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'MPR said Wednesday it was cutting ties with Keillor, creator and former host of the popular public radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," over an allegation of workplace misconduct. The network did not give details, but Keillor told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he had put his hand on a woman's bare back while trying to console her.
On Thursday, MPR repeated that it had received just one formal complaint against Keillor, a day after a statement by him raised questions about the extent of the allegations.
Keillor told MPR's news department in an email that two employees had made allegations. MPR spokeswoman Angie Andresen, asked to clear up the discrepancy, said the network has "a formal complaint from an individual that includes multiple allegations related to Garrison's behavior."
'“We have a whisper network you all know it. Because what everybody here knows is we have rapists here in this building. We have molesters among us,” said Christine Pelosi.
The head of the California Democratic Party’s Women’s Caucus says no one knows about those alleged abusers, because of a deficient system for reporting harassment.
“Isn’t that problematic,” said Vince Fong.
The problem, Assemblyman Vince Fong says, is the Capitol’s human resources department doesn’t record complaints of harassment involving current lawmakers.
Human resources administrators confirmed cases of misconduct are kept secret.
“Those records may have existed they don’t exist,” said one administrator.'
'This is going to be an unpopular opinion, offered as it is in a maelstrom of headlines and revelations -- many long overdue -- about powerful men who have sexually abused, harassed, assaulted or otherwise exploited others. Each day brings new allegations, and nearly every day, more heads roll. But obscured behind the legitimate outrage against sexual predators is an unceasing cultural onslaught against men that should concern us every bit as much as the predation dominating the news.
I am absolutely not referring to current efforts to expose the men accused of sexual harassment or assault. I am speaking of a longer-term and more insidious attack against men -- and masculinity -- generally.
'The idea of men’s rights is often considered taboo to talk about. It is this idea that a conversation about men’s social concerns would have the power to negate the accomplishments that feminists throughout history have made. The buzzword “equality” has limitations, where the conversation stops right when you start to mention the voice of men. So, what is this movement all about?
These issues are the things that largely go unexamined. These are the things that cannot be heard above the humming of every other right’s movement. We are talking about child custody cases, criminal sentencing, domestic violence, workplace fatalities, men’s reproductive rights, educational inequality, and men’s health issues. I myself was very misinformed about men’s social concerns and grievances and so, like many of us do, defaulted to whatever was easiest to believe. I was looking at this from a woman’s perspective believing that this movement was only a backlash to the momentum of the Women’s Rights Movement- and in some ways, this is true. The men’s rights movement has definitely taken some ideas from the Women’s Movement and tried telling them from their perspective.
Letter here. Google the quoted text to jump the paywall. Excerpt:
'We need more courageous men as leaders in every facet of our lives and society. We certainly don’t need more women in government demanding their special interest, social welfare agenda be passed into law.
It is stunning if one looks at our current society how dominant the influence of women continues to be in this nation. Women are the major influence in today’s world. Count the number of groups supporting or promoting women. Then count the men only organizations. Equality? Hardly, when you look at longevity of life, suicide rates, unemployment, college graduates or personal wealth in the nation.'
'Junior Gillian Friebis said she usually does not speak in class, but that when she decided to raise her hand one day in her politics course, she was shut down by a man in the class. It was an experience she feared would occur after seeing other women being interrupted in the same fashion by other men.
During a class discussion about the political relationship between Catalonia and Spain, Friebis spoke only to be immediately and repeatedly interrupted by a man who said he was trying to play the devil’s advocate to her point.
“After he kept talking over me, I didn’t keep trying, because I knew it was going to happen again, and it reminded me, ‘Oh yeah, this is why I don’t talk in this class,’” Friebis said.
'A Michigan Democrat running for attorney general released a campaign ad this week in which she suggests that not having a penis makes her qualified for the position.
Dana Nessel suggests her answer to stopping sexual harassment in politics is to elect more women because they can be trusted "not to show you their penis in a professional setting."
“If the last few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that we need more women in positions of power, not less,” Nessel says in her ad. “So when you’re choosing Michigan’s next attorney general, ask yourself this: Who can you trust most not to show you their penis in a professional setting? Is it the candidate who doesn’t have a penis? I’d say so.”
