Article here. Excerpt:

'The UNC-Chapel Hill wrestling coach who has been a critic of how universities handle sexual assault allegations that do not go through the courts is out of a job.

After 12 seasons as head coach of the UNC wrestling program, C.D. Mock was “relieved of his duties” by UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
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Toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Mock became the subject of much criticism for personal social media posts on a blog he set up after his son, a nationally ranked wrestler at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, was accused of rape last March by a student.

Criminal charges were not filed, but the case went through the Tennessee university’s judicial process.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The act of sex is not illegal. But if two members of the American Law Institute have their way, it will be — unless you follow their rules.

Law professors Stephen J. Schulhofer and Erin Murphy are trying to update the criminal code when it comes to sex offenses, believing current definitions of rape and sexual assault are antiquated. The focus of their draft is on what constitutes consent. It adopts the "yes means yes," or "affirmative consent" model that was passed in California last year.

The California law applies only to college campuses, however. Schulhofer and Murphy aim to take that definition of consent — which says that before every escalation of a sexual encounter, clear and convincing consent must be given — to the state or federal level. No one actually has sex this way, requesting permission and having it granted perhaps a dozen times in a single encounter.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The ordeal of Northwestern University film professor Laura Kipnis, hauled before a campus gender equity tribunal for publishing a critique of academia’s current obsession with sexual misconduct, has brought the backlash against “political correctness” to reliably left-of-center venues such as Vox. But this is only the latest incident in the culture wars over “social justice” that have been wreaking havoc in a wide range of communities—including, but not limited to, universities, the literary world, science fiction fandom and the atheist/skeptic movement.

The progressive crusaders driving these wars have been dubbed “social justice warriors,” or “SJWs,” by their Internet foes. Some activists on the left proudly embrace the label, crowing that it says a lot about the other side that it uses “social justice” as a derisive epithet. But in fact, this version of “social justice” is not about social justice at all. It is a cultish, essentially totalitarian ideology deeply inimical—as liberals such as Jonathan Chait warn in New York Magazine—to the traditional values of the liberal left, and not just because of the movement’s hostility to freedom of “harmful” speech.

Article here. Excerpt:

'For all the intensity, emotion and pervasiveness of the debate about sexual assault in college, there’s an element that’s often lost and unheard: men’s stories.

Though sexual assaults on men are rarely reported to authorities, a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll of current and recent college students found that 1 in 20 men said they were sexually assaulted while in school.

Some of the incidents were terrifying. Others, like one Episcope described, left the men involved confused, sometimes wondering how they could have lost control.
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By his account, “Suddenly they were like, ‘Drink, drink, drink!’ ” he said. He didn’t have much experience drinking, and he soon found himself hammered. He was drifting in and out of a blackout, he said, when he realized one of the women was having sex with him.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last November, Joe Sorge’s organization, Divorce Corp., sponsored an important conference in Washington, D.C. on the need for reform of family courts and family laws. The National Parents Organization was pleased and privileged to be a major player there. One of the many constructive plans to come out of the conference was the creation of a structure to allow everyday people to tell their stories about their treatment by family courts. Now that effort is underway. If you have a story about your experience with family courts, the following message from Divorce Corp. lets you know how to make it public. Most of these will be “horror stories,” but not all. It’s equally useful to let people, courts and lawmakers know what works as well as what doesn’t. Here’s Divorce Corp.’s message:

Divorce Corp. Followers:
We are writing to you with an update from Susan Settenbrino regarding her inquiry to all of you about the success and outcomes of any judicial misconduct complaints you may have filed.

Review here. Excerpt:

'Rebecca Wald and Lisa Braver Moss have followed a time-honored tradition in Judaism, one followed by Rabbis, scholars, and the Jewish people for centuries. They've looked at our world, the way we practice Torah, live our lives, and proposed adjustments to accommodate a more ethical approach. The guide, titled Celebrating Brit Shalom is the first published prayer book for leaders of this new Jewish ritual. So far, the book has won good reviews from Jewish celebrants in the UK, progressive Jews in California,Orthodox-raised Jewish Intactivist Jonathan Friedman and others.

