Marc Angelucci has been running a campaign and petition drive to establish a Men's Studies book section at Barnes & Noble retail stores, and has been highly successful in his efforts. He recently sent me some photos from the events, and I had them scanned and posted to the site. You can view his story and the photos here. Marc's been doing an excellent job, and could use some help to keep the momentum going. Also, thanks to Jim Castelli for scanning the photos for me.

Okay, maybe this isn't such a big deal, but....I've fixed some of the annoyances of using this web site. You can now bookmark individual pages on Mensactivism.org, so you can return to them later! Before, the way I had the site set up used frames and "domain cloaking" to keep the address http://www.mensactivism.org in your browser's Location bar, and this would stay the same no matter where you were looking on the site. Now the URL changes according to the page you are looking at. This should make the site more useful to researchers and those wanting to keep track of our editorials and articles.

Adam pointed me to this article from the UK Guardian. It's from late August, but is still a timely editorial on the topic of prejudices people have when men are alone with young children. These stereotypes are what keep men out of roles such as early childhood education, where I feel they are desperately needed. You don't hear much public dialogue on this issue, and I hope this will eventually change.

Time magazine recently had an article on boys' body image. It's by a woman who believes that toys such as G.I. Joe, whose muscular size has dramatically increased over the years, is a root cause for eating disorders and muscle dysmorphia in men. This article is an interesting contrast to our previous one on anorexia, but includes statistics for boys and men: 36% of boys in the 3rd grade have tried to lose weight, and up to 15% of high school aged boys are believed to use androstenedione (basically, an over the counter steroid). Thanks to Bill Kuhl for sending this one in.

According to this study reported on by Yahoo!, new fathers "worked about 53 additional hours a year when the child was a boy rather than a girl," and also if the child was a first born, new fathers worked an additional 66 hours per year. This demonstrates that men's practical style of parenting remains seen by many as providing and not parenting. Hopefully someday this will change.

IHF sent in this link to a story from the UK Independent. It discusses some new research which is suggesting that anorexia nervosa may have genetic, not social, causes. It turns out that people with anorexia exist in remote areas of Africa where Western media has no influence. Also, it is often unexplained why anorexia affects some people more than others, suggesting causes other than social pressures. While the research is not yet conclusive, it does present another way of looking at the disorder. There was no mention if this could also affect the outlook on disorders involving male body image.

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and to offer a hearty THANKS to everyone who visits this site and makes use of it on a regular basis. It's the diverse and loyal user base that has made The Men's Activism News Network into what it is today. Enjoy your dinner and family!

The Ottawa Citizen had a great editorial piece by Eva Saira, which lays bare the fact that under current conditions, men accused of rape and sexual harassment are basically guilty until proven innocent. The letter is a line-by-line indictment of the rape shield laws that enable false accusers to get away with their crimes without accountability. While no one can deny the importance of sensitivity in handling sex crime cases, I believe that privacy standards for those accused but not yet convicted would go a long way to reduce the number of false accusations.

"As many as three men a day are committing suicide because the nation's child-support system is driving them over the edge, according to the Lone Fathers Association Australia." This very disturbing news can be found in The Canberra Times. Click here to read it. These numbers are not official statistics but are still jaw-dropping in implications.

There seem to be lots of domestic violence stories lately, and Marc Angelucci is on top of things again, reporting: "The L.A. Times printed this article on domestic violence in the Latina/o community, and it again completely ignores male victims. Please join me in writing to them (letters@latimes.com). Anything will help, even one line. If we send enough, they might finally print something."

ABCnews printed this story about when parents abduct children abroad, and the difficulties that the parent left behind has to deal with. Often, there is no hope, as several countries have no means to find children or do not enforce their return orders. The conflicts between US and international law also complicates things.

Marc Angelucci writes "The December issue of the American Bar Association Journal, which has a circulation of 400,000, printed two letters disputing their claim that 90 percent of domestic violence victims are female. One is from me. They unfortunately didn't put the links and references I gave, but they did mention the National Coalition of Free Men under my name. A big thanks to Scott for posting the ABA's distortion on this site, and to all who wrote letters to them." And hey Marc, congrats on passing your CA Bar exam!

Rand submitted an article from the Sunday Times on domestic violence. This one is excellent in its extensive use of statistics, and directly refutes domestic violence research made popular in the UK by Betsy Stanko. Prof. John Archer again makes this conclusion: "Modern secular values, he says, have combined with the economic and sexual emancipation of women to enable them to end relationships with little cost and small risk of male aggression. The result is the rise in female violence."

Marc Angelucci sent in this article from the Orange Country Register on domestic violence. It's perspective is based on the political doublethink that we're working to change, and particularly disturbing is an example they use toward the end of the story where a man accused of domestic violence in an act of revenge by his wife goes through the treatment program and claims it has changed his life for the better. We have a very odd relationship to liberty in this country when people claim that being falsely accused of crime can have social benefits.

Today's front page of the Boston Globe had this story on Columbia University's recently enacted sexual misconduct policy. The article contains plenty of information sympathetic to supporters of the code, but also includes: "At a time when colleges nationwide feel newly emboldened to replace constitutional due process with their unique brands of discipline, the Columbia policy is seen by some students and civil libertarians as an extraordinary step toward injustice. According to Boston University Chancellor John Silber, the system has elements lifted from a Kafka novel: No lawyers. No right to face the accuser or listen to witnesses. Complaints can be filed up to five years after the alleged incident. No right to cross-examination, and no recorded transcript of what was said - of the detailed arguments or of the nuances that might influence the jury."