Story here. Women's rights concerns as such include issues other than abortion rights. Yet, it seems the president and others focus on that issue in a make-or-break fashion, at the same time completely ignoring the other side of the equation: What of the right of men to have the same chance to terminate parental responsibilities? Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, treading carefully on the explosive issue of abortion and the Supreme Court, said Wednesday he will choose a nominee who pays heed to women's rights and privacy when interpreting the Constitution.

"That's very important to me," Obama said. Yet he insisted he will not make any potential nominee pass a "litmus test" on abortion rights.

Obama consulted Senate leaders from both parties at the White House as he moved toward choosing a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens, who turned 90 on Tuesday and is retiring.

The White House says Obama is considering about 10 people and has begun conversations with candidates. A nominee is expected within the next few weeks.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The U.S. Department of Education is repealing a Bush-era policy that some critics argue was a way to avoid complying with federal law in providing equal opportunities for female athletes.

Under the move, schools and colleges must now provide stronger evidence that they offer equal opportunities for athletic participation under the federal Title IX gender equity law.

It reverses a 2005 policy under former President George W. Bush that allowed schools to use just a survey to prove a lack of interest in starting a new women's sport and encouraged schools to consider a non-response to the questionnaire as disinterest.

"Making Title IX as strong as it possibly can be is the right thing to do," Vice President Biden said Tuesday at an event at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., announcing the change.'
...

Last month, England's Daily Mail reported that New Jersey resident Donna Simpson was determined to become the world's fattest woman.

Already 600 lbs at the age of 42, the stay-at-home mom of a three year old girl wants gain 400 lbs in the next two years, reaching her goal weight of 1000 lbs and thereby breaking the Guinness World Record for female fatness. Her husband, a 150lb "belly man," is completely supportive of her pursuit.

On March 20, 2010, an outraged Renee Martin blogged that Simpson's husband isn't just a chubby chaser, he's an abuser. "Abuse can take many forms and it often goes unremarked upon, or else wrongly labeled. The nature of the power dynamic between the feeder/feedee removes agency and therefore eliminates culpability. Just as it is highly unreasonable to blame the victim of domestic violence for their bruises, so too is it unconscionable to blame the feedee for over eating."

Article here. Excerpt:

'New legislation in Congress aims to close the pay equity gap, even as administration officials prepare to step up enforcement of the existing law.

Economists say part of the gap is because women are more likely to take time off work for child care, and an even bigger part is because of "occupational segregation": Women tend to work disproportionately in lower-paying fields. To be sure, many women's groups see this as a vestige of discrimination. (Another bill, the Fair Pay Act, seeks to address this, though that legislation is considered less likely to gain congressional passage.)
...
Critics worry the Paycheck Fairness Act would encourage a surge of unfounded class-action lawsuits. Labor and employment lawyer Jane McFetridge said small businesses would also find the new requirements cumbersome. For example, an employer who pays a man more than a woman for the same job might have to show that it's a "business necessity."

All –

Registrations are rolling in for our May 6-7 DV Spring Cleaning on Capitol Hill. We want to have as many face-to-face meetings as possible with staffers to “close the deal” on the various VAWA reforms we’re pushing for.

We’re doing advance registrations to facilitate advance orientation and team-matching. If you haven’t registered yet, please do so As Soon As Possible at http://abusegate.mensnewsdaily.com/dv-spring-cleaning-register-now/

If you register by this coming Friday, you get the early-bird discount – FREE! After that, the registration fee will be $25.

-- Abusegate Bob

Via email:

Hello -

A few months ago, Matt posted the trailer for “An Emasculating Truth” – a new film directed by the Neistat Brothers.

I wanted to let you know that the film is now complete and can be viewed at anemasculatingtruth.com.

Over the course of the past few months, new studies and articles have been published about the decline of manhood. It’s only proof that this topic is gathering attention amongst academics and the news media, from nutrition and health blogs to almost every major outlet from the New York Times to NPR.

And even with the latest swath of commercials “emasculating” the American Man, we believe our film, “An Emasculating Truth”, couldn’t have come at a better time.

Thank you for taking interest in our film and letting your readers know about it.

Hope you and your readers enjoy it.

Best,

Chris

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'At Fathers & Families we receive many letters from divorced or separated military servicemembers with painful but preventable family law problems. California AB 2416 will help protect the loving bonds that servicemembers share with their children.

Fathers & Families has worked closely with Assemblyman Paul Cook, the American Retirees Association, and others on AB 2416, and earlier this month thousands of you responded to our Action Alert in support of the bill. We are pleased to announce that this week the bill passed the Assembly by unanimous consent. The bill will now go to the Senate.

