Article here. Excerpt:

'In order to get on in British polite society these days, to be retweeted by the right-on journos and lauded by the commentariat, it is advised that you join the feminist club. Calling yourself a feminist has pretty much become mandatory for anyone who wants to be part of public life. From politicians to soap stars, the feminist label is a must-have.

And if there’s one thing contemporary feminists love, it is chastising those who refuse to toe the line. One of the more than a dozen Conservative leadership hopefuls, Dominic Raab, has been denounced as a heretic for refusing to call himself a feminist. In 2011, he wrote an article for Politics Home in which he argued that feminists were ‘now among the most obnoxious bigots’ for not recognising that ‘from the cradle to the grave, men are getting a raw deal’. In an interview last week, Raab said that he stood by his comments, saying he would ‘probably not’ call himself a feminist, ‘but I would describe myself as someone who is a champion of equality and meritocracy’.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Abortion opponents won major victories last week when Louisiana lawmakers voted to ban abortions as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy and the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law requiring the burial of fetal remains in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc.

So what happens if Roe v. Wade falls?

Abortion won’t disappear. Our research shows that countries where abortion is illegal have higher rates of abortion than in the United States — figures which are largely a function of unwanted pregnancies. Nearly half of all pregnancies here are unintended, of which four in 10 end in abortion.

But it takes two to make an unwanted pregnancy. That’s why we need to talk about men when we talk about abortion.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Researcher Evette Alexander told Hill.TV this week that there is a gender divide on college campuses when it comes to prioritizing free speech versus inclusion.

"Men and women felt quite differently on what they considered the greater priority," Alexander, who is director of learning and impact at the Knight Foundation, told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton in a "Rising" interview that aired Friday. "It was a predictor of whether they would favor free speech over inclusion or inclusion over free speech."

"We found that a substantial majority of college men, 71 percent, said that promoting free speech was the more important priority over diversity inclusion issues," she said. "We found that over half, 58 percent, of college women said the opposite. So they said that promoting a diverse, inclusive society was the greater concern for them."

Article here. Excerpt:

'If prison overcrowding were the problem, then acquiring more space could be the answer.

But when it comes to Maine’s female prison population, overcrowding isn’t the problem – it’s only a symptom. The question is not, “Where do we put all these inmates?” but, “Why do we have so many?”

The number of women held at Maine Correctional Center in Windham has risen from only 25 in 2002 to 135 in 2016 to more than 220 as of April, largely fueled by the opioid epidemic and an overly punitive criminal justice system.

As such, the women’s side of the prison is overcrowded, with cots shoved into every open space. About half of the women are there for drug crimes, and most are victims of domestic violence and/or sexual assault, yet prison officials say there is no room for programming to help them deal with substance abuse or trauma, or to gain skills and coping mechanisms to use to better their lives.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'One of Victoria’s major domestic violence services is under investigation amid claims its boss oversaw tens of thousands of dollars in victim support payments to help a friend pay for private school fees, an interstate holiday and legal costs.

The allegations are among several concerns raised by whistleblowers into the workplace culture of the Eastern Domestic Violence Service, a state-funded organisation assisting women and children in Melbourne’s east.

With more victims reporting family violence than ever before, demand for EDVOS’s services has grown significantly over the past few years under the Andrews Government’s multi-million-dollar reform of the sector.

But The Age can reveal the organisation is now the subject of a review commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, and its executive director, Jenny Jackson, faces allegations of nepotism and conflict-of-interest claims over the allocation of family violence grants.

Article here. Excerpt:

'JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $5 million to resolve a discrimination claim filed by a male employee who alleged the bank’s parental leave policy was biased against dads.

The payout resolves a 2017 complaint brought by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging bias against Derek Rotondo, who had applied unsuccessfully for the 16-week parental leave benefit available to employees who are the “primary caregiver” of a new kid. JPMorgan doesn’t admit liability in the settlement.

It’s the biggest recorded settlement in a U.S. parental leave discrimination case, according to Rotondo’s attorneys, and the most high-profile warning to companies with policies that are gender-neutral on paper but not in practice.

Article here. Excerpt:

'"Sometimes, I think we're hurt. We hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity. I do. And I don't find [that] putting those two words together … because women can be pretty fucking toxic," Streep said. "It's toxic people. We have our good angles and we have our bad ones. I think the labels are less helpful than what we're trying to get to, which is a communication, direct, between human beings. We're all on the boat together. We've got to make it work."

The idea of toxic masculinity isn't only relegated to women's studies classes and online harassment. The specific kind of toxicity Streep is talking about involves a kind of hyper-gendered behavior. It's not saying outright that men are evil or inherently violent. The danger today involves people misinterpreting the term and assuming that it covers things such as violence and misogyny.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dear Editor:

Thank you for printing Stewart Epstein’s letter “Good men are not your enemies” in the April 25, 2019 issue.

