This story on Excite News reports that a new study on gender and ethnic stereotypes in education prove that such stereotypes can influence a child's performance in class and on tests. Surprisingly, both boys and girls between 8-10 years of age performed better when they were told that their sex was "better" than the other. Researchers chalk this up to that specific age group, when each sex fears "cooties" from the other.

Under certain circumstances, says a fertility ethicist, it is OK for a couple to use invitro fertilization to choose the sex of their child. According to this article on Excite News, the ethicists say it's OK as long as the couple already has children of the opposite sex. Other ethicists were surprised by the decision, calling the selection of sex the start of a discrimination slippery slope which will end in selection of color, intelligence, etc. In other words, a lack of diversity.

Neil Steyskal sent me this USA Today article, which announces that about 80 percent of the people who died in the WTC attacks, particularly those who died in the building, were men. "Eight of 10 were men, the average age was 40, and many were parents. "We saw the deaths of a lot of young fathers and fathers with young children," says David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, a think tank on family issues. "It makes the whole thing that much more tragic."" Indeed it does.

This story from the Associated Press claims that MA officials are attempting to remove access to nudie magazines (like Playboy and Penthouse) from inmates. The officials use the feminist argument that nudie mags "desensitize" men (a fact often disputed by individualist feminists and men who know how to control their own libidos). This is interesting coming from an institution completely desensitized to the sexual frustrations of the imprisoned and male rape.

This story in the Salt Lake Tribune reports on a recent Utah Supreme Court ruling which held that a 15-year-old boy could be charged with lewdness for grabbing his (clothed) crotch in public. The court apparently believes the act is equivalent to pubic masturbation. The story does point out that celebrities (Roseanne, Madonna, Michael Jackson) often grab their crotches in public without being charged with lewdness. I wonder how long it will be before Utah adopts the Tennessee and Mississippi laws which have made it illegal for a man to have an erection if he is in public view (even if said erection is clothed).

Neil Steyskal sent in this short but interesting story, which details how a man whose wife was cheating on him put up a neon sign on his shop exposing the man she was having an affair with. The British courts fined Robert Sofolowski, claiming that he was invading the privacy of his wife's lover by posting the sign. Sofolowski replied, "I am the one who has been wronged...There is no reason for cuckolds like myself to hide themselves away."

Cecil Adams, the pseudonym for the columnist who writes the Chicago Reader's "Straight Dope" column every week, apparently isn't really "The World's Smartest Human" after all. In this column about Kegel exercises, Cecil essentially apologizes to women for being male. All these years men have worried about how long it is, and now they have to worry about how strong it is. I'm not saying that makes up for labor pains, menstruation, and breast cancer, but at least guys don't have it all their way. Make up for breast cancer? Apparently, Cecil hasn't heard of prostate cancer. As for the rest, why should men be punished for woman's biology?

Bill Kuhl sent in an original article he wrote about the "lost boys of Sudan," a group of refugee boys and men who fled chaos and forced military service in their home country and who are now struggling to integrate into a new culture while trying to protect what is left of their own. It's an interesting read. You know the deal - click "Read More" below for the essay.

In Wendy McElroy's latest column, she explains the differences between mainstream feminism and "individualist" feminism, which focuses on women's issues but seeks equal treatment of men and women under just law (women are neither discriminated against nor given special privleges compared to men). Although the column does not specifically address the men's movement, it does address some of the issues crucial therein. Mainstream feminism says, "Reform divorce laws to make them just." Individualist feminism says, "the very existence of marriage/divorce laws is an injustice because the State has no proper authority over what should be a private contract between individuals."

Neil Steyskal submitted this article from the Houston Chronicle. Apparently, the number of divorce case dismissals has skyrocketed since the Sept. 11 attack. "Family-law attorneys have found that clients contemplating divorce, as well as those in the middle of one, now say they will try to patch things up. Family-law cases, the vast majority of which are divorces, have been dismissed in nearly three times the volume in the days after the tragedy as in the days before it." I guess the event really put people's problems in perspective.

New Zealand's Stuff reports on a female educator who believes that boys currently have little direction and no true sense of what it means to be male, and for too many young men, prison is their only "male right of passage." She advocates for a men's movement, similar to feminism, that will give boys a strong identity and empower them to lead strong and healthy lives. "[Ms Lashlie] said the excitement of being truly male had been vaporised and washed away by feminism...She called for the boys' schools to publicly promote the place of men in society and celebrate their differences from women." You can read the story here.

This column in Playboy asserts that men are stupid. It backs up this assumption with statistics comparing the number of men in college versus the number of women. Further, it attempts to "guide" men in our efforts to date women "smarter" than we are. Obviously, Playboy's editors decided to trash their famous journalistic endeavors of the past in favor of taking feminist numbers at face value, without exploring the real reasons fewer men are in college or show any ambition these days. Namely, college campuses are politically correct and not male friendly places. Neither is the classroom.

This story in the Salt Lake Tribune quotes a female "academic" who claims that the sports world (which she admits was created by men for men), particularly the Olympics, is discriminatory against women. Nevermind that every year the Olympic committee is adding more sports and medals for women athletes, she says. That's only a reminder that women have a long way to go.

This short column on the New York Times Web site (free registration required) points out the well-known fact that females fetuses are less likely to be still-born or spontaneously aborted, but the last line struck me as an extension of the "men's shorter lifespans are a women's issue" argument: The W.H.O. warns, "When this female potential for greater longevity is not realized it is an indication of serious health hazards in their immediate environment," like malnutrition or neglect.

According to this article from CourierPress.com, scientists may have discovered that a certain type of Y-chromosome (which starts the process of a fetus becoming male) may contribute to the fact that men are twice as likely as women to have high blood pressure until age 55.