Article here. Excerpt:

'When I started this gig, I was a crime reporter. For the better part of 12 years, I covered everything from organized crime to petty theft to homicide.

Generally speaking, the murders I covered fell into two broad categories.

By far the most common were criminals killing other criminals, usually over drugs or money. The others were domestic murders.

Any experienced crime reporter will tell you the same thing: In the overwhelming number of cases, victims in domestic murders are women.

They were killed by their husbands or boyfriends, sometimes in one-time act of rage but usually as the final act of violence in a long history of domestic abuse.

Article here. Excerpt:

'I've never seen the Vagina Monologues. Perhaps I'm incurious, but I just never had any interest in sitting through segments with titles like The little coochie snorcher that could.
...
Anyway, the point is that the Vagina Monologues, so shocking when Eve Ensler wrote it in 1996, has become an entertaining relic. And its cancellation at Holyoke just seems like an attempt to find something new to protest.

Sorry, I know that sounds like old-man talk, but that's what it looks like.
...
Political correctness, apparently, is making a comeback, like a sharp-tongued schoolmarm coming out of retirement. (Yes, that was a deliberate speech violation, but PC always seemed sort of schoolmarmish to me.)

New York magazine ran a long article on the subject recently, describing groupthink and ideological bullying by students (and faculty) at American universities.
...
Eventually, the PC of the early '90s faded, partly because it annoyed audiences, and partly because university students do have to, well, grow up.

Cultural concerns yielded to economic concerns, first a rather serious recession, then the great big excessive party that followed.

Now, though, PC is back, but with new terminology.

Modern students are on the lookout for heteronormativity (for the unenlightened, that means the view that there are natural male-female roles); for anyone who might deny rape culture; and for micro-aggressions, which are little slights that belie racism or sexism in someone who tries to appear liberal and tolerant.
...
My grandchildren will no doubt someday stare agape at their parents for using the term "people of colour," and inform them that any reference to colour is divisive and ugly.

Or that "transgender" implies that there was ever any validity to "gender" in the first place.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The analysis below focuses on where the gender gap in reading stands today, not its causes. Nevertheless, readers should keep in mind the three most prominent explanations for the gap. They will be used to frame the concluding discussion.

Biological/Developmental: Even before attending school, young boys evidence more problems in learning how to read than girls. This explanation believes the sexes are hard-wired differently for literacy.

School Practices: Boys are inferior to girls on several school measures—behavioral, social, and academic—and those discrepancies extend all the way through college. This explanation believes that even if schools do not create the gap, they certainly don’t do what they could to ameliorate it.

Cultural Influences: Cultural influences steer boys toward non-literary activities (sports, music) and define literacy as a feminine characteristic. This explanation believes cultural cues and strong role models could help close the gap by portraying reading as a masculine activity.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It also helps, Horowitz says, that misandry jokes don’t really cater to men, as the joke really succeeds as an inside joke between members of the same in-group (feminist women). Being in on the joke can help foster a connection and a sense of solidarity between women with common feminist goals, and for those who need it, it can serve as a coping mechanism for living in a world that wasn’t build for you.

More to the point, joking about misandry with your friends is a way to vent, while at the same time imagining a world where women are respected, and perhaps even in charge.

“I don’t want to say it’s empowering necessarily,” Horowitz says. “But it gives a lot of young women a sense of power while being in on this joke, and that power is attractive.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When you go into a hospital, do you expect the hospital and biotech industries to make a profit from your surgical specimens? Well in the case of circumcision, your child’s foreskin could be making thousands of dollars for the biotech industry.

A baby’s foreskin is full of cells, called fibroblasts, that produce structural proteins like collagen. When fibroblasts are extracted, multiple products can be developed, such as artificial skin for plastic surgery, injectable wrinkle treatments and even skin creams that sell for hundreds of dollars per jar.

The ethical question is: Should you be informed that your child’s foreskin is going to become a profitable commodity? Circumcision continues to be a controversial topic, but the majority of people don’t realize that many of the byproducts from human bodies translate to big bucks for biotech companies.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A businessman who spent three weeks in jail after falsely being accused of rape by a woman he met on the internet is suing the police for malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment.

Kayode Modupe-Ojo, a former boyfriend of David Beckham’s sister Joanne, said his reputation has been destroyed and he lost his business because police failed to investigate properly the woman’s fictitious allegations – including that he possessed firearms – or the glaring inconsistencies in her story.

The 28-year-old former spa owner was arrested at his home in Cheshire shortly after spending two days with the woman.

His accuser gave a harrowing but entirely false account of being tied up and moved around the north-east of England against her will, after a sexual encounter turned terrifyingly violent.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'We still must believe survivors: This sentiment is one survivors and activists have been championing since the story was first called into question. While some have stated that this case may be read as a "setback" for the movement and that it "wrecked an incredible year of progress," the incident has also launched an important conversation about the complex experience of survivors and why they should be believed.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Virginia told ABC News today that the fraternity feels vindicated after Charlottesville, Virginia, police said their investigation found "no evidence" of an alleged rape at the fraternity house.

