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.

frank h writes "The title of the article is "Are Boys the Weaker Sex?" which I find to be deliberately inflammatory, and the article quotes my favorite (not!) male feminist, William Pollack. But it does finally begin to recognize that boys are not, and have not for a long time, been doing well in schools, and it recognizes something that feminists have been fighting for a long time: boys and girls are different. I'll read the article again before I decide how I feel about it, but I would encourage all to read the article; don't judge it on its title. The article can be found at this link."

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has begun a campaign to decrease the gap in men's awareness of prostate cancer and what they do about it, according to this article on Excite News. Apparently, even though we are aware of the dangers of prostate cancer, most of us still aren't taking steps to avoid it. On a related note, Baylor University is currently enrolling men in a prostate cancer prevention study.

The Dallas Morning News reported here that Connecticut recently passed legislation barring school officials and counselors from recommending psychiatric drugs for students. Schools can still recommend that a student be evaluated by a doctor or psychiatrist, and I think this makes sense - so students who do have mental health problems can still be helped. The strong support for this bill is testimony to the fact that too often, kids (especially boys) are being drugged up excessively and needlessly, and the public is concerned about this.

A recent article in the National Post delves into the different ways that boys and girls view dinosaurs, and certain gender differences in general. I felt that the article seemed to focus on these differences in a fairly pointed way, explaining how girls have a more intellectual and productive interest in dinosaurs and science, while boys are only interested in the visceral response they get from movies like Jurassic Park III. Click here for the story.

This report on Excite News opens up some interesting questions about the biological link between fathers and their offspring. According to the article, fathers who smoke pot create a greater risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) for their offspring than mothers. Not much more is known about this phenomenon right now, but it does further the scientific fact that a child is half his father and half his mother (with respect to genetic make-up)... not all his mother and only fertilized by father.

Ned Holstein sent out another update on the public hearings in Massachusetts for reviewing the state's Child Support Guidelines. With one hearing left tomorrow, in Springfield, we need to finish this off on the right foot. Be there if you can! Click Read More below for his announcement.