Article here. Excerpt:

'Dogma is the salient characteristic of Labour's Equality Bill, the showpiece of last week's Queen's Speech and the special concern of Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality.

Let's start with the problem that the Bill's provisions are meant to solve. Miss Harman insists that it is necessary in order to fight discrimination. Her primary example is the pay gap between men and women: the latter, on average, earn 26 per cent less than the former. But her conclusion – that this shows that women are being unfairly discriminated against – simply does not follow.

Story here. Excerpt:

'There was anger and dismay today after the Labour Party forced women-only shortlists on both the Wigan and Makerfield seats.

Against the majority of local members' wishes, a selection panel from the National Executive Committee insisted that positive discrimination was the way forward in the neighbouring constituencies.
...
One Wigan party member who declined to be named said: "This is scandalous, sexist and a big blow to democracy.

"We should be able to pick from all the available candidates purely on merit, not restrict ourselves because of their gender."

There was also puzzlement that the NEC had insisted on all-women lists in Wigan, Makerfield and several other constituencies, but had allowed open lists in Warrington South and Derby North.

A Makerfield Labour Party member said: "We can understand the need to increase the number of female MPs, but why have two all female lists in constituencies next door to each other while others are given a free hand?"'

Story here. Excerpt;

'A FEMALE music teacher who had sex with two students sobbed today as she was sentenced to more than four years jail.

Michelle Lynn Dennis, 33, had betrayed the trust of the students and shown little remorse, the Ballarat County Court heard.

Judge Susan Cohen said the Ballarat teacher's offending had been worse than that of Karen Ellis because she had sex with more than one student.

In 2005, Karen Ellis, a physical education teacher, was convicted of having sex with a student and jailed for two years and two months.

Dennis pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a child under her care, supervision or authority and one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

Dennis denied the crimes until the day of her scheduled trial.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A FEMALE religious education teacher was jailed for 32 months today for having sex with a teen pupil she seduced on Facebook.

Mum-of-two Madeleine Martin, 39, admitted having an eight-day long sexual relationship with the 15-year-old in February.

Martin — who taught at a school in Greater Manchester — bought the lad gifts including a mobile phone and arranged for the pair to get tattoos together, a court heard.

They soon embarked on a sordid affair — driving to remote car parks and meeting at Martin's home for sex.

Martin, who is divorced with two teenage daughters, set up a Facebook account under a fake name to stop the relationship being discovered, the court was told.

A "mutual decision" by Martin and the boy ended the relationship in February — but two months later the teen told his parents who went to the police.

Jennifer Birch, prosecuting, told the court the teenager has since quit school because he "suffered taunting".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'We are witnessing the beginnings of a men's movement, with newly-formed groups of young men who have set out to find answers to the vexing question of how modern men are supposed to behave.

Two such groups have recently announced their existence and their purpose.

At Manchester University, there is MENS Society - Masculinity Exploring Network and Support.

Ben Wild, who's a history and politics student, has set up the group because he feels young men find it hard to live up to an idealised masculine role.

By that, I suspect he means it's not every guy who can shine on the rugby field, bring home top quality bacon and change a nappy, while rustling up a cordon bleu dinner and ironing a pristine shirt.

The truth is that, in 2009, men are every bit as as oppressed by unrealistic expectations and outdated stereotypes as women.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Radical feminist groups across the globe have declared a war against men, boys, marriage and family. Enormous sponsorship from various Governments and the United Nations not only provides legitimacy to this war, but also serves to drown the voices of reason trying hard to be heard.
...
Through our campaign, we wish to:

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.