Op-ed here. Excerpt:

'The play promotes sexual aggression in at least two monologues—one in which a man named Bob forces off a self-hating woman’s clothes so that he can “see” her, the essence of her, which is her vagina. The monologist views this as a positive development in her life, and she actually thanks this man for showing her the light. In the other, a teenager is shown how to pleasure herself by an older woman, who teaches this young girl that she need not depend on men ever again for self-validation. I am so sick of looking towards other people, in particular, sexual partners, for validation. All the blunt talk of clitorises and vaginas are a distraction from what this play really is—a platform for showcasing the worst patriarchal oppressions in good light!'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The false report of a rape on campus shocked the NIC community on Feb. 6, sending a school-wide security alert to students and staff.

NICAlerts spread the message through text messaging and the NIC web page that Friday morning to inform students of the possible existence of a threat on campus. The alert gave a thorough description of the suspect, who turned out to be a figment of the woman's imagination, and gave information about possible contacts if anyone was to encounter the assailant.
...
The female, who is not being identified due to the request by the police department, reported that a white male, age 48, dressed as a woman accosted her in the first-floor bathroom of the Meyer Health & Science Building Jan. 30. According to early reports by police, she claimed she knew the man from a prior dating relationship, but could not supply investigators with a name.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'NORTH EASTON, MA (February 16, 2009) – Despite a difficult economy, the men’s group of Congregational Covenant Church recently raised $36,000 for two agencies assisting battered women.
...
The community also has been eager to support the dinner. “We have made this into a very visible cause,” says Kevin Symmons, one of the co-chairs.
...
In the past four years the men have raised more than $130,000. They held the first event after taking an oath as part of the White Ribbon Campaign to do whatever they could to stop domestic violence.

Symmons says he is grateful for the active support the men in the church have shown. They had so many who wanted to help with the dinner that “we had to turn away volunteers and tell the guys to enjoy the dinner with their wives,” he says.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'After more than 30 hours of emotional deliberation, a Macomb County jury found Fayette Nale guilty of manslaughter in the September 2007 death of her husband.
...
Michael Nale, 56, died of a stab wound to the chest. Fayette Nale said her husband fell on a kitchen knife after he began to attack her in their Richmond condominium. She claimed she was a victim of years of domestic abuse.
...
Officials with Turning Point of Macomb, an agency that helps victims of domestic violence, said they were disappointed with the verdict.

"While we know that nationwide 75%-80% of battered women are convicted when they are charged with the homicide of their abuser, we had hoped for a different outcome this time," said Sue Coats.'

Story here. Excerpt;

'DENVER (Map, News) - Colorado couples getting married or divorced could end up paying bigger fees.

The Senate Appropriations Committee backed a bill Friday that would raise marriage and divorce fees to pay for programs to help victims of domestic abuse.

The measure would raise the marriage license fee from $10 to $30. Divorce petitions would go from $220 to $230 and divorce responses would be raised by $10 to $116.
...
Half the money raised from the divorce fee increases would pay for legal fees for the victims of domestic violence. The rest of it and all the money from the wedding fee increase would go to groups that counsel and advocate for domestic violence victims.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'John Capuano was a bit nervous as 70 boys from the junior class filled the bleachers at Bayless High School. He was about to talk to them about sexism, masculinity and patriarchy — tough subjects for a group of teenage boys.

Standing on the gym floor, he had 20 minutes to give his spiel.

Capuano, 30, an educator in domestic violence prevention, has created a program called Guys Group, and he's trying to convince school counselors to let him start a club in their schools.
...
"Do you ever talk about how you perpetuate the violence? How you've been sexist? How you've been disrespectful to women?" Capuano told the boys.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'CONWAY, N.H. — An organization that serves victims of domestic and sexual abuse is outraged by comments made by a Conway, N.H., selectman who voted against funding the group this week.

Selectman [sic] voted 4 to 1 against recommending that the town budget include $7,500 for the Starting Point agency. In explaining his vote, Selectman Crow Dickinson said a lot of women use domestic violence as gimmick in divorce proceedings. The agency’s supporters have responded with e-mails, letters, phone calls and an Internet-based publicity campaign to call attention to the comments and promote the agency.

County attorney Robin Gordon called the comments a blatant example of Neanderthal thinking.

Dickinson was unapologetic. He says those who are angry at him shouldn’t be running around gnashing their teeth and should instead work together to restore the funding at the upcoming deliberative session.'

Story here.

'Police arrested a 15-year-old female high school student early Saturday on suspicion of abandoning her mother's body in Okinawa Prefecture, investigative sources said Friday.

The girl is believed to have left the body of her mother, 46, in a closet at their home in the village of Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa, according to the sources. The mother is believed to have been strangled.

