Rudov: "This commercial from a South African florist warns the typical husband that, if he forgets a special occasion -- like an anniversary -- his wife will respond with violence, such as scrubbing the toilet with his toothbrush. If a man would do this to his wife, he'd go to jail. The message: violence against men is OK. You also must hate the men responsible for creating, producing, funding, and airing this crap.""

View the YouTube clip.

Read it here. Excerpt:

'The cautionary tale appears to be part of a trend in middle-class India where male angst is on the rise. Men complain that they have lost their traditional role as providers as women work more. Further, women with independent incomes are refusing to submit to the traditional ideal of marriage where an obedient wife accedes to a husband's every wish.

The outcome is an undisguised backlash against Indian feminism and women's rights. One men's organisation is demanding a ministry for men, arguing that 82% of taxpayers are men but that no money has ever been allocated for "male welfare".

The protection enshrined in Indian law for harassed wives has also led to a deep-seated sense of male victimhood. The men's movement in the country has been fired up by what it claims is the "legal terrorism driven by radical groups ... which has resulted in the blatant violation of men's rights".'

Angry Harry writes: "The directors of this company are just very greedy people. They simply want to make money by making fun out of men being stabbed, and they are contributing to the already-widespread notion that violence against men is something to laugh about.

They are clearly very greedy people indeed.

So, are you actually going to do something about this sort of thing? - perhaps by emailing them with your views?

Or not?"

Read the article.

---

Ed. note: This has been covered before, but with "the holiday season" upon us, orders for things like this only go up. So should objections to them.

Due to the current writer's guild strike and some extra time slots to fill, Fox TV will premiere the reality series “If Women Ruled the World" in March. Reported here. Excerpt:

'If Women Ruled the World" will feature 12 unsuspecting chauvinistic men becoming slaves in a new primitive Survivor-like "society" ruled by 12 "strong, educated and independent" women who are "tired of living in a man's world."

... arriving on an island with only partially-completed living accommodations, the group will have to complete their shelters and find their own water and heat. However unlike the CBS reality show, only the male contestants -- who will have to "accede to the women's every command, 24/7" -- will be doing any of the work.

One of the men will be "traded for supplies" -- aka eliminated -- during each episode of the 11-episode series, with the last man standing winning $250,000.'

An article in the New York Times discusses a Nevada lawyer's fighting against a gym who offered his wife a better price on a membership based solely on her gender. Various people interviewed by the reporter said that this sort of gender discrimination in favor of women is "[...] pretty much accepted [...]" and "a business decision by individual businesses and they ought to be left free to do that."

From the article:
"Imagine a whites-only country club or whites-get-in-free deal or something like that," said Mr. Phillips, 45, who has homes in Nevada and California.

Via Marc A. Story here. Excerpt:

'Rights? What rights? No one at the court ever listened to him. The judge set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 27, but on the day of the audience, the judge canceled the hearing and set a new date of Nov 1. This was maddening for the expat. He had arranged to travel back to the United States to accompany his elderly mother through some medical treatments and did not expect to be back in Costa Rica Nov. 1. His father passed away last year leaving his aging mother alone. He wrote a petition to the judge asking for an earlier court date. What a mistake. The judge set the hearing back even more to Dec. 4, three long months from the date he was forced out of his own home by a live-in girlfriend.'

Story/thread here. Excerpt:

'A complaint was filed with the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission last month against Chief Superior Court Judge Sidney L. Nation of the 4th Judicial district (Rockdale Co.)for stating that he was a “Sexist” in court. The complaint was predominantly centered the judges failure to provide a fundamentally fair hearing, to perform his duties impartially and diligently, and failure to perform his judicial duties without bias or prejudice'

Story here. Excerpt:

'LISBON, N.Y. (AP) A 33-year-old high school English teacher charged with rape told police she was suffering from depression when she had sex with a 15-year-old student.

Accompanied by her husband, Christel Gravlin cried Monday as she was arraigned on felony counts of third-degree rape and third-degree criminal sexual act and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

The affair became public when the highly intoxicated teacher announced it to students and others nearby during a school basketball game on Nov. 30. Deputies accused Gravlin, who has taught at Lisbon Central School since 2003, of having both oral sex and intercourse with the boy on Nov. 25 during a brief relationship that began a week or two earlier.'

