Article here. Excerpt:

'Cathy Young is a widely admired libertarian “equity feminist” American journalist, whose considerable critical skills often deployed in dismantling the “rape culture” narrative, continually ruffle ideologues’ feathers.

Young was scheduled to speak at the University of Toronto tonight, Thursday, September 24th, on “The Politics of Gender and Victimhood,” an event planned by the University of Toronto Men’s Issues Awareness Society (UTMIAS) and sponsored by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFÉ), on whose advisory board I sit.

But some nasty words on the Internet and a moral panic over them conspired to push the event off campus at the U of T’s insistence, and so Ms Young will be speaking instead at Intercontinental Yorkville (7 pm). She will speak in Ottawa Sept 25.

Article here. Excerpt:

'One group pushing for more college involvement in campus sexual assault accusations wants to make sure there's a black mark on the transcripts of any student punished for assault or harassment.

This suggestion by the Association of Title IX Administrators might be a good one if today's campus climates were different. As matters stand, not one in which students who probably didn't commit acts of sexual violence are routinely punished anyway.

To brand someone a rapist based on colleges' preponderance of evidence standard — that is, based on 50.01 percent certainty the assault happened — is a dangerous precedent in itself. To brand someone for life in this way, effectively making transfers impossible, is even worse. I get where ATIXA is coming from, but if we're going to try and keep a student from having a future, we probably need more certainty that he deserves it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'“When you look at the way feminists have responded to men’s issues it’s a pretty bad record,” said American journalist Cathy Young at a controversial event in Toronto Thursday night. A movement that was once about equality seems to have transformed in strange ways, its excesses amplified by the internet and campus theatrics.

It’s sad that I even need to describe Young’s talk, entitled “The Politics of Gender and Victimhood”, as “controversial”.

Young - whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Daily Beast, Reason and more - was initially a feminist when she arrived in the U.S. from the USSR in 1980. But after following the movement questions arose and she’s now a critic.

Her engaging and fact-based speech was a far cry from the angry, misogynist chest-thumping “men’s rights” shindig that opponents of similar events on campus have tried to label them.'

Earlier this week, the Association of American Universities (AAU) released a study on campus sexual assault. The study is deeply flawed, and needs to be restudied.

To determine whether or not sexual misconduct or assault occurred, the study used definitions of these crimes far beyond any state criminal law and far beyond most school policies.

In fact, a majority of the schools that participated in the study (15 out of 27) did not even have an affirmative consent definition, but the students' activity was categorized as 'misconduct' if the students didn't follow this illogical, unconstitutional standard.

The survey is already being used to drive the campus rape hysteria hype. We need AAU to retract its biased and flawed survey. Accuracy matters.

Call: AAU President, Hunter Rawlings, at (202) 408-7500 today.

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

Story here. Excerpt:

'A faculty resolution passed at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., stands out as one of the most vocal and direct condemnations of the “trigger warning” phenomenon sweeping college campuses.

The resolution, passed unanimously by AU’s faculty senate, lays out in no uncertain terms that trigger warnings are wholly incompatible with the intellectual environment a university is supposed to foster.

“For hundreds of years, the pursuit of knowledge has been at the center of university life,” the resolution declares. “Unfettered discourse, no matter how controversial, inconvenient, or uncomfortable, is a condition necessary to that pursuit.”'

Letter here. Excerpt:

'In the well-written City Weekly cover story on circumcision ["Circumcision Decision," Sept. 17], the God of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions is credited with beginning this practice: God demands that the 99-year- old Abraham cut off his foreskin in order to prove his loyalty. God further demands the same of all Abraham's male offspring.

Why was God so fascinated with an old man's penis? If God required a physical proof of a man's membership in this limited fraternity, why not something more easily visible? A tattoo on the upper arm would have sufficed. Only a complete body search would reveal this mark of the chosen ones.

Today, it would be considered pretty sick and against the law if the coach of a football team required circumcision of the players. Likewise, it would be very strange if a corporate CEO demanded that all male employees show proof of not having foreskin.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Reason No. 128 why trusting Wikipedia can be dangerous territory: Harvard students recently held a Wikipedia “edit-a-thon” in an effort to “dismantle the patriarchy,” The Harvard Crimson reports:

With the stated purpose of changing and adding Wikipedia pages related to feminist, BGLTQ, and human rights issues, the group of about eight students went on an editing spree, taking out phrasing they saw as offensive and otherwise tweaking the site.

In a mass email advertising the event, student-run feminist publication Manifesta Magazine described the event as part of a movement to “dismantle the patriarchy” on Wikipedia.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dayton senior forward Dyshawn Pierre has been suspended from school after he was accused of sexual assault by another student, reports Josh Sweigart of the Dayton Daily News.
...
In May, a female student accused Pierre of sexually assaulting her at his campus residence after they returned from a night out at a local bar. She told an investigating officer that she “pushed at the suspect and told him to stop.”

Pierre has denied wrongdoing in the incident.

