Story here. Excerpt:

'BOYS face compulsory feminism programs in state schools across Victoria in a major push to prevent violence against females.

Possible classroom activities include students acting out scenes of sexual coercion after which students would suggest more appropriate behaviour.
...
The report says programs for all students should start at primary level and be reinforced across all year levels in subjects including drama, English, science and sport.

They would combat common attitudes among boys such as young women are either "good girls or sluts", the report said.

It said feminist theories were best at explaining the link between gender power relations and violence against women, and must underpin the programs.

But the authors of the "Respectful Relationships Education" report admitted there was considerable community hostility to feminism, even among teachers and students.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Before the Christopher Savoie case hit the news, Japanese commentators on the Hague Convention on international parental child abduction had already begun fretting over the completely unsubstantiated assertion that "almost all" instances of children being brought to Japan involve a Japanese mother fleeing from an abusive foreign father. Would Japan signing the convention result in them being sent back? they asked. This is not an unreasonable concern, though I doubt any of these commentators would go so far as to approve of foreign parents taking children out of Japan to escape an abusive Japanese spouse.
...
The problem is that Japanese courts and other governmental agencies appear to deal with domestic violence by applying two simple rules of thumb: that domestic violence is only committed by men against women and children, and that almost any conduct (by men) constitutes domestic violence.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman once convicted of killing her lover's mate is accused of striking again, this time stabbing her current boyfriend's ex as many as 18 times and then leaving her to die.

Patricia Crowl, 55, is facing an attempted first degree murder charge after she allegedly lured Jamie Checkos to a vacant Seattle parking lot and then brutally attacked her last week.

Checkos is the former lover of Crowl's boyfriend Leonard Jackson.

When investigators began looking in the suspect's background what they found astonished them. Crowl had been convicted of a "remarkably similar" crime in 1997.

Crowl pleaded guilty to charges of murder in the second degree after she beat her then-boyfriend's girlfriend, Shawn Beatrice Wallace, to death. According to court documents, she admitted to "hitting the victim over the head with a wrench, strangling her to death, and then disposing the body.
...
Crowl served nine of her 13 year sentence and was released from prison in 2006.'

By now many of you have heard that Adam Lambert, a (formerly) rising pop star, has gotten into major trouble with his handlers, financiers, publicists, and the public by planting a kiss on a male keyboardist during the Sunday night (Nov. 22, 2009) American Music Awards show. (The video can be watched here, at a non-US video site. It had been on YouTube, but was pulled after the producer of the awards show objected and the moral objections became too loud even for the YouTube operators to bear.)

Article here. The title is of course something far-less gender-specific: "Blacks hit hard by economy's punch". And of course, we need to place black and white men at odds with one another in the reporting, too. Excerpt:

'The jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent. For young blacks -- who experts say are more likely to grow up in impoverished racially isolated neighborhoods, attend subpar public schools and experience discrimination -- race statistically appears to be a bigger factor in their unemployment than age, income or even education. Lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, and even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers.

I have resisted the urge to gloat-post over "Oprah" mercifully exiting public broadcast, but this is just too good to pass up. You go girl! Excerpt:

'Oprah Winfrey's getting her kink on with a steamy new cable series about a sexually curious LA housewife.

TV's touchy-feely daytime queen will get down and dirty with the HBO series, which revolves around a married woman who suddenly leaves her husband and kids to act out her secret fantasies in LA's seamy underbelly, according to Variety.

The news comes just days after Winfrey announced she's leaving her top-rated "Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011 after 25 years to focus on her new cable network -- and endeavors like this one, taking her far afield from her goody-goody daytime image.

The HBO series (no title yet) will be produced by Winfrey's Harpo Productions and is being written by Erin Cressida Wilson -- who penned the 2002 steamfest "Secretary," about an S&M relationship between a lawyer (James Spader) and his secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Story here. Excerpt:

'In a campus full of "bros," "guys" and "dudes," it's increasingly difficult to define a true man and his role in society. Senior Daniel Sanchez tackled the challenge in his short film, "The Test of a Man," which debuted Tuesday evening in Peeler Auditorium.
...
Sanchez said he wanted to raise awareness about masculinity and the stereotypes men face in today's society.
...
Freshman Ifeoma Nwaedozie attended Tuesday's film screening and said he appreciated the topics raised by the film.

"I understand men's struggle and the burdens on their backs," Nwaedozie said, "but I wanted them to bring up black men and their children, and what these burdens have to do with it and why they leave so often."

Following the film was an open forum discussion involving the whole audience, where many new questions were posed about masculinity.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Johannesburg, South Africa - It is often asserted that climate change will affect women the most in the developing world. That's because most women will have to walk farther for drinking water, work harder to grow food, pull daughters out of school to help with family chores, and fuss more about family hygiene as the world – and particularly the developing world – becomes a hotter, drier place to live.

But women could also be the key agents of change that help countries to do a better job of preparing for climate change, and mitigating the damage.

That is the intriguing idea that comes out of a new report, issued Tuesday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), at an Arab League summit held in Cairo this week.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In an investigation of admissions from liberal arts colleges, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission has reported that male enrollment in college has been low in recent years. The investigation shows that men are more likely than women to join the military, seek jobs in building trades or surprisingly, end up in prison.

The investigation is ongoing to “allow schools to discriminate against women to attract more male students.” The federal agency is making claim that the reason male enrollment is so low is because there are not enough chances to be an athlete.

Due to this, the CRC feels there needs to be a change in Title IX, which states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Title IX was enacted in 1972 to open up educational opportunities for high school and college females. The most significant part of Title IX was the impact it had on athletics, but the rule has resulted in the cancelling of sports at universities trying to comply with the rule.

There are three ways for universities to comply with Title IX. The first is to have athletic participation equal to enrollment, the second is to show continued program expansion towards the underrepresented sex and the third is to show they have satisfied interests of the underrepresented sex.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former Kansas University swimmer and member of the 1980 Olympic team has filed a Title IX complaint against the university, alleging that the school does not offer adequate competition for men.

The federal education department’s Office of Civil Rights will investigate the claim filed by Ron Neugent, who is now a dentist in Wichita.

He said he filed the complaint on Sept. 25, alleging that KU fails the three-pronged test required for Title IX compliance.

Jim Marchiony, KU associate athletic director, said he wouldn’t address any of the specific allegations raised in the complaint, but said that the athletics corporation hires a Title IX consultant who has raised no issues relating to compliance.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Penn State is scheduled to announce soon a new pricing structure that could significantly increase costs for season-ticket holders. The full details are not out yet, but according to several reports, members of the Nittany Lion Club will be required to make larger donations (some by as much as five times) to continue buying season tickets.

Head coach Joe Paterno, at one time Penn State’s athletic director, was asked Tuesday about the prospect of raising ticket prices. He referenced how the football program, which took in $45.7 million in revenue during the 2008-09 season, is responsible for paying the freight for 28 other varsity sports.

“It's a lot different than when I was the athletic director,” said Paterno said, who held the position from 1980-82. “Didn't have the impact it was now. We didn't have scholarships for all the women's sports. We didn't have to upgrade facilities. Right now we're going to build another softball field, a better softball field, for the women. And I think we should.'

Story here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'A previous CD post showed that high school boys outperform high school girls for high SAT math test scores (see chart above, data here). For perfect 800 scores on the 2009 math SAT test, the ratio of boys to girls is 2.22 to 1 (6,928 to 3,124). What makes this outcome even more interesting are the following data from this SAT report from the College Board: