By now I'm sure many of you have heard of (or maybe even seen) the new movie Enough, starring Jennifer Lopez. The more I think about this movie, the more concerned I become. In case you don't know about it, the plot goes like this: Lopez plays a waitress who marries a wealthy husband (Mitch), who quickly becomes abusive to her. She flees with their daughter and is stalked and harassed by him, finds that the police won't help her, so she turns to vigilante justice. She trains to fight Mitch and throughout the movie runs the theme/slogan, "self defense is not murder," which should have a chilling effect to those of us who know how effective the battered woman's defense is in court. As reviewer Glenn Whip puts it, "Enough" is...offensive in the way it exploits the hot-button issue of domestic abuse for cheap thrills." And it's also dangerous in how it perpetuates a one-sided and antagonistic view of domestic violence and men. The question I put to you is, what can be done to effectively counter this kind of propaganda, which has now even been embraced by the multi-million dollar movie industry?

I've finally got the old hardware setup working with MANN, so the web site will continue to run until the replacement motherboard and CPU come in late next week. I'll post more info about what actually happened (for those of you who are interested in such things), but right now I have a bunch of non-computer related things I need to take care of. Note: Many thanks to David Decker, Jerry Vrooman, and Anonymous who made donations to help defray the cost of the hardware failure.

Steve Imparl has been hard at work on the new web site maledepression.com, which provides resources for people wanting to learn about depression in men. For too long, men's depression has been masked and hidden in our society. We tend to think of it in terms of its symptoms, such as alcoholism or the suicide epidemic among men. Steve's site is a much needed resource to help remove the myths about depression in men and educate us about this taboo subject.

Deacon writes, "The latest commercial for the Lincoln Navigator (a Ford company) markets the power running boards feature of the car. The commercial starts with a man and a woman walking towards the car, and they both notice a large puddle underneath it. Then the man chivalrously takes off his jacket and lays it on the puddle so the woman can climb into the car without getting her shoes wet, but instead the woman pushes a button on her keychain remote, and the power running boards slide out from under the car. She climbs up and into the car with a smirk on her face while the man stands outside, obviously chastised." Contact info for Lincoln is in the Read More section of this story.

Glenn Sacks' latest column came out this morning in Newsday of New York, and can be read on Glenn's web site here. Sacks discusses the issue of stay at home dads and the benefits to both men and women if we dropped the stereotypes about men who decide that fathering is more important to them than their careers. Sacks knows what he's talking about in this article, since he's a stay at home dad himself, and finds in immensely rewarding. Sacks is also hosting (along with Father's Rights activist Dianna Thompson) a webcast on Men's News Daily every Tuesday evening at 6 pm PST.

warble writes "In today’s hostile environment [toward men], it is not surprising that governments would seek to ban home DNA testing. They are trying to claim that the father should have no right to privately check his child’s DNA. I checked and found that a home DNA test costs $250-$500. DNA testing is the only means that a father can use to determine paternity. It removes the requirement to rely only the word of a potentially unfaithful wife. Only the mother can know if she has been unfaithful and have knowledge of any doubt. For the male, there is only belief in the mother’s word in the absence of a DNA test. All males have the right to an equal knowledge of paternity, and DNA testing provides the only mechanism whereby a man can enjoy that absolute right. If ever there was a time for men to organize and protect their rights, this is it. The article can be found at the following link: Banning DNA Testing By Father. I would suggest sending emails to the Human Genetics Commission at hgcpressoffice@westminster.com."

On June 21, the Twin Cities Chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men will be hosting a forum in Saint Paul, MN. The forum is scheduled to coincide with the National Organization of Women's national conference, and NCFM has Warren Farrell, Trudy Schuett, and Wendy McElroy as speakers. The forum is free and open to the public, and media are encouraged to cover the event. This is the closest thing I know of to a "men's rights conference" in the U.S. Learn more here.

warble writes "For all those interested, the amended version of the Paternity Justice Act can be found here: AB2240. Basically, everything is intact except for the right of men to have equal representation on the format of the paternity declaration form. Currently, the feminists have representation by law and male activists are excluded. Does any body know of a case law where this type of discrimination was disputed and won in the favor of males? If so please let me know. It would be best if the laws were challenged in CA but any other state will be helpful."