The body was found by the girl's father on Tuesday. The girl had been unaccounted for since then but was located Thursday and taken into custody by police officers in Okinawa, they said.

The police will question the girl about whether she was involved in the death of her mother, the sources said.'

--

"Gee, maybe she was 'involved in the death'-- ya think so, sarge?"

Story here. Excerpt:

'Nationwide, 6.2 percent of all bank heists today are committed by women. That's up from 4.9 percent in 2002 -- a 25 percent increase, according to the most recent FBI crime statistics.

"Here's a crime that you can commit easily and its an equal opportunity crime," crime historian Robert McCrie said. Banks have become so customer-friendly and open, they've become "a safe place to rob," he added.
...
She went on wild spending spree, going through most of the money before her arrest several days later.

She said she would never again rob a bank, because her arrest and incarceration nearly destroyed her parents and two kids.

But Smith admitted that the thrill was addictive. "I loved the danger in it. I wanted to get more money. I wanted to keep doing it. That's how it really felt -- an adrenaline rush. Perfect."'

The definitive paper on the merits and policy for Equal Parenting has been published by Prof. Edward Kruk. Excerpt:

'This paper was commissioned by the Father Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA) based at the University of Guelph. Funding support for FIRA and this paper was provided through a Community University Research Alliance grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The intent of this paper is to promote informed dialogue and debate. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FIRA or of other researchers/collaborators associated with FIRA. Communications can be addressed to the author.'

Full paper here.
Executive summary here.

Both are .pdf files.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The quality of life of Canadian men and women differs as they age, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.

The agency followed 7,915 Canadians over age 40 for 10 years. Participants were asked to answer questions about their quality of life every two years from 1994 to 2004.

Health-related quality of life is defined as overall health status - such as the ability to see, hear, feel pain, and whether there are any emotional problems or mobility issues - and how it affects them daily.

"In summary, Canadians are, on average, quite healthy as they age from mid to later life," the study's authors concluded.

But at age 65, more women than men said they had more than one chronic condition and women were more likely to need help with activities of daily living, Heather Orpana, a senior researcher at Statistics Canada, and her colleagues found.

This story put a smile on my face this morning. Could this be a sign of things to come? I surely hope so. Excerpt:

'The woman, who had three children by her lover, pretended for years that they were fathered by her husband, according to reports.

After years of suspecting his of infidelity, the husband who can't be named, finally discovered she had kept a lover for six of the fourteen years the couple had been together.

DNA tests showed that three of their four children had been fathered by the other man, the Times reports. The husband then took his wife to court, demanding compensation.

The court in Valencia, southeastern Spain, ordered her to pay €100,000 for the suffering she caused him. She fought the ruling, but the Supreme Court has upheld it, and doubled the damages to €200,000 .'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Almost one in three parents never see their children after splitting from their partner, a survey revealed yesterday.

The study of separated mums and dads found 29 per cent said their children had no contact with the parent who had left home, which was usually the father.

Fiona Weir, chief of single parents' pressure group Gingerbread, said: "Findings show just how hard it is for separated families to achieve arrangements that work for all concerned.

Families are struggling along with precious little help. Parents need to know that help is out there, and need to feel comfortable using services to help them resolve contact issues."'

Full article here. Excerpt:

"'Male Dominated Society'...Now that's such a phrase that's been ingrained in our minds since the very childhood... The boys are told that its a male dominated world, so they don't have to worry, just dominate the world. Girls on the other hand are continuously taught, that since its a male dominated world out there, so they need to dominate 'their' male partners at home and around. Sounds familiar?

Well, amongst all these 'teachings', has anyone stopped for a while to look around an ask a simple question... Is it really true? Is it really a male dominated society? Do we call it 'male dominated' just because the number of men working outside the house is more than the number of women?

To answer this question, I'll try to start by digging some past, then look at the present and try to project some future too!"

Story here. Excerpt:

'Vasectomy has always been an unpopular operation in the dacoit*-infested Chambal district of Madhya Pradesh, but it enjoyed a brief surge in popularity last year.

More than 250 men put their private parts under the surgeon’s knife through 2008; this, in a place where the male sterilisation figure had never reached double figures in the past 20 years.

They had an incentive: the government, in the form of Shivpuri District Collector Manish Shrivastava, had promised them an arms license each if they underwent the operation. They did so in family planning camps where forms for gun licenses were made available.

All of these men are a disillusioned lot now. Their vas deferens’ have been sacrificed, but the promised gun licenses haven’t come.
....
He says no one is ready to come to family planning camps any more. Moreover, “people are calling us cheats”, he says.'

---

* "dacoit" - outlaw, criminal