Article here. Excerpt:

'The contentious confirmation hearing of Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, revealed just how difficult it will be to restore a degree of fairness in how the nation’s colleges and universities handle sexual assault allegations.

Even before the hearing commenced, Democratic senators Patty Murray of Washington and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania issued a letter wildly describing campus sexual assault as “affecting millions of college students.” (According the most recent federal Clery Act data, from 2014, there were 5,178 rape reports on campus that year.) The senators demanded the new administration retain guilt-presuming policies adopted in April 2011 by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Article here. Excerpt:

'As the Trump administration begins its term in office, college leaders remain unsure about how the new White House will regulate institutions' approaches to campus sexual assault. A briefing Wednesday on Capitol Hill reflected that anxiety, with college presidents calling on institutions to continue the Obama administration’s increased focus on protecting students while urging the Trump administration to provide more clarity and to take a less adversarial stance.

“My hope is that whatever Congress or the administration does in terms of peeling back federal regulations, that the universities in this country do not step away from this issue,” said Diane Harrison, president of California State University, Northridge. “There are rumors that they’re going to lessen what we have to do. So we are potentially going to need to be far more assertive and far more vocal.”
...
College presidents at Wednesday’s briefing were in agreement that they would continue to use the preponderance of evidence standard, even if the 2011 guidance were to be reversed. The majority of colleges were already using the standard prior to the Dear Colleague letter. Alisa White, president of Austin Peay State University, in Tennessee, said the lower standard is appropriate because a campus disciplinary decision does not involve “a loss of liberty.”

“I think the preponderance of the evidence standard should be one that would stand,” White said, while adding that colleges should not rush to judgment on a student’s culpability. “It’s important to us and will be important to us regardless of what guidance and policies change.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'It seems that feminism has taken a much more intense pendulum swing in a direction that means that I no longer feel comfortable calling myself a feminist. It’s gotten that bad. We have various feminists now calling for “the end of the patriarchy” and some others still are saying in varying states of hysteria: “I hate men!”

Many of us look at these extremes and think it’s only a few who feel this way, but tragically that side of extreme male-hating feminism is on the rise and has been for some time. It is no longer about equal pay, equal opportunity, respect and equal rights. It is now about “women first” and screw the men (not in the good way!)

A video went viral recently featuring a woman, Jenny McDermott, stating “kill all male babies.” I actually feel sorry for her.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Due process protections for the accused in campus cases alleging sexual assault have been under attack for decades. In the guise of enforcing Title IX—a 1972 federal law prohibiting educational institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex—the Obama administration intensified the attack.

Restoring due process on campuses does not seem to be a top priority for President Trump and congressional Republicans. If they wish to uphold the rule of law—for men and for women—it should be.

Sexual assault is a grave crime. It ought to be promptly reported to the police. Perpetrators should be punished to the full extent of the law. But stripping the accused of due process rights—shared with those accused of murder, assault and battery, and other violent crimes—violates the promise of equality under the law and undermines the most effective means available for pursuing the truth about claims of serious criminal wrongdoing.

Article here. Wisconsin Public Radio published an article about an interview with Warren Farrell. They talk a lot about MRAs as "misogynists" etc., but at least Warren is able to give a more reasonable perspective. Excerpt:

'Warren Farrell, a prominent men’s rights activist, is often cited in online forums where men complain about their legal and cultural disempowerment.

Farrell’s 1993 book "The Myth of Male Power" is considered the guiding text for these aggrieved men, a kind of male counterpart to Betty Friedan’s 1963 "The Feminine Mystique."

Parts of the men’s movement are filled with anti-feminist diatribes and denunciations against women seen as manipulative and emasculating. So it may come as a surprise to meet Farrell, a soft-spoken man in his early seventies who once worked closely with Gloria Steinem, a prominent women's rights activist.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Ritual circumcision is a common practice for Jews and Muslims around the world. It is a legacy of God’s commandment to Abraham to circumcise his penis as a sign of their special bond, as chronicled in the Book of Genesis, and it persists as a kind of tribal marking.

In America, even irreligious Jews still embrace this initiation rite. Some blame peer pressure: “I didn’t want him to look weird,” my brother-in-law explained about his newborn son. Others take comfort in the fact that this tradition has also been blessed by the American medical establishment. Neonatal circumcision has been the most common surgery in America for over a century. Nearly six out of ten newborns are released from hospitals foreskin-free. The practice is so widespread, in fact, that one study of 90 active American medical textbooks and models found that less than a third featured a penis with foreskin intact.
...
Because male circumcision is so common in the states, few Americans realize how rare it is most everywhere else. The practice has fallen by the wayside in Australia, Canada, Britain and New Zealand, and fewer than one-fifth of all male Europeans are circumcised. In December, the Danish Medical Association recommended ending the practice for boys, arguing that because it permanently alters the body it should be “an informed, personal choice” that young men make for themselves.

