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'While parents everywhere dread giving “the birds and the bees” talk to their kids, they might have to prepare for something even more complicated: Trying to explain to their child what the teacher's lesson on consensual sex actually means.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post Oct. 14, feminist activist Annie E. Clark whined, “Why are we waiting until college to learn about consent?” She went on to argue that it was necessary for elementary and middle school-age children to be taught about how to give and receive sexual consent.
“The first time students hear ‘consent’ should not be at their first-year [freshman] orientation,” she wrote. This is a “public health issue," and can be talked about in an “age-appropriate way,” she argued.
Really curious to see the Sesame Street episode on that.
What the Post declined to disclose outright, is that Clark also happens to be one of the prominent players in CNN’s smearing college-rape documentary,The Hunting Ground.
'Boys are falling behind. They graduate from high school and attend college at lower rates than girls and are more likely to get in trouble, which can hurt them when they enter the job market. This gender gap exists across the United States, but it is far bigger for poor people and for black people. As society becomes more unequal, it seems, it hurts boys more.
New research from social scientists offers one explanation: Boys are more sensitive than girls to disadvantage. Any disadvantage, like growing up in poverty, in a bad neighborhood or without a father, takes more of a toll on boys than on their sisters. That realization could be a starting point for educators, parents and policy makers who are trying to figure out how to help boys — particularly those from black, Latino and immigrant families.'
'If a man dares to answer a question about feminism, he better be prepared for the backlash if he doesn’t give the acceptable response. But since it seems like even feminists don’t know what they want men to say, good luck to him figuring out what that acceptable answer is.
Even in liberal Hollywood. Take for example The Avengers actor Jeremy Renner’s response to the question, “Would he be willing to negotiate alongside his female co-stars on future projects?” asked by Business Insider UK, Oct.20 during a press conference.
First, some context. Renner’s American Hustle co-star Jennifer Lawrence recently penned an open-letter, highly-lauded by the media, where she explained her shock in finding out how little she made compared to her male co-stars and how she had been afraid to negotiate for a higher salary because she didn’t want to be perceived as spoiled.
'This is why when I think about manhood in our 21st-century context, I think instantly of mayhem, confusion, violence. These things have come in the form of one mass shooter after another, murdering people at work, on military bases, on college campuses, in grade schools. These things have come in the form of misogynistic comments from men as different in pedigree as billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump and Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. These things have come in the form of my travel as a speaker and activist, reading local newspaper stories of men and boys, more aggressively and brutally than ever, raping or killing women and girls, oftentimes their girlfriends or wives.
'A student group at Williams College that hosts speakers who challenge the campus's biases has rescinded a speaking invitation to Suzanne Venker, a conservative author and vocal critic of feminism, in response to furious condemnation from other students.
The decision to disinvite Venker is steeped in irony, given that the group's lecture series is called “Uncomfortable Learning,” and the sole reason for ditching Venker seems to be that she was a good fit.'
'New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has described himself as a proud feminist and named GamerGate as an example of an issue that society needs "to stand clearly" against. He made the comments only a few days after winning the national election as leader of the Liberal Party.
Speaking in a recent TV interview (via The Star) Trudeau said: "Yes, Yes. I am a feminist. Proud to be a feminist. My mom raised me to be a feminist. My father raised me, he was a different generation, but he raised me to respect and defend everyone's rights, and I deeply grounded my own identity in that, and I am proud to say that I am a feminist. The things we see online, whether it is issues like Gamergate, or video games misogyny in popular culture, it is something that we need to stand clearly against."'
'Students who have been found responsible for campus sexual assault and are expelled sometimes sue their universities. But they have had mixed success in the federal courts.
The Washington Examiner spoke with one lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, who has filed many cases on behalf of accused students. He described what he's learned from cases that have been dismissed.
"I've learned that the federal courts are very good courts but that they're reluctant to grasp on to this issue of bias or prejudice, unless it appears to be widespread," Miltenberg said. "And one of the problems is that in any one of these cases you're only really looking at a singular event."'
'What is causing a worldwide Boy Crisis and how do we resolve it. A sobering look at the current state of Boys in our society and what we must understand before we can help them.
