Smerconish: ‘Am I Complicit’ If I Watch Movies or Shows Featuring Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct?

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a monologue at the end of this morning’s broadcast of Smerconish, CNN’s Michael Smerconish wondered aloud what the responsibility of consumers is now in the wake of the #MeToo movement that has led to a multitude of men in entertainment being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment.

“Every day the arts sections are filled with new allegations of bad behavior, of cultural icons from actor Dustin Hoffman allegedly groping a Broadway co-star to the Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine’s alleged relationship with an underaged boy,” the CNN host noted. “If I listen to an old recording of the Met or I rewatch Tootsie, am I complicit?”

He added, “In other words can we as consumers continue to enjoy the fruits of the labor of those who are now under a cloud of suspicion?”

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The Warlock Hunt

Article here. Excerpt:

'Among us, it seems, lives a class of men who call to mind Caligula and Elagabalus not only in their depravity, but in their grotesque sense of impunity. Our debauched emperors, whether enthroned in Hollywood, media front offices, or the halls of Congress, truly imagined their victims had no choice but to shut up, take it, and stay silent forever. Many of these men are so physically disgusting, too—the thought of them forcing themselves on young women fills me with heaving disgust. Enough already.

All true; yet something is troubling me. Recently I saw a friend—a man—pilloried on Facebook for asking if #metoo is going too far. “No,” said his female interlocutors. “Women have endured far too many years of harassment, humiliation, and injustice. We’ll tell you when it’s gone too far.” But I’m part of that “we,” and I say it is going too far. Mass hysteria has set in. It has become a classic moral panic, one that is ultimately as dangerous to women as to men.

If you are reading this, it means I have found an outlet that has not just fired an editor for sexual harassment. This article circulated from publication to publication, like old-fashioned samizdat, and was rejected repeatedly with a sotto voce, “Don’t tell anyone. I agree with you. But no.” Friends have urged me not to publish it under my own name, vividly describing the mob that will tear me from limb to limb and leave the dingoes to pick over my flesh. It says something, doesn’t it, that I’ve been more hesitant to speak about this than I’ve been of getting on the wrong side of the mafia, al-Qaeda, or the Kremlin?

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Here’s the gender gap that matters

Article here. Excerpt:

'The gender gap in engineering and math is old news by now. Despite society's strenuous efforts to close it – including giving girls pink Lego sets to play with – nothing seems to work. The percentage of female engineering students remains around 20 per cent, give or take.

Meanwhile, there's another gender gap that everyone ignores. This one is in the ultra-competitive field of veterinary medicine. Not long ago, all vets were men, and women who aspired to be vets were told to aspire to something else. Scarcely any women were admitted into vet schools before the 1970s. Today the ratio in veterinary school is 80-20 – in favour of women. In 2015, for example, Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College admitted 83 women and only 18 men.

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Wolf-Whistling Could Become a Hate Crime in London, Say Police

Article here. Excerpt:

'Wolf-whistling and making comments perceived as sexist could become hate crimes in London, police have said.

The Metropolitan Police Force revealed they have been consulting with other forces about cracking down on “gender-based hate crime” after similar behaviour was criminalised in other parts of the country.

Last year, Nottinghamshire Police became the first in the UK to record “misogyny” as a hate crime, potentially criminalising complimenting, texting, and catcalling women in certain contexts.
...
Hate incidents in the UK only need to be “perceived” by the alleged victim “or any other person”, and the Crown Prosecution Service recently confirmed that “no evidence” is needed for one to be reported and recorded.

Many forces even consider “dislike” and “unfriendliness” as forms of hate crime.'

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Canada: This Is Why Boys Need More Emotional Support Than Girls

Article here. Excerpt:

'When you read about gender stereotyping children, it's usually about behaviours like girls opting to play with dolls and boys preferring trucks. But what about other differences?

Recent and past research sheds light on gender differences in the brain and its development, and it's these studies we should be looking to when it comes to thinking about the kinds of emotional support we give our children, especially our boys.

In a 2000 study entitled "The Fragile Male," Sebastian Kraemer states that baby boy brains are actually more fragile than baby girls'. Even in the womb, boy brains are more reactive to maternal depression and stress, while at birth, baby boy brains lag behind girls by a full six weeks.

Research has also shown that boys have higher cortisol levels (the stress hormone) after a traumatic birth where they were separated from their mothers, or their caregiver was unresponsive.'

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Canada: "Women's Secret Police" to review Police determinations

Article here. Excerpt:

'Advocates for women say a new pilot project — which allows outside experts in gender-based violence to review sexual assault investigations by police in Ontario and Alberta — will increase the number of charges laid and improve public trust.

Sexual assault investigations in Ottawa, Timmins, Ont., Peterborough, Ont., London, Ont., and Calgary will be reviewed by an outside panel of experts who work with survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Kingston, Ont., and Stratford, Ont., are also part of the pilot and completed their case reviews earlier this fall. 

Experts in violence against women estimate that fewer than one per cent of sexual assaults result in criminal convictions.'

h/t to John Hembling who points out that handing over such Police decisions to an outside, civilian body without ANY oversight is unprecedented and most likely illegal under the Police Act: https://youtu.be/t-mnBiJS3x8

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Beware Of The Average White Man

Article here. Excerpt:

'I am afraid of the truth about being male, about the flawed consequences of being a creature driven by testosterone even with the capacity for reason, compassion, and ethical awareness.
...
And yet as the veneer is being peeled back from men as predatory monsters, average white men themselves are desperately asking what if things are going too far, what if all the men guilty of sexual assault and intimidation are held accountable.

Yes, what if? Reckoning is a frightening thing for the guilty, and each time I read about another man hedging for the accused and punished, I am reminded, with some due gender irony, “The lady protests too much, methinks.”

