Wendy McElroy's FOX News column this week makes one of the most impassioned pleas on behalf of men and the women who understand equality I've ever read. And the timing couldn't be more appropriate. In her ever-eloquent style, McElroy boils down many modern problems with gender feminism and the equal rights of men into a short, but powerful, call to women: As a Christmas present to the men in your life, make a commitment to stand up for them. Do not tolerate slander directed toward those you love. The infant son you hold in your arms is not an inevitable rapist or exploiter of women. The father who worked every day to make you safe and comfortable is not an enemy. The husband with whom you are planning a future is not a part of "the rape culture." They are family, friends and good neighbors. Scott's note: Also thanks to Thomas for submitting this story.

This week will be our final Mensactivism.org on-line chat of 2001. Will suggested to encourage people to read books on men's issues by having a few chat sessions set aside for discussing a particular book. This week will be an introductory session where we can decide on which book(s) to hold future chats on and give people the opportunity to buy and read these books before those future chats are held. People new to the Mensactivism.org community, or those who haven't done much reading about men's rights will definitely receive some great suggestions on where to start reading by other members. Join us on Wed. (12/19) night starting at 9:30 PM EST.

zerostress writes "On Angry Harry, I found another
story by columnist Christie Blatchford about the half-masting of all Canada's flag to commemorate the 15 women's death by a lone gunman in Montreal and the double standard applied to Canada's war veterans."

In an example of the particularly harsh treatment of boys in schools, DaveW sent in this story and writes "A 7-year-old boy is banished to alternative school for 11 days for having a 1-1/2 inch pocket knife in his back pack." It is believed to be the first time a student so young was sent to this alternative school, which is for students with severe behavioral problems.

Posting the previous story reminded me of a submission I've been meaning to post here for weeks: An Anonymous User writes, "I was discussing the issue of false rape allegations with a group of feminists and of course I was very quickly shouted down. I tried to look up articles here that have to do with men being freed from
prison after DNA evidence proves their innocence. I do not know the
details of these cases. However, [the feminists] insisted quite
vigorously that all cases of men being freed were NOT for false rape
accusations but for mistaken identity. They seem to believe that women never lie about being raped." In addition to our previous article, can anyone point this person to more examples of false rape accusations for reasons other than mistaken identity?

This story from the UK Times reports that a man has been freed after serving nine years in prison for the rape of a young girl. The girl admitted that she made up the accusation to get the attention of her mother, and at age 14, finally recanted the story to have the man freed.

This story in the Sunday Salt Lake Tribune throws some light on a little-acknowledged (but much joked about) problem in prison: the rape of men by other inmates. The article quotes studies which claim that at least one-fifth of the United States' 2 million prisoners have been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted in prison. That's 400,000 victims. "I didn't see them," Turner, who is black, said of his white attackers. "It was three of them. I got raped . . . But what can you do? They saw someone who was young, didn't know what was going on, and took advantage of it . . . . As long as they have prisons, they'll happen."

Neil Steyskal writes "Here's a column about women as peacemakers. It bothers me, but I don't quite know why. If you want to comment, click the "Contact us" button." I think it bothers me because the men=warmakers/women=peacemakers stereotypes are easy to translate into men=evil/women=good. Neil also writes, "Carey Roberts does it again [with] another great letter about Afghan men."

Wendy McElroy writes, "This Sunday (12/16), the jointly sponsored ifeminists.com/mensactivism.org chat room will feature a discussion of Men Under the Taliban. Has the coverage of Afghan women totally overshadowed the abuse experienced by men?" The chat begins at 9:00 PM EST at this page, which is the ifeminists chat room. We hope to see you there!

Neil Steyskal sent in this article from the Washington Times and writes "Women who claim child sexual abuse are stepping up their rhetoric. Look out for due process. Comment to: letters@washingtontimes.com." It looks like the widespread use of false accusations against men is coming back to hurt children who are really being abused, as this article claims that abuse allegations are losing credibility before judges when in a divorce setting.

Mike LaSalle writes "Australian Barry Maley has written a book pertaining to family and marriage in Australia. Several articles [including
this one and this one] and a radio interview are available. Also, Men's News Daily will be "cool site of the day" at Askmen.com on 12/17/01." Nice job, Mike!

Anonymous User sent in this Boston Globe story about some recent cases where a child on life support is taken off of it by the mother, after realizing that the father had been abusing the child. The idea being that the child is better off dead than continuing to be abused. What strikes me as unfair here is that the father is then charged with murder, and the mother is not. If he was abusing the child, charge him with child abuse, but murder? Murder was the woman's choice, and she should be accountable for it. Also, thanks to Luek for sending in this CNN article on the same story.

The sexual harassment overshadowing of America continues, and spreads all over the world, as evidenced in this commentary in The Australian. And like passive smoking, passive watching is the next big lawsuit. A directive from the Minneapolis Equal Employment Opportunity Office in May suggests walking by someone who happens to be looking at something offensive may create a hostile work environment.

nagzi writes "This isn't directly a men's issue thing, but still a nice idea. If you want to learn some new programming skills (for beginners), check out this
article and then follow the link to icanprogram.com. Just make a donation to your favorite cancer charity and you can take any course of theirs for free." This is a neat idea. The course teaches some of the fundamentals of programming in the Linux environment and you can donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (testicular cancer) or the Prostate Cancer Research Institute, among others.

NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will tonight air a controversial episode in which a male victim of rape must fight to prove he was victimized by a group of women who hired him as a male stripper. The advertisements for this episode include scenes in which one of the women is shouting "women can't rape men" and another scene in which the victim, tears in his eyes, fights to make his voice heard. It looks like powerful episode worth watching. Scott's note: I accidentally deleted a user submission on this same topic, and I apologize to this person!