To learn more about the bill and to read Fathers & Families’ official support letter, see our AB 2416 Campaign page here.

Article here. Excerpt:

'There appears to be a new, novel way to cut IT personnel costs: Get rid of the men and keep the women, because you know you can get away with paying them less.

According to Computerworld’s “Salary Survey 2010,” the perennial gender wage gap has remained firmly in place in the past year. For example, female application development managers made 7 percent less than their male counterparts, and female CIOs made a staggering 16 percent less.

It seems hardly coincidental that a study by recruiting firm Sheila Greco Associates, cited in the Computerworld report, found that the percentage of female CIOs and executive vice presidents of technology rose to 16.4 percent in 2009, compared to 12 percent in 2007. When women are clearly equally capable and you can pay them 16 percent less, why wouldn’t you pad the upper echelons with as many women as availability will allow?

From an IA email:

Next week, we will be delivering our petition urging the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) NOT to recommend routine circumcision for all baby boys.

Despite tremendous support from our intactivists, we're still just 1,616 signatures away from our 25,000-signature goal.

If you haven't already signed the petition, please click here to take action today!

There are only a few days left - will you help us reach our April 26 goal by sharing the campaign on Facebook or tweeting about it on Twitter? We need your help!

The more signatures we can deliver, the more likely the CDC will be to listen to our message.

That's why we need YOUR help to spread the word about the importance of protecting our baby boys from unnecessary risk and harm. Will you help us by doing the following?

Follow-up story here. 56,000 images. So they took that many images in an effort to "recover" 80 supposedly missing laptops? We have one name involved with this sleaze-fest: Carol Cafiero. I want to see some more names associated with those responsible for this invasion of the students' privacy and rights. Excerpt:

'PHILADELPHIA – A suburban school district secretly captured at least 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students, its lawyer acknowledged Monday.

"It's clear there were students who were likely captured in their homes," said lawyer Henry Hockeimer, who represents the Lower Merion School District.
...
The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Monday on the large number of images recovered from school servers by forensic computer experts, who were hired after student Blake Robbins filed suit over the tracking practice.

Article here. Excerpt:

"A new study by the National Literacy Trust* of 17,089 pupils aged from eight to 16 has revealed that almost one-third (32.3%) of boys agree with the statement ‘I can’t find anything to read that interests me’.

Article here. Excerpt:

"Successful 30-something women are turning to the Web to shop for top-notch sperm donors — vetting personality traits, listening to voice samples, and even enduring wait lists

Story here.

'Nearly 50 men have won back child support payments totalling A$434,378 (£262,249), with one man recovering A$70,000.

In January, 2007, changes made to the Child Support (Assessment) Act allowed any parent to seek a DNA test to determine the paternity of his or her child.

Support groups hailed the development, saying too many men had been duped by former partners into supporting children who were not theirs.

"I think it's a good thing that children are able to know the biological father rather than their pretend father," said Sue Price, director of the Men's Rights Agency. "I think it's essential that they should be able to have the money repaid to them.

"Why should they have to pay for another man's child?"

But Kathleen Swinbourne, president of the Sole Parents Union, said the new laws were damaging children at the centre of such DNA disputes: "What does this say to children about being wanted, being loved, being parented?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Rutgers University Professor Lionel Tiger and some of his penis-wielding peers have been rallying to establish a “men’s studies” program at Rutgers University. Men have reached a point where “they’re experienced a considerable amount of dismay and uncertainty,” says Tiger to CNN. Men today feel “somewhat scorned, in principle by women.” Tiger’s work has been born from a fear that men are being feminized. Thus, men must explore what it means to be masculine; both on a social and biological level, and reclaim their territory.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What's the next battle for an aging feminist?

Boys.

Granted, the battle for women's rights and equality has not been completely won, but the new reality is that in the future, it will be males who are most endangered.

Currently, up to 60 percent of the students at an average co-educational college or university are female. The majority of bachelors' degrees are now awarded to females in every racial and ethnic group. By 2017, the ratio of female to male college graduates will be 1 1/2 to 1. One demographer calls that prediction "staggering and transformational."

Feminists have lobbied for a societal transformation where the rights and talents of women are fully recognized. But is this the kind of transformation we want? A "role reversal," where women will reign supreme in all fields but the sciences?

Is it healthy that even those men who do stay in college seek fewer student leadership positions and perform worse academically than women do? Won't these factors, combined with the lower graduation rate, promote a "marriage gap?"