“At no time did she by words or actions ever indicate that she was an an unwilling participant,” Pierre wrote in a statement. “I never held her down so it was impossible for her to get away, or held her down in any way. I never told her to or demanded that she do anything. Everything we did was totally consensual.”

In June, an investigation of the incident was turned over to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, which has declined to press charges “due to insufficient evidence,” reports the Dayton Daily News.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'In an effort to reach out to millennial women voters, Hillary Clinton will appear in an interview opposite Girls star Lena Dunham, set to post online Tuesday, POLITICO has learned. The already-taped segment also includes comedy sketches filmed at Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters, including a cameo by comedian Amy Schumer.

The pair make something of an odd couple: Dunham is the queen of oversharing, while Clinton can come across as overly scripted. But in a short clip of the interview reviewed by POLITICO, the former secretary of state appears relaxed. In the full interview, Clinton will engage with Dunham in an intimate discussion about what her own life was like in college, and the ambivalence she felt in her early 20s about her own life and career path, according to a spokesperson for Dunham's new website, LennyLetter.com, where the interview will appear.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Practically all of the changes in how colleges and universities handle sexual-assault allegations and investigations were spurred by a 2011 letter from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Known as a “Dear Colleague” letter, the OCR proceeded to threaten the higher education community with the loss of federal funding if institutions didn’t adopt slanted procedures against students accused of sexual misconduct, notably the low “preponderance of evidence” standard.

It was issued without a notice-and-comment process, making OCR’s guidance arguably unenforceable, yet the office has launched Title IX investigations against scores of schools for allegedly violating its unenforceable rules emanating from that letter.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on all Australians to make a "cultural shift" and stop disrespecting women, declaring that gender inequality lies at the heart of domestic violence.

In comments that have been labelled a "gamechanger" for the fight against domestic violence, Mr Turnbull called on parents, teachers and employers to get on board the culture change, saying he wanted Australia to become known as a country that respects women.

"I'd say that as parents, one of the most important things we must do is ensure that our sons respect their mothers and their sisters," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
...
"Violence against women is one of the great shames of Australia. It is a national disgrace," Mr Turnbull said.

He also said it should be "unAustralian" to disrespect women.'

Article here. Amazing the Post ran it, given it's so highly critical of it. The Post typically doesn't like to entertain criticism of itself. Still, anything to shore up lagging sales, even taking opposite positions on the same subject. Money talks. Excerpt:

'"Survey: 1 in 5 women in college sexually assaulted.”

This headline, on The Washington Post’s long Sept. 21 article about a large survey of students at 27 public and private universities across the country college, is false.

Although the survey, by the Association of American Universities (AAU), was itself deliberately designed to exaggerate the number of sexual assaults on campus, even the AAU said that “estimates such as ‘1 in 5′ or ‘1 in 4′ as a global rate” across all universities is [sic] oversimplistic, if not misleading.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jared Polis, the Colorado Democrat who raised eyebrows this month by suggesting students merely accused of sexual assault deserve to be expelled, has apparently found something more deserving of fairness and leniency: Colorado’s kombucha tea industry.

Kombucha tea stands out from other teas because it requires fermentation to make, meaning the drink usually has a small amount of alcohol in it. While this amount is minimal, it can sometimes drift above 0.5 percent, which triggers a host of federal regulations and potential fines. That has left kombucha producers in constant fear of a federal government crackdown that could put them out of business.

Now, Polis says he’s fed up with this unjust reality.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'It was a low blow, captured on a man's GoPro that has led Pinellas County Deputies to put his estranged wife in jail.

"This is just one of many instances where I've had to use the camera to either prove her guilt or prove my innocence and that's the only reason I am carrying it," said Michael who recorded the attack. 10 News is protecting his identity since he is a victim of domestic violence.

In the middle of a long divorce and custody battle over twin 2-year-olds, Michael has been tying the GoPro to his belt using parachute cord to make sure each exchange with his ex is documented.
...
In a custody exchange last Thursday, the camera shows Michael reaching into the back of the car to unbuckle one of his sons. As he is doing that you hear him scream and jerk back. Going frame by frame, in the bottom right hand corner of the video you see what appears to be the hand of 37-year-old Corinne Novak as she forcefully grabs his genitals.'

Press release here. Excerpt:

'A widely publicized survey on campus sexual assault by the Association of American Universities (AAU) classified male students as violators of affirmative consent policies, even when such policies were not in existence on the campus at the time the survey was conducted. SAVE is calling for AAU to retract the survey and recalculate its findings.

On September 21, the AAU released its Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, which was conducted at 27 colleges around the nation. The survey reported that 23.1% of female undergraduates experience sexual assault or sexual misconduct sometime during their college careers.

The survey defined “sexual misconduct” to include failure to obtain affirmative consent. But affirmative consent is a controversial, possibly unconstitutional policy, and most colleges had not implemented the policy when AAU fielded the survey in April 2015.'