“I want to tell you what you can expect me not to do,” Nessel continues. “I will not sexually harass my staff, and I won’t tolerate it in your workplace either. I won’t walk around in a half-open bathrobe, and I’ll continue to take all sex crimes seriously just like I did as a prosecutor.”'
'In less than two months we’ve moved from uncovering accusations of criminal behavior (Harvey Weinstein) to criminalizing behavior that we previously regarded as presumptuous and boorish (Glenn Thrush). In a climate in which sexual mores are transforming so rapidly, many men are asking: If I were wrongly accused, who would believe me?
I know the answer that many women would give — are giving — is: Good. Be scared. We have been scared for forever. It’s your turn for some sleepless nights. They’ll say: If some innocent men go down in the effort to tear down the patriarchy, so be it.
...
Ms. Lindin was widely criticized, but say this much for her: At least she had the guts to publicly articulate a view that so many women are sharing with one another in private. Countless innocent women have been robbed of justice, friends of mine insist, so why are we agonizing about the possibility of a few good men going down?
I think the worry is justified. And it’s not because I don’t get the impulse to burn it all down. It’s because I think that “believing all women” can rapidly be transmogrified into an ideological orthodoxy that will not serve women at all.
...
I believe that the “believe all women” vision of feminism unintentionally fetishizes women. Women are no longer human and flawed. They are Truth personified. They are above reproach.
I believe that it’s condescending to think that women and their claims can’t stand up to interrogation and can’t handle skepticism. I believe that facts serve feminists far better than faith. That due process is better than mob rule.
'A Cornell graduate is suing the university, saying he was discriminated against and denied a hearing following a Title IX investigation into a sexual assault allegation.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, accuses Sarah Affel, Title IX coordinator for Cornell University, of discrimination based on the student's ethnicity, sex and religion. The documents also state a variety of allegedly unlawful actions that were taken against the former student, referred to as John Doe, an ethnically Bangladeshi Muslim.
The graduate is now demanding a jury trial and is seeking restitution from Cornell.
The suit is the second in eight months that alleges a student or former student contemplated suicide following a Title IX investigation at the university.'
'Male survivors of slavery in Britain are often overlooked compared with female victims because shame stops many men speaking out and seeking support, campaigners said on Monday.
Men who have been enslaved are less likely than women to recognise their ordeal as a crime or report it to authorities, leaving them isolated, vulnerable to drug abuse and at risk of being re-trafficked, according to the British charity Hestia.
"It's much more difficult to get men to engage after slavery - they are more likely to write it off as just a bad employment experience, even in cases of brutality," Patrick Ryan, chief executive of Hestia, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"Men tend to face more of a struggle than women to recover, and not dealing with this can create a risk of re-trafficking," said Ryan of Hestia, which provides refuge and support for victims of domestic abuse and modern slavery, mainly in London.'
'Men arrive at this moment of reckoning woefully unprepared. Most are shocked by the reality of women’s lived experience. Almost all are uninterested or unwilling to grapple with the problem at the heart of all this: the often ugly and dangerous nature of the male libido.
'By the same token, when a young feminist recently declared she is “not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs” in the process of weeding out the bad guys, she is also harming the cause. The same people who warn about broad rhetoric turning all Islamic people against us should exercise the same prudent specificity in calling out what constitutes almost half of the world—our brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins, husbands, and friends. We don’t want to create more chauvinists and alt-righters.
'The overarching lesson drawn by many critics of Weinstein and his brethren is that there is something inherently pernicious about men in general. Many people now genuinely believe that traditional manhood is lethal and is destroying our nations.
Actress Emma Thompson responded to the scandals this way: “So what we need to start talking about is the crisis in masculinity, the crisis of extreme masculinity which is this sort of behavior” (emphasis added throughout).
...
One pundit insisted that this systemic issue has only one solution: Whenever a man in power is found guilty, fire him—and replace him with a woman.
Is masculinity the problem? Is there something inherently toxic about manhood?
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