Story here. Excerpt:

What does Mary Winkler tell her children when they ask "where's daddy". I would love to be a fly on the wall during that discussion.

'(CNN) -- The parents of slain Tennessee minister Matthew Winkler on Tuesday asked the state's Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's order giving his widow -- who was also his killer -- visitation rights with the couple's children.

At the least, they want the visits to go on only under a counselor's* supervision.
...
Winkler initially received a three-year sentence, but a judge required her to serve only 210 days and gave her credit for the five months she had already served behind bars.'

*A "counselor"? I have an idea to save these children. Prevent the woman who killed their father from having any contact with them.

Article here.

A nice little read from the NYT. Take note of the gender of the author and how the piece basically dismisses the idea that women should be treated as equally bad when she has sex with a minor. Excerpt:

'The researchers questioned the practice, common in many studies, of lumping all sexual abuse together. They contended that treating all types equally presented problems that, they wrote, "are perhaps most apparent when contrasting cases such as the repeated rape of a 5-year-old girl by her father and the willing sexual involvement of a mature 15-year-old adolescent boy with an unrelated adult."

In the first case, serious harm may result, the article said, but the second case "may represent only a violation of social norms with no implication for personal harm."

They suggested substituting the term "adult adolescent sex" for child abuse in some cases where the sex was consensual.'

List here. Just one goes like this:

"Men Aren't Chivalrous. The lines here are not always clear. We want you to treat us like equals, but we also want you to treat us like women. It's nice when a man picks up the tab or makes sure his date gets home safely. It may be old-fashioned, but a number of women report that dating a gentleman matters."

Reader comments follow the list.

Article here. Excerpt:

'WHEN IT COMES to domestic-violence legislation, the road to hell is paved with good intentions - and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., owns an asphalt company.

Biden's latest foray into the issue is the National Domestic Violence Volunteer Attorney Network Act, which amends his Violence Against Women Act to create an extensive network of volunteer lawyers to help abused women. They would provide free legal help in crafting divorce or separation agreements and winning child custody.

According to Biden, S. 1515, soon to be heard by the Judiciary Committee and is co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, will enlist 100,000 volunteer attorneys. The bill is supported by the American Bar Association, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the National Organization for Women, which is running a campaign in support of the bill.'

Via email:

I wanted to make you aware of an independent film from William Fain Productions (WFP). The movie, "A Father's Choice", is based on a true story about a father's struggle with the legal system of the United States in how his daughter, who was born out of wedlock, was treated differently than other children; as well as fighting for his rights to have a say in said daughter's life. If you go to http://www.myspace.com/afatherschoice, there are several clips of the movie you can watch. There is also a soundtrack that is for sale through 3 Jack Entertainment. Songs can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/3jacksentertainment.

Via Marc A.:

I know this is a month old but it's still worth noting. The woman's boyfriend was also raped and received the same sentence that she received. But he gets nowhere near the same media attention. Almost everyone who talks about the injustice only mentions the woman. Marc

Excerpt: "The woman's offence was meeting a former boyfriend, who she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man. The couple were sitting in a car when a group of seven men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told the Arab News. The woman and the former boyfriend were originally sentenced to 90 lashes each for being together in private. The attackers received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison, and 80 to 1000 lashes each."

College males are realising how easy it is to make a false rape accusation, and how difficult it is to defend against one. Story here. Excerpt:

'Just before 4 a.m. this morning, men's lacrosse player Reade Seligmann '09 planned to lace up his running shoes, throw on a bright-yellow traffic jacket and run laps around the Main Green.

Seligmann, the former Duke lacrosse suspect who was vindicated earlier this year, will be jogging for the Brown team's fall charity project: a 36-hour run-a-thon to raise funds for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exonerating innocent prisoners through DNA testing.

Seligmann pitched the idea of a lacrosse team charity event for the Innocence Project even before he committed to transferring to Brown this spring. Head Coach Lars Tiffany '90 liked the idea and organized the event this fall after team members approved, much to the delight of the New York City-based organization.'