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Facebook Bans Women From Dragging Men Through The Mud

Article here. Excerpt:

'Facebook banned women for one to seven days after they posted things like, “men ain’t shit,” and “all men are ugly” according to The Daily Beast.

“I personally posted men are scum in November and I received a seven day ban. It’s still ongoing. Two days and 23 hours left,” self-proclaimed comedian Alison Klemp told the Beast. “It wasn’t the best protest because it clearly didn’t work.”

Boston comedian Kayla Avery also said she’s been banned countless times after disparaging men by posting “men are trash” on Facebook. Since she was first banned, Avery has created FacebookJailed.com, a website where women can commiserate about internet censorship.

Another comedian, Heather Fink, told the Daily Beast the Facebook censorship “problem” has been spreading to Instagram where she said she was banned for discussing Facebook’s censorship of rash insults against men.

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"Should I report sexual harassment if I then slept with the man?"

Article here. Excerpt:

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'Our business is men, and men are not toxic': Colorado strip club sign raises ire

Article here. Excerpt:

'Deborah Dunafon knew that a big sign outside her strip club that read “Toxic Masculinity Welcome Here” could land her in trouble. But she thought it needed to be said on behalf of her clientele and men everywhere, who she says have been given a bad rap in the news lately.

“I think it’s horrible to accuse men of being toxic, because they’re not,” said Dunafon, owner of the 35-year-old Shotgun Willie’s strip club, which is also a marijuana dispensary, in Glendale, Colorado. “Our business is men, and men are not toxic.

“How many men are we gonna pick on until finally there’s no men standing? How would you like a society with men meekly running around with little bonnets on their head?”

Shotgun Willie’s is located in Glendale (whose mayor is Dunafon’s husband, Mike), a hamlet surrounded on all sides by Denver – the city where a coffee shop recently found itself in hot water over a sandwich board sign that read: “Happily Gentrifying the Neighborhood since 2014.”
...

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Australia: Exodus of male teachers profession due in part to fear of being wrongly painted as sexual predators, NT Estimates hearing told

Article here. Excerpt:

'AN exodus of male teachers from the profession is due in part to a fear of being wrongly painted as a sexual predator, an Estimates hearing has heard.

Education Minister Eva Lawler said the royal commission into child sex abuse had heightened those anxieties.

Male teachers were sometimes wary of being alone in classrooms with children, she said.

Mr Lawler made the remarks in response to a question from independent Member for Blain Terry Mills about the dwindling number of men teaching in the Territory.

Ms Lawler said 22.6 per cent of NT teachers were men, with most working in high schools.

She said teaching also suffered from an image problem.'

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UK: SAS considers watering down its gruelling selection tests to give women a better chance of joining the elite unit

Article here. Excerpt:

'Britain's most elite special forces unit could allow women to take an easier test to increase their chances of joining, it has been reported.

The SAS, whose selection process is considered among the toughest in the world, could be planning to permit female applicants to carry lighter rucksacks during gruelling marches.

Troops hoping to enter the legendary unit are expected to pass uniquely difficult challenges - some of which are so intense that candidates have died trying to complete them.

But according to sources who spoke to the Sunday Times, women - who can apply for all military roles from 2019 - might be allowed more time to complete tests and be given lighter loads to carry.

The potential watering down of selection criteria will also apply to the SBS (Special Boat Service), the sources add.

It would specifically affect the initial selection phase, during which candidates are pushed to their limits in the Brecon Beacons over a month-long period.'

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Women sometimes cheat on their husbands — but not for the reasons you think

Article here. Excerpt:

'They weren't looking for anyone to support them emotionally - they just wanted men who were sexually compatible.

"They were very practical and methodical in their decision making and then their vetting of who they were going to get involved with," Walker told Business Insider. "And they were very clear it had nothing to do with whether or not he was a nice guy ... So none of the sentimentality that we seem to want to assign women. They talked a lot about how participating in this was sort of this exercise of power and freedom for them."

The women weren't looking for love elsewhere, because all but two of them said they still loved their husbands. They were simply looking to be satisfied in bed.

"The women I spoke to are cheating to stay married," Walker said. "They're not cheating for revenge, or to get out of a marriage, or to get the husband to notice them through bad behaviour. It's none of those things."

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Why ‘Toxic Masculinity’ Is A Toxic Concept

Article here. Excerpt:

'But shouldn’t the concept of “toxic masculinity” should be opposed by something on the other side? Namely, something good. For example, in between the Paddock shooting and the Weinstein scandal, the Nobel Prizes were announced. Nine prizes in science were awarded, nine men won.

As of 2015, men had won 825 of the 871 Nobel Prizes since 1901, or 94.7 percent. In physics, the ratio is 199 to 2. Yes, there have obviously been institutional barriers for women in the past, but all such barriers have been removed. While discrimination may still play a roll, the Cornell University study shows that, in STEM fields, women’s resumes were preferred over identical male ones by a ratio of two to one.

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Obama: Put more women in power

Article here. He doesn't want to generalize, then he does. So Mr. President, if you could re-do it, would you voluntarily have stepped aside to let HRC get the presidency? Excerpt:

'Asked to list leadership qualities for the future, Obama advocated "more focus on putting women in power, because men seem to be having some problems these days."

Speak for yourself, pal. It's disgusting to see him lump all men into the same disgusting category as the Hollywood and media elites and say they're practically all out sex-harassing. It also suggests he means to excuse these elites since 'all men do it.' He's still at it, placing large groups of people into special interest groups instead of recognizing individuals.
...
"Not to generalise, but women seem to have a better capacity than men do, partly because of their socialisation," said the 56-year-old Democrat who left office in January.

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