With all the talk recently about boys and education--mainly, how boys require more physical activity--I thought that this article from Christian Science Monitor was both relevant and important. It reports on the first public school to adopt military-style discipline for students, and it is, of course, controversial. However, the school officials promise it will not to be one of the "boot camp" schools about which we've heard so much lately. The focus is going to be on education, discipline, and physical activity. Although this sounds particularly good for boys' education (we've all heard about how boys learn better when physical activity is involved), the article only quotes female students (and the parents of female students). I'll be writing an oped letter to point that out to them (e-mail oped@csps.com... you must include your name and address if the letter is to be considered for publication).

frank h pointed me to this article from TooGoodReports.com and writes "Duplantier encourages the celebration of gender diversity in this short essay. Not real hard-hitting, but well-said." From the article: "Thanks to the persistent intervention of reality, the hostile egalitarianism of the sexes may at long last be on the wane...Instead of trying fanatically to blur the distinctions between the sexes, let's go back to accentuating and celebrating them."

frank h is looking to form a chapter of the National Coalition of
Free Men in New Jersey, and is looking for potential members. Please
e-mail Frank at fhujber@optonline.net if you're interested.

It's that time again.... issue number eight of Trudy Schuett's DesertLight Journal has hit the internet. Read it here. 'Nuff said. :)

Here's an inspiring story from Fox News about a 6-year-old boy who, when his mother was incapacitated, managed to rescue his baby brother and himself from a flipped car after an automobile accident. "We're very fortunate," Gegelman said. "Breyleigh loves his brother, and he's real protective of him. I just think what he did was heroic." Here's to the destruction of the stereotype that boys (and men) are incapable of the type of love which fuels such action.

Neil Steyskal writes "Several weeks ago men's activists wrote to Dear Abby about her advice on an issue involving fathers' parenting time. Today she came around to our side: click here."

There were a couple of great letters in the Christian Science Monitor replying to a recent article about how men are avoiding marriage because of the ways it is unfair to them. You may recognize the names as Mensactivism.org readers and commentors. Great work, Alan and Neil! This is a great example of reader activism.

Igor writes "I stumbled upon a great website lately: www.StraightActing.com provides a community for many homosexual/bisexual men who feel rejected by the Gay Pride Movement. Many of these men feel that society pressures them into the "limp wrist" definition of homosexuality. A great deal of them avoid the gay scene entirely just because they are sick of being stereotyped as effeminate. The general consensus on the forums is that the "gay community" is just as bad as the "straight community" when it comes to accepting these men. This is a great website for homosexual/bisexual men (even heterosexual men too) who want to feel masculine while still accepting their sexuality. Society has accepted "lipstick lesbians" (lesbians who act like heterosexual women). When will society accept masculine gay/bi men?"

Christian Science Monitor ran this commentary by a stay-at-home dad who, along with his wife, rediscovered the fact that children tend to take for granted that the situations in their own families exist everywhere. The column is fun and a little humorous, but also a sincere reminder that we need to start educating our children early on all the opportunities that are (or should be) available to them--male or female--as they grow up.

This article on Excite News announces a GQ magazine "Man of the Year" award sponsored by Discover. The award asks "sons, daughters, wives, and girlfriends" to nominate men for GQ's "Man of the Year." The winner will be announced on Discovercard.com. Certainly, this is simple promotion of a product, but I do think that it will make people stop and think about the men in their lives and all the good we can (and do) create. Looks like both GQ and Discover may be good candidates for the pro-male section of our Media Watch page. :)

Anniee sent in this essay from the American Reporter, which pins the blame for the Andrea Yates killings on her husband: "Yes, I think Rusty Yates, who looks as squeaky clean as the bathtub his children drowned in, ought to be locked up instead of his wife for callously ignoring his wife's needs (if not worse) and for criminal neglect of his children." I've been extremely selective about posting more stories about the Yates killings, but this one was just too inflammatory to pass by. It simply reeks with the double standards we have about men and women regarding responsibility.

Neil Steyskal sent in this USA Today article, which adds more examples to the growing list of men's sports teams on colleges and universities that have been harmed or destroyed by Title IX. The article also reiterates the contradictory nature of the law: "Ironically, the current interpretation of Title IX actually violates the law's own language (to say nothing of the Constitution), which forbids gender discrimination in college programs. Cutting men's teams in the name of gender parity is gender discrimination."

Tonight's on-line chat will be on the topic of boy's issues. Several recent news stories posted to Mensactivism.org have covered the way men's rights is related to issues facing our young men - be it the
over-prescription of Ritalin for "overactive" boys, the supposedly
"inferior" physical and mental development that boys experience in
contrast to girls, and how sex crimes perpetrated against boys by
older women are not taken as seriously as if the genders were
reversed. Join us for a lively discussion on what we should do to help advocate for boys and young men, and what possibilities exist for educating young men about the harm that anti-male feminism is causing them. The chat login page can be found here, and the chat begins at 9:30 PM Eastern Time.

Anonymous User writes "The L.A. Times Magazine published an excellent article about the glamorization of WWII, and war in general, and the lifetime of psychological scarring that war leaves on soldiers. The story focuses on WWII veterans, specifically how the U.S. shipped them off to war, forced them to commit horrendous acts, then gave them no emotional support system when they returned to the States. Even though many of these vets suffered, and continue to suffer, from PTSD, the U.S. military insisted that these men suck it all in and "take it like a man." As a result, many vets fell into a lifetime of depression, alcohol/drug abuse and other emotional disorders. Even worse, Hollywood continues to pump out feel-good WWII movies that portray battle as a positive, wholesome, and overall glamorous experience. After reading this, you'll never look at those movies the same way again."

This story on Excite News describes a new Phillipine government policy which labels "offensive jokes" sent via e-mail or instant messaging ("texting," the article calls it) as sexual harassment. The interesting part of this story is at the end, though, where a female official is quoted admitting that there's a stereotype against men when it comes to sexual harassment. Arroyo added that she was glad the practice was no longer viewed in stereotypical terms as always involving an older male superior harassing female subordinates. "This is true in the vast majority of cases ... but it is also true that sexual harassment can and does occur with the traditional roles reversed or with the same gender involved." Personally, the number of ways in which someone may be considered a "harasser" scares me.