George McCasland writes, "I'm George McCasland, the person that answers the 1-800-SEE-DADS line for the National Congress for Fathers & Children. I would like to invite all of you to go to the NCFC-MoKan Chapter Web site at: kidsndads.org and click on the "Shelter" link. We are in the process of putting together a domestic violence shelter for men and children in the Kansas City area. This will be the first major center of its type in the country, and we hope will serve as an example for other shelters. I would like you to review our proposal and consider donating towards this effort. If nothing else, review it, and tell others about what we are trying to accomplish. We will not be able to change the public's views on domestic violence against men and their children, until we can show more than just some studies. We need to be showing some live examples of its effects. So please, take a look and consider helping in our effort."

This news from Yahoo! claims that women feel that women's health is ignored by politicians and medical researchers, mainly because the people responsible for making these decisions are men. I find this interesting not only in light of the recent report that Men's Health research is neglected by comparison to women's, but also that as far as politics is concerned, I've seen a tremendous amount of attention devoted to it. Promoting women's health issues is one of the key components of getting the "woman's vote," which is so coveted. I guess this just goes to show that perceptions don't always reflect reality.

I received notification from Dr. Charles Corry about a novel written by Trudy W. Schuett that focuses on the reality of violent women and domestic violence against men. You can find out more about the book at this link. The book's title is Friends to the End, and is apparently available only on-line. But it's an important step forward.

I found a good article on stress in the workplace and the ways it affects men. There are some tips about helping to reduce stress, and also signs that a person may be under severe stress (managers and co-workers take note!). You can read the MSN news article at this location.

bernee writes "This sad story about a man killing himself due to massive child support payments is typical of the perils faced by men - that he must give so much and then lose control his life because of an unfeeling Government policy - a supposedly "gender neutral" policy but one which, when tied in with the Family Courts, is clearly discriminatory. This is the reason why we must fight on. Another distressing aspect of this story is that the editor of the newspaper wrote an editorial two days before this article was published concerning the Child Support Agency. It is a fine example of gutless political crap that totally ignores who is really suffering because of these discriminatory policies. I have written to him in disgust. My letter is yet to be published."

A high school aged girl gave her prom date two black eyes for not kissing her at the prom. The boy did not retaliate because, "he was taught never to hit a girl." And not only that, but she initially claimed that he had raped her, and recanted charges, saying that she was angry that her boyfriend rejected her in her drunken state. You can read the article here. Can you believe this? According to "progressive" rape theory, this young man was a victim of attempted rape (unwanted sexual contact - kissing), and she then turns around and falsely accuses him of rape! And then there's the abuse - what a horrible situation this young man is in.

Marc writes "Yahoo! News repeated the wage gap myth, again. Click here. It's so tiring. Maybe we need a class action lawsuit to stop this. For now, we can scroll down to 'conversations' and give your input."

In today's Boston Globe, Cathy Young wrote a column on the recent press conference on public health research which demonstrated that women have never been neglected by NIH research studies. There are lots of good statistics here, and from my personal contact with Ed Bartlett, the reception of this news went well - he did not have one person come up and challenge him after he released the report. Now we just need to keep promoting this and get it to trickle up to the national media. Update: I've fixed the link now. Sorry about that.

I'm transferring the management of the Mensactivism.org domain name to a new registrar, in order to fix some quirks of this site's current setup (namely, the frames issue and not being able to bookmark individual stories). If things start acting funny this week please bear with me - everything should be changed over by the end of Friday.

In today's edition of the University of New Hampshire school newspaper, this article presents amazing statistics about violence against women and women's overall fear of violence. Some choice statements from the article: "67.6 percent of women surveyed
said that they would be afraid to walk alone at night, while only 4.4 percent of men said the same...[A UNH Police Officer] said this is due to the higher number of assaults on women than on men." Update: I am in the process of composing a response to this article. My results will be posted to Mensactivism.org when it is printed in the newspaper.

In this acticle (from July), George W. Bush tells us of his "Promoting Fatherhood" initiative, an $185 million program to help strengthen the role of fathers. While he does come at this from the highly dubious "responsible fatherhood" angle, he also says "Our nation must reverse the trend toward fatherless homes." It seems that the problems of fatherlessness are slowly starting to get noticed - keep up the great work people!

This article by Stephen Baskerville in DadMag.com is on the trials and tribulations that fathers go through in family court. None of this should be news to most readers of Mensactivism.org, but Baskerville as usual does an excellent job explaining the dangers of divorce to men, and DadMag.com is not really a "father's rights" magazine - so the word is getting out to new people.

Rand wrote in about this story from the UK Independent. It discusses a major study done on domestic violence by Prof. John Archer from the University of Central Lancashire. It is noteworthy that in his conclusions, Archer finds that Western women are more violent because they are "economically emancipated and therefore not afraid of ending a relationship." The article also mentions a forthcoming article in the Journal of Men's Studies that traces battered men in history, including John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, and Abraham Lincoln.

Ed Bartlett of Men's Health America has issued a press release on the myths of gender health research today at the American Public Health convention in Boston, MA. This event is a very big deal. We expect a lot of mainstream coverage of this "atomic bomb", as Ed describes it, and Mensactivism.org will be actively monitoring major media outlets for coverage of this event. For now, click here to read a ton of facts on gender in health research that were presented in the press release.

We received an excellent feature article this week from Thomas Golden. Tom is a psychotherapist who approaches his work from a male-affirming perspective, and recently put out a book on the ways that men deal with loss. The feature article is an excerpt from his book Swallowed by a Snake: The Gift of the Masculine Side of Healing. Whether you've lost a loved one recently, gone through a bad divorce, or have to struggle very day to maintain your sanity while trying to get custody of your children back, we have all felt pain and loss at some point of our lives. Tom acknowledges the unique ways that men deal with hurt and loss, and honors them with the essays and healing methods he describes in his book. This is one issue every man must confront, and Tom's writing is rare in how it speaks to men in such positive, productive ways. Click "Read More" below for the text of his essay...