Story and video here. Excerpt:

'Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati to "actually conduct a thorough investigation" into women's national team goalie Hope Solo and domestic violence accusations against her.

Blumenthal also suggested that U.S. Soccer "reconsider Hope Solo's position as an active member of Team USA," in a letter dated Thursday.

"Domestic violence is unacceptable," the letter said, "particularly for an athlete representing the United States of America on the global stage."

Outside The Lines, with new court documents and an interview with Solo's half-sister Teresa Obert, took an in-depth look into Solo's actions that led to her arrest in June 2014 after an altercation with Obert and Solo's teenage nephew.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Carly Fiorina is rivaling Sen. Rand Paul in trying to be the most heterodox candidate in the Republican presidential field. And now, she may well be the first Republican feminist to run for president.

Fiorina, who is set to deliver a speech to the Competitive Enterprise Institute Thursday night, has staked out her place in the Republican primaries as someone who is not afraid to hit Hillary Clinton, the only other woman in the race, and hit her hard.
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"Today, only 23 percent of women identify with the term feminist. Liberal ideas aren't the answer. Their version of feminism isn't working. It is time for a new definition," Fiorina's prepared remarks for Thursday night read. "A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses. We will have arrived when every woman can decide for herself how to best find and use her God-given gifts. A woman may choose to have five children and homeschool them. She may choose to become a CEO, or run for president."
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"Feminism began as a rallying cry to empower women—to vote, to get an education, to enter the workplace. But over the years, feminism has devolved into a left-leaning political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections.

Being empowered means having a voice. But ideological feminism shuts down conversation—on college campuses and in the media. If you are a man—or a woman—who doesn't believe the litanies of the left, then you are "waging a war on women" or you are a "threat to women's health" or you are variously described as "window dressing" —Joni Ernst—or offensive as a candidate—Carly Fiorina.

Article here. Excerpt:

'June 21 is Father’s Day, and a local group says celebrating Dad should also mean taking a stand to end domestic violence.

The Father’s Day Pledge to End Gender Violence encourages people, particularly men, to sign a pledge that indicates their commitment to the prevention of domestic and sexual violence and abuse.

The pledge, which was launched just last year by the Southwest PA Says No More initiative, calls for men to not use violence in their own relationships and also to intervene when they see another man harming women or girls. Many notable locals, including Mayor Bill Peduto, University of Pittsburgh Head Basketball Coach Jamie Dixon and CEO of Peoples Natural Gas Morgan O’Brien have already signed this year’s pledge.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Wood River woman has been charged with making a false police report alleging she had been raped.

Kiersten Cherry, 19, came to the South Roxana Police Department with her boyfriend on May 20 and reported that she had been raped by a resident of South Roxana, according to police. An investigation led to Cherry’s admission that the sex was consensual, according to police.
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Coles said he was “disturbed” by false reports, which he said in this instance was motivated by a guilty conscience from multiple consensual contacts.

“The stigma from being accused of a sexual offense is not something that goes away when guilt or innocence is proven,” he said. “It can haunt the person for the rest of their life.”

Cherry has been charged with disorderly conduct, a Class 4 felony punishable by one to four years in prison or up to two and a half years’ probation.

A warrant has been issued for her arrest, but she was not in custody as of late Tuesday. Coles said he expected her to be apprehended shortly.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called U.S. Soccer's explanation of its handling of Hope Solo's domestic violence arrest "tone deaf" and "nonsensical" in an exclusive telephone interview Saturday afternoon with USA TODAY Sports.

"I saw the response, which unfortunately and regrettably is really tone deaf," Blumenthal said. "Most striking in this response is the use of the term 'he said, she said.' Most commonly, that's the reason given by prosecutors for failing to take effective action in domestic violence cases. That comment reveals a mindset that is part of a culture that fails to successfully prosecute domestic violence in this country."

