Article here. Excerpt:

'Damsel in distress no longer describes female pop artists in music videos. With the release of the music video ‘Disclosure’ by Magnets featuring Lorde, there is an undeniable gruesome violent trend coming from female singers and it is sweeping across the music video industry.

The 'Disclosure' music video portrays Lorde tying a man, presumed to be a cheating guy, to a chair and then pushing him into a pool as he begs for her to stop. She then opens a lighter and throws it into the pool, setting it ablaze. Sounds like something straight out of a horror film.

Memo here. Dated 5/12/2015, it was only recently released after all the signatories had a chance to review and sign it. Excerpt:

'As you are aware, the American Law Institute (ALI) has undertaken a review of the sexual assault provisions of the Model Penal Code. The undersigned members of ALI are concerned about the direction the project has taken. Although the drafts have generated little attention outside of the project itself and although the project has been criticized for late distribution of drafts (see e.g., ALI Reporter, Summer 2014 at 23), we hope that you will consider our concerns both before and during the upcoming Annual Meeting session on Tuesday, May 19 at 9:00 a.m. when Discussion Draft No. 2 dated April 28, 2015 will be considered.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 20-year-old woman has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly kicking her boyfriend's 17-month-old son to death.

Alicia Goemaat, from West Seattle, Washington, is accused in the death of Drue Lehto, whom she was looking after as his dad, Derek, ran errands on September 27.
...
She said that on September 27 she kicked Drue in the stomach, knocking him to the ground, according to reports. She reportedly said she kicked him again before putting him in his playpen, where he was later found unresponsive.

After the boy's father arrived home, he tried to administer CPR but the youngster passed away before medical staff arrived, according to Seattle PI. An autopsy found that he died of abdominal trauma and internal bleeding, and the Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide.

Goemaat denied knowing what happened to him until she was arrested days later, on October 1, according to reports.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The United States Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has issued a warning about “male privilege” and is teaching ways to combat it.

The agency has issued two charts, the “Power and Control Wheel” and the “Equality Wheel,” in a new document posted on the Navy’s website.
...
As Social Memo points out, the Navy’s document appears to only address physical and sexual violence perpetrated by men.

A 2012 study by Bert H. Hoff, J.D. found “More men than women were victims of intimate partner physical violence within the past year, according to a national study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Department of Justice.”

Hoff’s research found that in the 12 months prior to the study’s release, “an estimated 5,365,000 men and 4,741,000 women were victims of intimate partner physical violence.” That’s 53% and 47% respectively.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'There is nothing new in a victim of a sexual assault being blamed for the offence. Back in 1982 there was a national outcry when a convicted rapist was punished with just a £2,000 fine after the judge ruled that his victim, by hitch-hiking in a skirt, was “guilty of a great deal of contributory negligence”.

At least things have moved on, or so one might have thought. Yesterday, 21-year-old Jade Hatt walked out of court with a suspended sentence after being convicted of unlawful sexual activity with a child. The leniency was explained in part by mitigating testimony that the victim was “sex mad” and ‘“fully up for the experience”. The encounter was a “notch on his belt” and he was “totally unaffected by it”. The victim was just 11 years old. As if that were not sufficiently horrific, that testimony was provided by the boy’s own father, who had himself been in a previous sexual relationship with the defendant.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The latest round of polling for Clin­ton is bru­tal. This week’s NBC News/Wall Street Journ­al shows her fa­vor­ab­il­ity rat­ing with men at a mere 27 per­cent, while two-thirds view her un­fa­vor­ably. Her minus-39 net fa­vor­ab­il­ity with men is 28 points worse than Vice Pres­id­ent Joe Biden and 27 points be­hind Sen. Bernie Sanders. The story is the same in New Hamp­shire, where the NBC/WSJ/Mar­ist poll found both Sanders and Biden with net-pos­it­ive rat­ings, while Clin­ton’s ap­prov­al is deeply un­der­wa­ter, stuck at 30 per­cent.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this week, the Governor of California signed a bill intended to help women. Supported by the Chamber of Commerce, the new law looks to eliminate the “gender wage gap,” or the supposed discrepancy between the pay of men and women.

The bill received immense support in both houses of the California state legislature and will “ensure that women are paid equally for work that is substantially similar to the work of their male colleagues.”

While California policymakers may be well intentioned, as an economist, this makes me want to bang my head against a wall. I’ve discussed this very issue on this blog before. But, alas, here we are again.

So, one more time, with feeling.

There is no meaningful gender wage gap. Such a gap makes zero intuitive or economic sense.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'As a critic of feminism, I’ve checked out the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM). Some things I like, some things not so much. They have good points when it comes to divorce, custody, and how courts are biased towards women. These are real equality issues that need to be addressed.