Dr. Warren Farrell is an American educator, activist and author of seven books on men's and women's issues., including the international bestsellers, Why Men Are the Way they Are, plus The Myth of Male Power. He is the only man in the U.S. to be elected three times to the Board of the National Organization for Women in NYC. and he is Chair of the Commission to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men. Warren has appeared on more than 1000 TV and radio shows, including numerous “ratings periods” for Oprah. GQ calls him (2015) the Martin Luther King of the men’s movement. Warren is currently co-authoring with John Gray the forthcoming The Boy Crisis.'
Most of us automatically answer it because that's the custom, that it is a mitzvah, to honor the family, or because it's healthy. Few of us give further thought to the ancient practice.
Rani Kasher, 54, a father of six children between the ages of 11 and 23, a coordinator of a cultural center in Kfar Giladi, a lecturer on nature and owner of a printing house, undertook the mission of bringing to the public's attention the true meaning of the act of cutting the foreskin.'
Story here. I have to wonder, does this really also happen to gay women there, too? The article says it happens to both, but gay men tend to receive the most frequent and harshest persecution in societies where there is institutionalized intolerance of homosexuality as compared to gay women. Excerpt:
'The documentary reveals how the activist Chen Wei is electrocuted, drugged and beaten, and even told his homosexuality was either a curse from his dead parents who were haunting him - or caused by grief over his dead pet parrot.
There are reportedly thousands of clinics containing everything from quack doctors through to exorcists in China, claiming that they can cure homosexuality and help gay men and women return to "normal lives".
As he undergoes the abuse, brave Chen from the capital Beijing secretly filmed what was going on.
He approached the clinic claiming that he was confused about his sexual orientation and did not understand why he was attracted to other men.
'For her part, Jan, 76, who now lives with Chris at his house (and receives $100,000 a year from Rooney's SAG pension and Social Security benefits), insists that she has been falsely accused and characterizes her late husband's Senate testimony as coerced and unreliable. "Mickey was a 90-year-old man who was in and out of it mentally and was easily influenced by other people," she explains.
'The International Council on Shared Parenting (ICSP) is a dynamic young European-based organization that is pulling together a wealth of leading-edge information about shared parenting that is often hard to find in the United States. It is holding its second International Conference on Shared Parenting in Bonn, Germany from December 9 to 11, 2015. The primary language of the conference will be English; a few presentations will be given in French or German, in which case there will be simultaneous translation into English.
Best airport from North America: Frankfurt, then high speed train to Bonn. Or combine a fabulous trip to Paris or Amsterdam with an easy train ride to Bonn. The dollar is strong, so your timing is perfect.'
'A recent New York Times article about affirmative consent, “Sex Ed Lesson: ‘Yes Means Yes,’ But It’s Tricky,” is triggering a strong negative public response. The article details the confused reactions of California high school students who are being instructed to ask permission for sexual activities every 10 minutes, or risk being adjudged guilty of rape.
The highest-rated reader reaction to the NYT account deplored how “The yes-means-yes standard turns almost all of us into rapists. We have let the radicals hijack this issue with disastrous results for innocent young people.”
Another reader commented ironically, “As far as I can tell, the new ‘affirmative consent’ paradigm allows for a very realistic possibility of two adults raping each other at the same time, which makes a mockery of the whole concept of rape.”
'A case of dowry has been registered against a dead man.
On October 5, 30-year-old banker Rakesh Pilania jumped from his apartment in an upscale Gurgaon locality. His family alleges that he committed suicide out of fear of being implicated under Section 498A of the IPC (cruelty against wife by husband or his relatives).
His wife, meanwhile, registered a dowry harassment case against her husband and his family a day after Rakesh died.
Though Rakesh is no more, proceedings under Section 498A would continue against his family.
Experts say Rakesh’s case brings to the fore the misuse of section 498A and its grave consequences, including suicide.
'Last week the New York Times published a balanced news story that inadvertently revealed the stupidity of “Yes Means Yes” policies. Those policies redefine a great deal of consensual sex andtouching as “sexual assault,” and effectively require college students to engage in “state-mandated dirty talk” during sexual encounters (as one supporter of “Yes Means Yes” policiesgloated). That potentially violates the Constitution, and such policies have led to costly lawsuits against colleges that have such policies.
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