On Thursday, Blumenthal, who was outspoken in his criticism of the NFL's handling of the Ray Rice incident last year, released a letter he sent to U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, calling for the federation to "conduct a thorough investigation into (the Solo) incident."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Late this morning, the Washington Post sent a “News Alert” e-mail announcing the results of an “exclusive” poll it conducted together with the Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll purports to find that “20 percent of young women who attended college during the past four years say they were sexually assaulted.” This is an explosive number — and not just because the very thought of one in five women being sexually assaulted on campus is horrifying.

The number, it turns out, exactly mirrors the percentage announced in a 2007 federally funded study of two universities, which has been cited by President Obama, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and the Department of Education as proof of a campus sexual-assault crisis. This has, in turn, provided the justification for the ongoing, draconian crackdown on free speech and due process at colleges across the nation, one that has done real harm to innocent young men.

The original 20 percent number was suspect from the start. The 2007 survey used an exceedingly generous definition of sexual assault and its response rate was relatively low. A more comprehensive and rigorous Bureau of Justice Statistics survey subsequently put the rate at 6.1 per 1,000, and found that sexual assault was 1.2 times more frequent for nonstudents than students and had — in fact — been declining since the 1990s. When confronted with the BJS survey, even Senator Gillibrand removed the one in five number from her website. So the Post number, if valid, would give a second wind to an Obama administration crackdown that was running on factual fumes. Unfortunately for the Post and the administration, the study’s number is not even close to valid. Even worse, in its main story about the poll, the Post misleads about the key question — the source of its one in five headline.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If we are honest with ourselves, we have long known that masculinity kills men, in ways both myriad and measurable. While social constructions of femininity demand that women be thin, beautiful, accommodating, and some unattainable balance of virginal and fuckable, social constructions of masculinity demand that men constantly prove and re-prove the very fact that they are, well, men.

Both ideas are poisonous and potentially destructive, but statistically speaking, the number of addicted and afflicted men and their comparatively shorter lifespans proves masculinity is actually the more effective killer, getting the job done faster and in greater numbers. Masculinity’s death tolls are attributed to its more specific manifestations: alcoholism, workaholism and violence. Even when it does not literally kill, it causes a sort of spiritual death, leaving many men traumatized, dissociated and often unknowingly depressed. (These issues are heightened by race, class, sexuality and other marginalizing factors, but here let’s focus on early childhood and adolescent socialization overall.) To quote poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “tis not in death that men die most.” And for many men, the process begins long before manhood.

Article here. Excerpt:

'If you want to get a distilled version of the present moment in American politics, it’s not a bad idea to listen to what poets are saying, believe it or not. Right now, of course, a lot of the arguments are about identity. Elisa Gabbert is a poet and essayist who lives in Colorado and is the author of The French Exit and The Self Unstable. Last week, in an advice column for Electric Literature, she answered a note from a white male poet worried that “the need for poems from a white, male perspective just isn’t there anymore.” The column ran under the provocative headline “Should White Men Stop Writing?” and caused a storm on social media. The letter summed up a conversation about writing and gender and race and identity that's been going on for a long time but building momentum again since the poets Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young's paper about gender balance in experimental poetry journals and anthologies, "Numbers Trouble," was published in 2007. And then with the annual VIDA counts that break down contributions to literary magazines by gender, and more recently ethnicity. I was on a airplane when the storm over Gabbert’s column hit, but we’d corresponded in the past, so I asked her about it.
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Article here. Excerpt:

'If you've ever been forced to stand for a long journey on a bus as some average-sized bloke spread his thighs across three seats, or spent an entire flight with your knees in your nostrils because the guy next to you was carelessly spreading his legs, you will be familiar with "manspreading".

It's a newish buzzword for an old bugbear. For some men, it almost seems the different poles of the earth pull their knees in opposing directions as they sit, hoarding space between their legs.
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Like people who think their bags are too precious to sit on the floor or in their laps, and instead give their inanimate belongings a seat of their own, manspreading reeks of entitlement.

There was plenty of publicity and appreciation then, when New York City, where I now live, appeared to declare war on manspreading six months ago. It started with a public awareness campaign, and escalated recently with reports that two men had actually been arrested.'