New Hampshire will now be the first state in the nation to have a Commission on the Status of Men. All of the hard work and close calls on this bill paid off, and Governor Jeanne Shaheen of NH signed HB 587 today. It was briefly mentioned in this Foster's Daily Democrat article. The commission will be established by July 1. Click here for the text of the bill itself. Now excuse me while I go celebrate....

Marc Angelucci writes "Jean Bonhomme of the Black Men's Health Network briefly debates Phyllis Greenberger of the Society for Women’s Health Research in this point/counterpoint in the Physician's Weekly. It's pretty clear to me who won. Bonhomme gives far more accurate facts, Greenberger repeats the already-debunked myth that women were exluded from medical testing, and Greenberger changes the issue to be whether the female-specific research indirectly benefits men rather than whether the research overall is shortganging men by underaddressing men's health in favor of women's health."

frank h writes "I came across this article about the "Street Harassment Project" that also includes a number of responses and commentary by readers. In terms of activism projects, perhaps we could attend one of their "events" and see how "sensitive" they are. I'm convinced that these women need to be educated as to how their mode of dress inflicts harassment on men, and perhaps they ought to be challenged. Since they apparently arm them selves with spray paint, one should be properly attired in protective glasses and disposable clothing, carrying a small amount of paint thinner and cotton balls, and properly armed with pepper spray.

In the right place and at the right time, I certainly do enjoy the female form. But in the workplace, at school, or on the street, scantily-clad women are an annoyance and an unnecessary distraction. Unfortunately, after several hundred thousand years of evolution, I find it difficult to restrict my attentiveness to the "appropriate" moments. I find that ALL of the men with whom I've discussed this, no matter how "prudish" they may be, feel the same way.

It's time to push back, guys. We don't need burkas, but longer, looser skirts and looser sweaters are definitely indicated."

nazgul writes "My wife is a student at the University of South Carolina, in the Women's Studies graduate program. While this leads to no end of, shall we say, "spirited" conversation over dinner, there is very little free discussion in the classrooms she attends. Her seminar course has an actual gag order for dissenting opinions in effect, under the auspices of "Guidelines for Classroom Discussion". The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has accepted the case and is pursuing it now. Please disseminate this story to as many news outlets as possible, and write to the University to correct this injustice. You can read about it at this link."

Well, folks, I'm back, and I'm ready to start making things happen again with Mensactivism.org. I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who took this temporary outage in stride - I didn't receive one angry or impatient e-mail from anyone - and let you all know that my final projects and exams went much, much better than they would have if had I not taken some time off. Now that my life has returned to a reasonable pace, I'm ready to start some new projects for MANN! That's right - due to some strong collaboration between myself and Mike LaSalle from Men's News Daily, I'd like to take advantage of the opportunity to focus MANN more strongly on the activism side of things, and let MND does what it does best, which is to provide news stories and commentary for the movement. Read on for more details about this plan...

It is with deep regret that I must announce a temporary shut down of Mensactivism.org until I can get a handle on my life. In the past month you've certainly noticed that MANN has not been updated or maintained as diligently as it has in the past, and the reason for that is due to a serious level of over-commitment that I put myself into for the first five months of 2002. I'm not going to offer any heartbreaking story about this, I simply made an error of judgment where I thought I could make it through this time crunch but it's just more than I can handle now. I take full responsibility for getting myself into this mess. Right now I must devote as many resources as possible to academics. My last final exam will be on May 17, and once that is done with I expect to be able to resume running this site in a manner it deserves, rather than the half-hearted way it's been limping along for the past month or so.



In the meantime, I'd highly recommend you check out Men's News Daily, a great site run by Mike LaSalle whose news coverage on men's issues is excellent. I even understand he has a web forum for related discussions that was added recently. In any case, I hope this isn't too much of a let-down for people, and I promise this shutdown will only be temporary. The time I'll be spending will be an investment in the amount of time I'll be able to devote to this site over the summer.

This Foster's story offers more details about the outcome of yesterday's Senate vote to establish a Commission on the Status of Men in NH. It includes the final vote broken down by Senator, the last minute attempt to amend the bill to make it a "health and welfare of men" commission, which thankfully failed, and how the commission will be set up. "The commission would consist of seven members appointed by the governor and council, with at least one member invited from the University System of New Hampshire. While the bill does not have any state money, it authorizes the commission to accept donations or grants to further its duties."