As a woman, a graduate of an all-women’s college and a lifelong feminist, I find the prevailing attitude of hostility towards men very disheartening. I applaud Mr. Epstein for speaking up for good men, which are the great majority of men I’ve encountered. These men who care about and respect women are treated to a continual barrage of negative messages, with terms like “mansplaining,” “manspreading” and “toxic masculinity” imputing maleness as pathological.

If the script were flipped and women were referred to with such casual derision, the public outcry would be enormous. In contrast, men are supposed to shut up and listen, take it without complaint and suffer in silence. Women’s feelings of emotional comfort and safety are paramount, while men’s feelings don’t matter at all it seems.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is an experienced attorney, having served as the district attorney of the city and county of San Francisco and as California’s attorney general. When it comes to explaining equal pay, this U.S. senator and presidential candidate needs to review the evidence, or risk misleading the American people.
...
Harris needs to check her facts. Otherwise, she risks misleading the American people and championing bad policy.

Harris is likely relying on Department of Labor data to claim that there is a 20-cent gender pay gap. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women who were full-time wage and salary workers earned 82 percent in median weekly earnings compared to men in 2017. In 2018, women earned 81 cents.

But the data don’t compare a woman and man working in the same job, or with the same experience. The statistics compare what women and men make in the economy on average.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'First, a handful of states — Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama — enacted laws severely restricting access to abortion even in the case of rape (rape!) and incest (incest!), and as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, when most women don’t even know they’re pregnant.

In sponsoring Ohio’s bill, state Rep. John Becker claimed that if a woman has an ectopic pregnancy — when an embryo implants somewhere other than the uterus, often the fallopian tube — a doctor can just shove the errant embryo back into her uterus and — voila — baby!

Oh, honey, it just doesn’t work that way.

Article here. Interesting article but I notice the author talks about Millennials as if the whole generation were female. They're not. Excerpt:

'Once again, true. But there's more to it than that. This message to which Sinek refers was specifically directed to girls by their feminist-minded mothers. Sinek talks about the self-esteem movement and the harm it's done to millennials, and I agree. But we can't separate the self-esteem movement from the feminist movement. They're two sides of the same coin.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'AI doll manufacturer Realbotix has recently fitted new models with Wi-Fi, enabling high-speed synchronising for voice and animation.

They also stand to benefit from 5G, which is poised to give us vastly superior mobile internet data.

This means sex robots will be able to connect and update without needing to be near an internet router.

But sex doll collector, Brick Dollbanger, believes this technology will make them so realistic, we won’t be able to tell them apart from humans.

Brick, who has close ties with Realbotix, told Daily Star Online: "Anytime you can get a steadier flow of information from software to hardware activation, you are going to get better syncronisation and smoother more lifelike movement from your hardware.

He added: "Once it (the upgrade) finally is on board the synthetic, it will only use Wi-Fi to access the net for info.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Around 30 students linked arms outside Mill Lane lecture theatres earlier this evening, blocking members of anti-feminist group Justice for Men and Boys (J4MB) from entering the building through this main entrance. After the group entered through a back entrance, the activists regrouped with a variety of noise-making devices, seeking to disrupt the event.

The protest is currently ongoing, and growing as further student protesters arrive.

The student activists had previously intended to occupy the building, but, when they arrived, University security staff were already stationed within the building.

The protesters initially gathered shortly after five and remained until around six o’clock, when they left briefly before returning with pots, pans and other loud items, as well as a variety of protest signs.

Police were witnessed outside the site, along with further University security, and University proctors.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Guido van Rossum is one of the world’s most influential programmers. Van Rossum is the author of the general-purpose programming language Python, which he started working on in 1989, and is now among the most popular languages in use. According to a survey of users on Stack Overflow, a popular question-and-answer site for programmers, Python is the fastest-growing major programming language, and the most used after JavaScript. Python is free and open source, meaning anybody can use the language and modify it to suit their specific needs.

In addition to creating the language, van Rossum has overseen its development. Programming languages evolve over time, with changes made to add features and fix bugs. Modifications to the official version, generally suggested by active users of the language, go through a complex approval process managed by a founder or core development team. Van Rossum served as the “benevolent dictator for life” of Python’s development until last year, when he stepped down from the post.
...

Article here. On the up-side, your chances of accidental paternity drop some. Excerpt:

'Surprising new research into dog sperm has reproductive biologists concerned about the fate of their own species. In a March study, scientists at Nottingham University found that two chemicals common in home environments damage the quality of sperm in both men and dogs.

The culprits implicated are diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), used to make new plastics more pliable, and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153), found in older plastics and electrical equipment. Companies stopped producing PCBs in the late 1970s due to their health risks – including a possible increased risk of cancer, hormone disruption, liver damage and behavioral or cognitive deficits in children exposed to the chemical in utero – but the chemical persists in the environment.