies.org
Male Studies Foundation

Blog entry here.

'Although federal law is clear, judges are often ignoring it and calculating veterans’ disability compensation into divorce settlements as a divisible asset. Very often these payments are the only assets a veteran has. When judges include it as income, it creates great hardship for those veterans, who rarely have the resources to hire legal help to contest the taking of their benefits.

Last year Fathers & Families’ legislative representative Michael Robinson successfully worked to pass California SB 285 (Wright) which protected disabled veterans’ VA disability compensation, and has worked with advocates and legislators from several other states on similar legislation.

One of the first of these is Indiana HB 1165. A military parent bill also modeled on SB 285, HB 1165 was signed into law last week by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Thanks to Indiana activist/lobbyist Lisa Wilken for her fine work on the bill.'

Article here. A clinical psychologist and parenting guru spreading false stereotypes in a national newspaper. Excerpt:

'I've written about how to talk to teenage sons about responsible sexual behaviour – being considerate, always, of the wants and feelings of a potential sex partner.

But there's another talk you should have with your son: It is about abuse.

Many teenage boys – it has probably always been so – are abusive to their girlfriends. Most are not, but many are. How can you know whether your teenage son is abusive, or potentially abusive, with women? You can't.

Story here (originally appeared on MANN here). Another classic case of getting someone else to do your dirty work by lying to them. "Outsourced sexual assault," courtesy of a vengeful ex-girlfriend. Of course it doesn't exonerate the two men involved, either. Let it be a warning to men who think that to take up the cause of a woman claiming an offense (and then acting without referring the matter to proper authorities) is a great way to find yourself behind bars along with her. Excerpt:

'Renada Williams told her alleged cohorts in crime that her lover had raped her and that she had come up with a horrific plan of revenge, which left one police veteran cold.

"This type of crime shocks your consciousness," said Capt. Jack McGinnis, of Northeast Detectives. "I've been doing this for 38 years and this is really bad. How can people treat each other like this, and how do you bring a 16-year-old into this?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman was ordered to stop misleading the public about rape by an official inquiry report yesterday.

The Equalities Minister was accused of pumping out unreliable figures about the low number of rapists brought to justice, thus discouraging victims from reporting attacks.

The review by Baroness Stern appeared to put an end to years of claims by ministers that laws and criminal procedures for dealing with rape need radical reform because only six per cent of complaints end in a conviction.
...
The six per cent figure relates to reported cases. In fact, the conviction rate for those actually charged with rape is nearly two out of three, higher than comparable figures for other violent crime.

The report's view is doubly humiliating for Miss Harman because it was she who set up the review.

Article here.

'BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Young males who have consensual sex with their 16- or 17-year-old girlfriends would be shielded from rape charges, under a bill passed 35-0 by the Senate.

Sen. Brent Hill, a Rexburg Republican, told lawmakers Monday he doesn't believe "an 18-year-old boy who makes an indiscretion with his 17-year old girlfriend should be considered a rapist or a criminal in the same category as those degenerates."

Idaho's age of consent for females is now 18.

With Hill's measure, which now goes to the House, men within three years of their 16-year-old or 17-year-old girlfriends could no longer be charged with rape after consensual encounters.

His bill leaves all fornicators - Idahoans who have sex out of wedlock, regardless of age - subject to six months in jail, under an old Idaho law.'

Blog post here. Excerpt:

'And men, of course, are far more likely to commit suicide than women altogether, although the fact is rarely brought to public attention as a matter for special concern, even when it would be appropriate to do so. Three students at Cornell University in New York State in the last month alone committed suicide by jumping off a bridge on the campus into a deep gorge. These were not “cries for help” — they were irrevocable decisions to die. The students were male. Yet Cornell president David Skorton said that “… suicide among young people is a national health crisis.”

Well, it isn’t a crisis amongst young people, but it is a crisis amongst young males. In Canada over 80% of suicides are male (77% in the U.S.). Suicides amongst men rise dramatically after separation or divorce, especially amongst men deprived of their family home and children, while suicide rates amongst women remain flat.

Story here. But she wasn't alone. I wondered about posting this since it strikes me as being more about how we are producing "feral youth" now instead of children on their way to becoming adults, some of whom occasionally did something wrong that landed them in trouble. The perp in this case could have just as easily been male. Far cry from the days when the "bad kids" were just smoking cigarettes and writing beatnik poetry. Excerpt:

'Two residents of Southwest Philadelphia were injured - one of them seriously - in separate, recent attacks by youth engaging in a violent game they have dubbed "Catch and Wreck," police said tonight.

Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said tonight a 12-year-old girl has been charged with aggravated assault and related offenses in connection with an attack on a 42-year-old woman Friday night, and additional arrests are expected.

Real hope and change – that’s the thought that passed through my head when I heard the San Diego Domestic Violence Council has just awarded a grant to the National Coalition for Men, a men’s rights organization.

Of course, we have a long way to go, but for the first time, the wind is filling our sails.

So we’re now pleased to announce an upcoming 2-week campaign, “Turning the Tide.” We picked that title because after 5 years of hard work, we’re beginning to see the fruits of our labors!

Article here. Excerpt:

'MANKATO — Text messages saved by an Iowa man, as well as reports from other witnesses, helped get him released from jail and out from under false rape charges.

Referring to 23-year-old Anthony James Weatherman of Milford, Iowa, as an “all-American boy,” attorney Thomas Hagen said his client was the real victim in allegations that led to his arrest in September.

A woman accused Weatherman of raping her during a college football victory party, but felony charges were dismissed after investigators learned more about what happened at the Sept. 6 party near Minnesota State University.

“Basically, what she said was a lie, and no rape occurred,” Hagen said. “He played basketball in high school, he’s a member of the National Guard. It was just totally out of his nature, these allegations that were made.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Police say a Las Cruces woman has been arrested for falsely claiming that she had been sexually assaulted.

Police say 20-year-old Michelle Holcomb is charged with one count of filing a false police report. She's jailed at the Dona Ana County Detention Center on $1,000 bond.

Police say were dispatched to Holcomb's home Sunday afternoon after the woman claimed that she had been drugged and raped during a party Saturday night. She was taken to Memorial Medical Center for an examination while detectives followed up on her allegations.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'PANAMA CITY BEACH — A woman who accused a sheriff's deputy, a jail officer and a club security guard of rape has been charged with filing a false crime report in addition to disorderly conduct.

Kimberly Mills, 22, of McDonough, Ga., was taken to the Bay County Jail early Monday after a sheriff's deputy said she locked a friend out of their hotel room, fought with her and resisted when he tried to intervene.

She was arrested for disorderly conduct but resisted on the way to a patrol car, according to an incident report, eventually accusing the deputy of raping her.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Mangakino man falsely accused of raping a 14-year-old girl says the stigma is something he'll never be able to shake.

Leonard Joseph, 42, is a shattered man. The pain and distress the ordeal have caused him and his family are evident on his face as he relives his "year of hell".

Mr Joseph was last week acquitted at the High Court in Rotorua on all charges relating to the alleged rape of the 14-year-old Mangakino girl in March, 2009. The charges he faced included abduction, forcibly taking a minor and rape.

The jury took just seven minutes to come back with a not guilty verdict following a five-day trial.

His mother, Shirley Joseph, broke down in tears as she described that day.

"I stood by my son 100 per cent all the way through this," she said from her Tokoroa home.

"We have gone to hell and back. I knew he wasn't guilty."'