Here's an interesting article from the UK Observer which states that men's financial status tends to improve after divorce, while women's worsens. "Divorce is a complete mess for women...The odds of getting a fair divorce settlement are quite simply stacked against women." It does make sense when you think of it this way - women are often a drain on the man's generally higher income, so even if she takes a piece of it when she leaves, she's going to be worse off financially in the long run, while he can often recover. Still, I know of too many men that have been decimated in divorce settlements, and struggle through a lot of emotional pain that interferes with their ability to advance their careers. Where is the sympathy for them? IHF submitted this story.

In this preview of Warren Farrell's book Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, Farrell explains the concept of the "lace curtain" (the lack of coverage of men's issues in the media) and his own journey through it. And you can read it at this link.

The Orlando Sentinel ran this story by Kathleen Parker on new information released on child support collection, and the different ways that it has been presented in the media. One interesting fact that Kathleen dug up (which wasn't reported on in the news articles she read) was that there are more "deadbeat moms" than "deadbeat dads," with custodial fathers receiving only 48% of their child support, while custodial mothers received 60% of their payments on average. Another set of interesting facts: "83 percent of divorced parents who have joint custody and regular contact with their children paid their support in full. By comparison, only 36 percent of parents with neither visitation nor joint custody paid any child support. Can anyone say 'Bingo?'"

Not PC and Imo Bethere submitted this story from The Sydney Morning Herald. Apparently there is a DNA testing company in Melbourne that has begun marketing their DNA kits on television, and have received an "astonishing response." It is noted that women have made almost two-thirds of the inquiries about the services since the TV ads began. The story ends with a plea from a privacy advocate that "DNA testing industry needed better regulation, including laws which required written consent from all parties involved in testing."

Tim Randles submitted this link to a This Is Money story on the new divorce law in Britain that will give women half of their husband's pension money in a divorce settlement by default. Although the law is technically gender-neutral, (the "breadwinner" of the family is the one whose pension is cut) it's obviously going to adversely affect men in the majority of divorces. But don't worry, there's good news too: "Some solicitors say the new law may also be beneficial to men because they could avoid maintenance payments by paying off their wife with a slice of their pension." At least these lawmakers have our convenience in mind. (!)

Here's something I found pretty disturbing, mainly because I think it represents the indoctrination of our students by perspectives based on misleading, politically motivated research. This story from the NY Daily News describes a contest where high school students created advertisements for domestic violence awareness. The winning entries...photos of young women in "high school portrait" style with captions such as, Most Likely to Be Killed by Her Boyfriend, Most Excuses for a Black Eye, and Most Likely to Marry Her Abuser. Does anyone think that an ad portraying violence against men would have won?

Huh? Let me explain: 1 - Men can and do get breast cancer, in fairly small numbers. 2 - Men who get breast cancer have an extremely high mortality rate from it. 3 - According to this BBC Health News article, the likelihood of a man having breast cancer increases if a man has fewer than six orgasms per month, which would indicate abnormal hormonal levels. This is kind of odd news, somewhat humorous, but also serious at the same time.

This news story from NZ Stuff News discusses the struggle for recognition that men's groups are fighting for to establish that men are also victims of domestic violence. There's good information here about a massive study done by Auckland University that followed men and women from birth into their 20s, and found that women were at least as violent as men in relationships, with women even self-reporting initiation violence more than men. Aussie DV advocates, check this out!

Rand submitted this article from the National Post on a recent Canadian protest march for "women's rights." The author points out that some of the demands are overblown and reflect the political nature of the issues involved. She states that what we have is essentially a bunch of "quasi-Marxists" who "have figured out it's easier to get government hand-outs if they claim to be championing women rather than the overthrow of capitalism."

Marc Angelucci writes "The L.A. Weekly printed my letter about the SlapHillary.com web site. Thank you to all who also wrote to them. I'm sure it helped." Great work everyone!

Glenn Burger submitted an interesting editorial piece on the topic of gender bias in employment. He raised some issues that I had never considered before, and so I thought it would be of interest to others. If anyone has any personal stories about this topic, feel free to discuss them on the message board to this story. Click "Read More..." below to view his Glenn's writings.

Salon magazine printed this feature length article on male reproductive rights. It's written by Cathy Young, who takes a conservative pro-male view in most of her writings. This one, however, I feel a bit mixed about. She seems sympathetic to men and understands some of the double standards and injustice of the situation, but more or less dismisses current challenges to law or solutions to the problem. But it certainly is a thoughtful and engaging article, and more press for the issue. Thanks to Alan from the new Choice4Men list for submitting it.

James Bohne writes "It takes considerable courage to print an article on false accusations during domestic violence month. Mike Vigh of the Salt Lake Tribune has the right stuff. The facts are watered down quite a bit, but that doesn't detract much from the significance of the topic being published during the same month both houses passed VAWA. You know the Trib is going to get flak for this, and they probably do also. My guess is this is a feeler to see how much support they will get." Which of course means we should write in and show support for taking these risks. Anything, even a short note of support will help out!

According to this news story, on December 1st in the UK, any wife who files for divorce will get half of her ex-husband's pension without needing to show any material evidence at all, and she still gets the standard maintenance payments and a large cut of his assets.You can read it here. It's hard to think of it this way now, but once upon a time it was a good thing for a man to be a good breadwinner. Now it's almost no longer in his self-interest!

Ron Burke has created a web site with his essay (which was featured on Mensactivism.org) on male reproductive rights and has an area where you can sign a petition to put an end to forced fatherhood. Please take a moment to head over to the site and sign the petition. Thanks to Mark Cimini for sending this in.