Article here. Excerpt:

'How much of the failure to grasp current controversies over campus Title IX investigations come from seeing two sides even though they are demanding similar measures? Many from both camps, seemingly in frustration, suggest all campus Title IX investigations should be delegated to local police and prosecutors. That approach is not consistent with Title IX, but support for it suggests concerns with the current tools for addressing on-campus sexual violence.

Good article on gaslighting here. I read it and realized this is modern feminism's playbook. Excerpt:

'Gaslighting is a tactic of behavior in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works a lot better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting. It is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed. In the movie Gaslight (1944), a man manipulates his wife to the point where she thinks she is losing her mind.

People that gaslight use the following techniques:

1. They tell you blatant lies.
...
2. They deny they ever said something, even though you have proof.
...
3. They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It was the lynching that outraged African Americans, spurred the civil rights movement and etched the victim’s name in history: Emmett Till.

The 14-year-old Chicagoan was visiting relatives in the cotton country of the Mississippi delta on 24 August 1955 when he allegedly wolf-whistled at a white woman.

Three days later his body was found in the Tallahatchie river. Till had a bullet hole in the head, an eye gouged out and other wounds. The murderers had wrapped barbed wire around his neck and weighted him down with a cotton gin fan.

It was a ghastly crime that changed the United States but the woman at the center of it, Carolyn Bryant, long remained an enigma.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Buckle in everyone, we’re going for a rocky ride on the social justice roller coaster.

A few months ago, Buzzfeed released a video called: “Women Try Manspreading for a Week.” I’ve never been a huge fan of Buzzfeed, but this video has scraped the bottom of the barrel of petty complaints.

In the video, several women explain what manspreading is—basically men spreading their legs into a large V-shape when they’re sitting—and then try doing it for a week themselves. Apparently, these women think that men should sit more like women tend to, with their legs closed. They think that men take up too much space when they sit down in crowded places like city busses.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The term 'toxic masculinity' has crept into the lexicon in the past 12 months, having appeared in mainstream news articles, popular feminist blogs and, as of November, the crowd-sourced online repository of slang words, Urban Dictionary.

Generally used to denote how some aspects of masculinity — such as entitlement, homophobia and sexual aggressiveness — can harm women and families and cripple men's own health, toxic masculinity, at its most extreme edges, has been linked with acts of violence like mass shootings and university campus sexual assault.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A drunken gang of girls who took Snapchat photos and videos of a "ritualised humiliation" sex attack on an amateur footballer has been jailed.

Brogan Gillard, the 26-year-old ringleader of the group, was filmed dancing around the victim’s naked body as she cut his hair, sliced onions over him and sexually assaulted him with a pair of scissors.

Paige Cunningham, 22, and Shannon Jones, 20, also posed for "trophy photographs" with the unconscious 19 year old victim and a Snapchat post showed one girl holding the man’s penis.

The video was shared on social media and was seen by their victim’s girlfriend, Preston Crown Court heard. Gillard then joked about using carrots and onions in the sex assault on Facebook.

Judge Graham Knowles QC said he sentenced as if it had been three men on a female.
...
The court heard in his victim impact statement that he has flashbacks and suicidal thoughts and feels anxious.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Somerville College JCR is discussing whether gender should be taken into account in the selection of the next principal.

Dr Alice Prochaska, Somerville’s current principal, announced in October 2016 that she will be stepping down after a seven-year term at the end of the academic year. The college is due to announce her successor some time this year.

Alex Crichton-Miller, president of the Somerville JCR, told Cherwell: “Given that there are several colleges in Oxford that have only ever been led by men, there were some members of the Common Room who felt strongly that Somerville ought to continue to have a female principal.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A new ride-for-hire app catering to female drivers and passengers may run afoul of discrimination laws and new state regulations.

Safr, which will begin an invitation-only launch next week and a public launch March 1, will employ all female drivers and only accept ride requests from women — though if a woman is with a man, he can ride, the company said.

“There’s a big hole in the ride-sharing economy right now, especially for women and families,” said Safr spokeswoman Joanna Humphrey Flynn. “A lot of women don’t feel safe driving.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Women’s March on Washington last week featured as a speaker convicted felon Donna Hylton who, along with several others, kidnapped a man and then tortured him to death.

Hylton’s name is listed on the Women’s March website alongside prominent liberals like Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, actress Gloria Steinem, filmmaker Michael Moore and CNN commentator Van Jones.

Hylton, along with three men and three other women, kidnapped 62-year-old real-estate broker Thomas Vigliarolo and held him for ransom, before eventually killing him. As noted in a 1995 Psychology Today article, when asked about forcibly sodomizing the victim with a three foot steel pole, one of Hylton’s accomplices replied: “He was a homo anyway.”