Also, I dislike how men have become the punch line in today’s society. Just check out commercials and sitcoms. The husbands are portrayed as complete idiots with the maturity of five year olds. The wives, on the other hand, are brilliant personality-less parental figures to their dumb husbands.

One of my pet peeves is how it’s somehow acceptable to insult your husband in public. Haha, I don’t know how he dresses himself in the morning! It’s laughable when a woman does it. The other way around? That wouldn’t fly!

For Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Jewish Women International (JWI) Red Light, Green Light Campaign is intended to raise awareness about the realities of this crime.

But its launch of the #WhenShe campaign implies that women are always the victim in domestic violence situations: https://jwi.org/emailviewonwebpage.aspx?erid=7029494&trid=2e44d9c2-710c-4d23-8a70-124e522a6fe5

In reality, however, sometimes women are the aggressors of domestic violence. It is important to stop violence against women, but we cannot do so by creating the presumption that men are always the problem.

Please ask JWI's Executive Director, Loribeth Weinstein, to help correct the narrative.

Call: (800) 343-2823
Email: loriweinstein-at-jwi.org

Let's make sure false narratives are stopped before they're turned into biased laws.

Gina Lauterio, Esq., Policy Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments   
www.saveservices.org

Article here. Excerpt:

'Students accused of misconduct on college campuses have long suffered from a lack of due process in university adjudications. From its founding in 1999, for example, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has received complaints from students alleging that they were treated unfairly in campus proceedings.

Over the past five years, however, a particularly dire situation has emerged for the increasing number of students who find themselves accused of sexual misconduct on campus. Under tremendous pressure from the federal government, colleges and universities routinely use their internal disciplinary processes to adjudicate claims of sexual assault, often with shockingly little regard for the due process rights of students who stand accused of one of society’s most heinous offenses. The result is students whose lives are dramatically altered by patently unfair proceedings.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Police said Rakesh Pilania, who was a manager at the MG Road branch of RBS Bank, took the extreme step on Monday night, following a tiff with his wife Shobhika.

Following a complaint by Rakesh's father, Anand Prakash Pilania, on Tuesday, police have booked his wife, brother-in-law Shubham and parents-in-law on the charge of abetment to suicide.
...
On Monday evening, an argument broke out between the bank manager and his wife over her intention to continue with her job, despite his objection, police said. Shobhika called her brother Shubham, who allegedly came and beat up Rakesh. Shubham then took his sister away to their parents' place. When Rakesh and his mother went to his parents-in-laws' place to negotiate with them, Shobika refused to return to her husband's place.

Press release here. Excerpt:

'The Department of Education has long claimed that universities must comply with its campus sexual assault policies or risk loss of federal funding. But in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, two Department of Education officials recently admitted that its 2011 Dear Colleague Letter is non-binding guidance that does not hold force of law: https://www.thefire.org/second-department-of-education-official-in-eight-days-tells-congress-guidance-is-not-binding/
...
In direct violation of legal requirements, the Dear Colleague Letter was published without prior public review and comment. Given the long-standing pattern of improper and unlawful Department of Education actions in this area, SAVE is calling on Congress to assert its full oversight and legislative authorities.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Carl is one of thousands of men who resent being circumcised, which they liken to genital mutilation. They call themselves restorers and, to cope, endeavor to stretch their skin to take the place of what was snipped away at birth.

But regenerating an inch of skin is a superhuman feat. A foreskin can't simply grow back like a lizard's tail; it takes one to five years of grueling stretching and a slew of strange devices. It's physically torturous and also isolating, since most men take on restoring without talking to loved ones or doctors. Many turn to online forums for guidance and support. And most quit before reaching their goal.

"Some people think this is a body modification," Carl says. "But, if you think about it, it's really a reversal of a body modification."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The University of Manchester Student Union has banned Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos and Guardian journalist Julie Bindel from participating in a debate on whether or not modern feminists stifle free speech.

Bindel was the first to be banned from the British university. “The Students’ Union has decided to deny this request based on Bindel’s views and comments towards trans people, which we believe could incite hatred towards and exclusion of our trans students,”they wrote. Bindel, who identifies as a radical feminist and a lesbian, is also a critic of transexuality and gender reassignment surgery.

At first, Yiannopoulos joked about being allowed to attend, saying he’d have to “up his game.” But sure enough, he was banned soon thereafter. In their statement explaining their decision, the Student Union called him a “professional misogynist” and “rape apologist.”'

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Augustana University student accused of rape has filed a lawsuit against the school claiming it is violating his rights by moving to expel him before he has a chance to defend himself in court.

The federal lawsuit filed last week by Koh Evan Tsuruta calls for the university to suspend its disciplinary hearing until his criminal case is resolved.

An Augustana official said the university’s action follows federal guidelines, and that Tsuruta has no legal grounds to force it to delay its hearing while his criminal case is pending.'