Tonight's mensactivism.org/ifeminists.com chat will feature yours truly as the "guest" this week. We'll be discussing my recent column on male victims and female perpetrators of domestic violence. Specifically, we'll focus on some little-discussed areas of female perpetrators. Why do they do it? How do they get away with it? What can we do to help their victims and change the cultural bias against male victims? Chat starts at 9 p.m. EDT in the ifeminists.com chat room. Please join us.

Today's Foster's Daily Democrat, a seacoast NH-area newspaper, slammed the proposed NH Men's Commission in its editorial section today. "So, why do men need a commission? Frankly, the idea is absurd. The status of men in New Hampshire is that they’re doing just fine. And most men would agree with that." Maybe we should demonstrate that quite a few men don't agree with this editorial. Mail to: letters@fosters.com. Note also that Foster's printed this news story on the bill Friday.

This Sunday, April 14, the NH Chapter of the National Congress for Fathers and Children will be meeting to discuss various activism projects they're working on, including planning the next steps for the NH Men's Commission bill, which could hit the Senate Finance Committee as soon as Monday. Other issues to be discussed are laws related to no-fault divorce, shared parenting, and child support. The meeting will be held at the Newington Town Hall starting at 7 PM. For more info and directions contact Mike Genoulis at: geancfc@juno.com.

Ron Herbert submitted this National Post article and writes "What I found disturbing about this article was the glaring omission of boys' lagging academic performance in school. Talk about a case of the "elephant in the room" syndrome!" The researchers explain that boys are less emotionally invested in relationships, so their grades are not affected by having a girlfriend. Perhaps the social pressure on boys to perform well could have something to do with this as well? Or maybe the fact that so many boys are doing so badly, they're not sacrificing academics for the sake of their relationships, but some other time that they give up (ie sports or recreation)? The researchers seem quick to jump to stereotypical conclusions, and yet I don't see much evidence they used to back this up.

fritzc77 writes " When I saw this article in print, it incensed me. It is about nuns serving in a church rocked by molestation scandals. The gender focus, of course, is on men. But if it is true that women abuse as much as men, shouldn't it also hold true, that nuns are just as capable of sexual abuse as priests? That we haven't heard about them doesn't mean it isn't happening. But you would never know that from the story. Please note the misandrist comment from one of the nuns: "men are men."
Here is the link to the article (free reg. required)."

I received this information from the Men's Health America list: "In 1920, the lifespan gender gap was only 1 year. Over the next several
decades, the gap steadily widened, and reached a 7.8 year disparity in
1975. Then, the gap begin to shrink. Now, according to a recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the gap has narrowed to 5.5 years. On average, American women live 79.4 years, while men live 73.9 years. The greatest disparity affects Black males, who only live 67.8 years. The NCHS explains the improvement in male life expectancy by reductions in male deaths from heart disease, stroke, cancer, suicide, and homicide. The first three causes of death are closely linked to cigarette smoking patterns. Despite these improvements, men still have a long way to go until they achieve gender equity in healthcare services, research, and health status."

This article on MSNBC.com claims that the New England Journal of Medicine has published a new study which purports that men with foreskin intact are more likely to carry a virus which could contribute to cervical cancer in their partners. The study conducted in five countries found HPV in nearly 20 percent of uncircumcised men, but fewer than 6 percent of all circumcised men. For women, their chance of developing cervical cancer was at least 58 percent lower if their current partner was circumcised, even if the partner had a history of multiple partners. So while the "it's healthy for men" argument may no longer hold water for circumcising boys, apparently "it's healthy for women" will.

I've just found out that the NH Senate passed HB 587, to establish a NH Men's Commission! The vote was 13-10. Getting a roll call vote was essential on passing this bill, as we suspect there were a few people who changed their vote when they knew they would be held personally accountable for it. I'll provide more details in the next day or two. Update: The NH Union Leader printed this article today offering some more details about the passage of the bill.

Men's issues columnist Glenn Sacks and Marc Angelucci of Stop Abuse For Everyone appeared on KABC's Al Rantel show last week to discuss Glenn's column on the domestic abuse of a baseball pitcher by his wife (both celebrities). The audio of that show is now available at Glenn's Web site. The issue of domestic violence against men seems to be getting more and more press lately. Glenn and Marc deserve praise for getting the message out there on the airwaves.

Glenn Sacks has turned out yet another column, in which he examines a study which confirms that men do, indeed, do their "fair share" of housework, in spite of the old media and feminist myth that women are forced into housework slavery. Sacks looks at the matter of percentages. The recently released study shows that women do an average of 27 hours of housework a week, compared to 16 hours a week for men. Balanced against this, however, is the study's less-publicized finding that the average man spends 14 hours a week more on the job than the average woman. Thus men's overall contribution to the household is actually slightly higher than women's.

Marc Angelucci writes "Reuters Health printed a short article announcing the results of UK Researcher John Archer's meta-analysis which found that women physically abuse intimate partners as often as men do, but that men usually just take it and don't seek help. The complete report appeared in the 2/02 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association. There is simply no way they can discredit this. Maybe we should send *this* to 48 hours?"

The Italian justice system has taken a great leap backward in child support law. It recently ordered a man to financially support his 29-year-old son (who holds a law degree) until that son can "find the career he wants." The judges said parents' duty of maintenance did not expire when their children reached adulthood, but continued unchanged until they could prove either that their children had reached economic independence or had failed to do so through culpable inertia. An adult son who refused work that did not reflect his training, abilities and personal interests could not be held to blame, they said. Apparently, the son owns a home and maintains a diverse investment portfolio in addition to his father's support.

My latest column is a Part II to "Broken Silence," my column two weeks ago about a mainstream columnist's admission that he purposefully ignored studies on male victims of domestic violence in favor of reporting on females. In Part II, I have suspended my normal editorializing in favor of allowing a male victim of domestic violence and a female who once committed domestic violence against her boyfriend to tell their stories on the issue of male victims. The column will also run today on Wendy McElroy's ifeminists.com. In addition to the two main sources, you're going to find some useful information herein from some other names you should easily recognize if you've been perusing this site (or men's issues in California and the Arizona desert) for a while.

Raymond Cuttill writes "The Men's Hour April programme is now out including: an interview with Steven Stevenson who ran a masculist workshop in Australia and lived, news of Tawny Kitaen, the actress arrested for domestic violence, news of a New Jersey improvement in child support for men, events in London this month, Dr Bill Thompson, a lecturer and expert witness recently raided by the police, infanticide, the BBC and Andrea Yates. It’s at www.menshour.com."

warble writes "We finally have an example of a Democratic politician that was subjected to DV. He has filed charges against his wife for domestic assault, and he claims that his wife provoked him to slap her by her assault. Clearly, he was a victim of DV. The story can be found here. I will be interested to have you guys help me learn if this State (Maryland) has primary aggressor laws. It will also be interesting to learn if this four-term Democrat voted in favor of those laws. I am wondering if we should make a lot of noise over this event. What do you think? Also of note is that the Legislative Woman’s Caucus is affording him special treatment by failing to condemn him directly as they would a male in the general public."