Since the election is only a few days away,I thought an update would be useful.Here's an article that says married women could be the deciding bloc in the election, but you can probably take it for granted that whoever wins will do so with a very narrow margin of voters, be they married women or another social group. As we've said before: The Men's Activism News Network does not officially endorse any political candidates.

Ed Bartlett from MHA forwarded me this story from HealthScout. It discusses new research which shows that men (especially poor men) have a significantly higher risk of suicide shortly after a divorce. The reasons for this have to do with the fact that men generally have smaller support networks, and often loose their family and home, which makes them feel that everything they've worked for has come to nothing. Please consider this if you know a man going through a divorce, and keep an ear open to his pain.

As if the depths of depravity and greed in television weren't deep enough, the Fox network has created a game-show like program called I Want a Divorce, as a followup to the Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire show. You can read the article here. "I Want a Divorce will be a two-hour special in which couples who have recently separated can tell their opposing sides of their stories, answer questions about their spouses' lives, and have a chance to win a grand prize of $100,000 as well as marital assets." I haven't owned or watched TV regularly for over five years now. Apparently I'm not missing much!

bernee writes "Steve Biddulph, an Australian author with a variety of men's and boy's health books to his credit, is releasing a new book which he has edited and is an anthology of "Mens' Stories".
This article reflects on some of the issues which are pushing the growing movement towards a need for recognition of issues affecting men's and boy's health and well being." I hope that the explosion of the movement is as inevitable as Biddulph makes it sound.

Let's hope other states follow this trend; in Ohio, a 500 year old common law stated that any child born in wedlock is assumed to be the mother's husband's child, and child support payments have been enforced against men who have proven with DNA tests that they are not the father of the child. A new law has been passed that nullifies the old law, so that "Ohio no longer rewards mothers who lie about who the father of their baby is," as described by the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Peter Lawson Jones. You can read the story at this link. This is an important, basic step in moving toward the concept of male reproductive rights.

I came across this a while ago, in this interview Fred Hayward explains what he's been doing for men's issues the past 20 years, his clashes with feminist groups, his meetings with Warren Farrell and much more. Quite a story I'm sure you'll agree, and you can read about it here.

I thought this letter by Richard Weiss was a really effective and concise way of explaining the myths about "deadbeat dads". Bravo, Richard, and thanks for taking the time to write to the Huntsville Times about this!

Bill Kuhl submitted this story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It's on the recent deaths of two women in the Cole destroyer, which was attacked near Yemen. Bill writes, "[The article] is interesting from a number of angles. I mean, here's the media talking about not its coverage of women but it's lack of coverage of women. Many ironies in this article and some hard hitting truth too. How interesting that nowhere in the article does it say anything about the male only draft."

Warren Farrell, one of the best known authors in the men's rights movement, is releasing a new book toward the beginning of 2001, Father and Child Reunion. I noticed on Warren's web site that he's put up the Table of Contents of this book, which can be viewed here. In my opinion, Warren was very smart to write a book on father's issues, and this is sure to become a hot seller. (Note, you can view an interview Mensactivism.org hosted with Warren at this link)

This story from the Bangor Daily News is on battered men in Maine, and does an excellent job both explaining DV statistics and sharing the personal horror stories of battered men in that state. Time and time again the men reveal that they had no one to turn to for help, and were afraid of losing their children if they attempted to flee from the marriage.

Marc Angelucci writes "The Daily Bruin printed my letter responding to Gloria Steinem's claim about why men vote for Ralph Nader. This letter shows my own progressive angle towards men's issues, but I think men's activism can fit perfectly on any point in the political spectrum, and I respect everyone else's position on that spectrum." Marc's activism shines through again - thanks for the submission, and your efforts!

Joe Dunbar sent me this article from the Massachusetts section of law.com on the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) system, which represents a child's interests in family court often when allegations of domestic violence or drug abuse are involved. Joe has had some direct exposure with this system and is in support of its reform, and writes, "I am trying to help parents and children in the Massachusetts court system - Middlesex County. If you're from that area and have ever been treated unfairly by attorney and GAL Vicki Shemin or Judge Judith Dilday, please e-mail me. Documented cases of fee disputes or irrational custody recommendations by Shemin would be of particular interest. Shemin extorted over $26,000 from my family, then reversed her first two custody recommendations when I objected to her bill. I am also looking for ideas to help the MA probate courts with use of GALs and other bulletin boards to post this to."

This article tells us about how badly the "justice system" is biased against men and boys in Australia, and how the boys live in conditions no better than third world countries while the courts go out of their way to not imprison girls. Click here to read it.

Jerry Boggs wrote an incredibly good "open letter to gender feminists" that can be read at this link. The quality of this letter cannot be overstated, in my opinion. He covers several key issues that have divided the sexes - misperceptions about the wage gap, the dynamics at play in male/female relationships, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Jerry obviously spent a tremendous amount of time on this, so be sure to tell everyone you know about it to spread it wide and far.

And it's not exactly flattering. BBC news posed the question, "Are men trapped in outdated roles?" and got a number of responses from various people throughout Europe. The answers were generally negative about men, and I'm appalled at the number of people (mostly women) who included something in their response about domestic violence. One answer was: "Surely it's a good thing for male violence to be under scrutiny? Personally I feel that there's a long way to go before women achieve equality with men. Not until fathers accept responsibility for child rearing and men stop using women as punchbags, that women will be equal." You can read other responses here, but please don't do it if you're already feeling depressed.