Stephen Scipione, president of the Virginia Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, said in a statement, "These false accusations have been extremely damaging to our entire organization, but we can only begin to imagine the setback this must have dealt to survivors of sexual assault.”

He continued, “We hope that Rolling Stone’s actions do not discourage any survivors from coming forward to seek the justice they deserve.”
...
Phi Psi said it is "exploring its legal options to address the extensive damage caused by Rolling Stone."
...
Police also found no evidence that a party or event took place at Phi Psi on Sept. 28, 2012, noting that a time-stamped photo from that night shows the house practically empty, Longo said.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Charlottesville Police announced Monday that its investigation into an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity did not find enough evidence to support the account described in a Rolling Stone magazine article published last year.

Charlottesville Chief of Police Tim Longo said during a press conference the case would not be closed, however, because he cannot say conclusively that no assault took place. The alleged victim, a female undergraduate identified only as Jackie, did not provide a statement or any testimony to Charlottesville police during its investigation, Longo said.

"It's a disservice to Jackie and to the university to close this" case without leaving open the possibility that additional information will come to light, Longo said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Rolling Stone magazine plans to publish an external review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia “in the next couple of weeks,” its managing editor, Will Dana, said on Sunday.

The 9,000-word article, which was published in November, was based on the account of a female student who described being sexually assaulted by seven men in a dark room during a fraternity house party.

The article quickly became part of a national debate over sexual assault on college campuses, and the university suspended the fraternity’s operations. But in early December, substantial portions of the article were called into question. Rolling Stone acknowledged that it had not sought to independently corroborate the woman’s account, and that it had doubts about the veracity of the story. Shortly afterward, it announced a review of the article would be led by Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Australian Salvation Army failed to protect young boys in its care from sexual abuse, a report has found.

The report, by Australia's Royal Commission, examined four homes run by the charity in New South Wales and Queensland.

It detailed brutal sexual and psychological abuse of young boys put in the care of the state at the four homes between 1965 and 1977.

Boys who attempted to report abuse were punished or accused of lying, it said.

"The commissioners found that the Salvation Army did not protect the boys from sexual abuse in each of the four homes," the report said.'

From a reader in India. Many items on men being harassed and assaulted due to presumed guilt/false accusations, sometimes murdered or driven to suicide as a consequence.

Man trashed for bumping into a group of girls in the dark

Mob Justice: Penis chopped off

Husband burnt alive by mother-in-law
(If a wife is burnt alive, or dies of any unnatural death or road accident within 7 yrs of marriage, the Indian police immediately bound to file case under 304B. But here wife isn't touched at all.)

One honest officer in Indian civil services allegedly committed suicide. Reason initially is that the mafia had a hand in the murder. Now news is unfolding: Allegedly, his wife had affair and he was threatened with 498a. There have been good number of protest to investigate the case in Bangalore but it's taking new turn.

Another husband committed suicide due to 498a terror

A doctor commits suicide after wife threatens him with 498a

Man commits suicide after a woman blackmailed him of false rape case

Man beaten after a woman alleges that he held her hand

Article here. Excerpt:

'KATHERINE BYRON, a senior at Brown University and a member of its Sexual Assault Task Force, considers it her duty to make Brown a safe place for rape victims, free from anything that might prompt memories of trauma.
...
Ms. Byron and some fellow task force members secured a meeting with administrators. Not long after, Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, announced that the university would hold a simultaneous, competing talk to provide “research and facts” about “the role of culture in sexual assault.” Meanwhile, student volunteers put up posters advertising that a “safe space” would be available for anyone who found the debate too upsetting.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Being a single parent is a tough gig. Hustle the barely conscious kids off to preschool, fret whether your afterschool program is meeting the needs of your children, fidget in rush hour lines at the grocery store -- or feel guilty about getting them a Big Mac and fries. That’s why we have National Single Parent Appreciation Day on March 21, courtesy of President Reagan in 1984.

That’s also the reason National Parents Organization wants to make single parenting a thing of the past. To help, we have a killer app: shared parenting by divorced or never-married parents. Instead of one frenetic single parent and one non-parent called a “visitor” (and relegated to every other weekend), both parents divvy up the work. The other reason for shared parenting is the emerging consensus among child development researchers that children want shared parenting and do much, much better in life if they have it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'There is no dispute that far too many Americans carry the burden of a criminal record — at least 70 million, by recent estimates — or that the easy accessibility of these records in the information age imposes debilitating obstacles, especially when it comes to finding a job.

The harder question is what to do about it.

Employment is, after all, an important factor in keeping people out of the criminal justice system, yet, in a struggling job market, employers are often tempted to turn away anyone who appears to pose even the slightest risk. Thanks to the proliferation of companies offering instant online background checks, a vast majority of employers now run such checks on all job applicants. They can, and do, refuse to hire people on the grounds of an arrest itself — let alone a conviction.