Article here. Excerpt:

'Much of what we hear about the plight of American women is false. Some faux facts have been repeated so often they are almost beyond the reach of critical analysis. Though they are baseless, these canards have become the foundation of Congressional debates, the inspiration for new legislation and the focus of college programs. Here are five of the most popular myths that should be rejected by all who are genuinely committed to improving the circumstances of women:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two mentally disabled half-brothers were freed on Tuesday after serving three decades in a United States prison for the rape and murder of a child that they did not commit.

A judge in Robeson County said that Henry Lee McCollum, 50, North Carolina state's longest-serving death-row inmate, and Leon Brown, 46, were innocent of the 1983 rape and killing of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie after new DNA evidence came to light.
...
Following false confessions, McCollum was given a death sentence and Brown was serving life for the rape.

"This case highlights in a most dramatic manner the importance of finding the truth," said Ann Kirby, attorney for Brown.

"Today, truth has prevailed, but it comes 30 years too late for Sabrina Buie and her family, and for Leon, Henry, and their families.

"Their sadness, grief, and loss will remain with them forever."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Do American women still need feminism? A controversial social media movement called Women Against Feminism features women explaining — mostly in “selfies” with handwritten signs — why they do not. Feminist responses have ranged from bafflement to vitriol or mockery to arguments that these women don’t know what feminism is. But while this new movement has its silly aspects, it raises some much-needed questions about feminism’s present and future state — and, in the weeks since it first attracted notice, many prominent feminists have helped validate some of the criticisms.

Article here. Excerpt:

'This summer, a few hundred men and a handful of women gathered in a VFW hall near Detroit to attend what organizers billed as the first International Conference on Men's Issues.

The crowd wasn't huge, but it was enthusiastic. The event was a real-world gathering organized by the website A Voice for Men, part of an informal collection of websites, chat rooms and blogs focused on what's known as the men's rights movement. Speaker after speaker insisted that history would remember this moment.

"It's happening here. It's happening now. It's happening with us," Warren Farrell, one of the keynote speakers, told the crowd. Farrell, who published The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex in 1993, is often described as the intellectual father of the men's rights movement.

Leaders in the movement say they want to bring more attention to the problems of men and boys. Critics worry, however, that these sites are a breeding ground for misogyny.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Caleb Warner drives a delivery truck and may never finish college. Joshua Strange moved home and enrolled at a branch campus of the University of South Carolina after he was kicked out of Auburn University, his dream college. Zachary Hunt lost a $30,000 scholarship and his place on Denison University’s football team.

Article here. Excerpt:

'After years of criticism for being too lax on campus sexual assault, some colleges and universities are coming under fire from students who say the current crackdown on perpetrators has gone too far.

Dozens of students who've been punished for sexual assault are suing their schools, saying that they didn't get a fair hearing and that their rights to due process were violated. The accused students say schools simply are overcorrecting.
...
"Right from the start, they treated me like I was the scum of the earth," says one young man, who was a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst this past fall when he was told he was being investigated for sexual misconduct — and had just hours to move out of his dorm.
...
Attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who represents about a dozen men suing their schools, says UMass Amherst officials knew that the school was being investigated by the federal government, and they were desperate to prove it was not soft on sexual assault.

Story here. Excerpt:

'On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz used some fairly graphic language to describe Republican Gov. Scott Walker during a visit to Wisconsin.

"Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand," Wasserman Schultz said at a roundtable discussion in Milwaukee on women's issue, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. "I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality." She added: "What Republican Tea Party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back. It is not going to happen on our watch."

In response, Republican Lt. Gov Rebecca Kleefisch said she was "shocked" that Wasserman Schultz used language that would normally describe domestic violence, in reference to Walker: "I think the remarks were absolutely hideous and the motive behind them was despicable."

Steven Svoboda, NCFM Board member, attorney, and regular reviewer of works of interest to men's rights activists (and others) and advocate for genital integrity and children's rights, has sent along four new reviews of books and/or films.  Always informative and entertaining, I look forward to reading them each time they arrive in my e-mailbox.  Each review is in its own .pdf:

• A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, President Jimmy Carter, 2014.
• Divorce Corp., Joseph Sorge with James Scurlock, 2013.
• Doyle’s War: Save the Males, R. F. Doyle, 2013.
• Bedrooms, Backseats & Courtrooms: The Truth about Sex in America Today, Fathers by Choice, 2008.

NPR's program "All Things Considered" today aired a segment on the Men's Rights Movement, which you can find here.

Called to my attention by our friends at SAVE, a frighteningly close representation of what may in fact one day be an official state document in California and who knows where else. The author is unknown, but clearly has a knack for ironic comedy. (Well, if you don't laugh, you'll cry, right?)

SAVE is keeping a list of groups that have issued statements in opposition to the Campus Accountability and Safety Act now waiting for California's governor's signature. We'll see what he does.

Article here. Excerpt:

'My mother’s brand of feminism went from wanting equal rights to wanting to smash the patriarchy, which she defined for my brother and me as “men’s historical oppression of women, which they continue to do today.” No man could escape complicity, not even little boys, she said. Suddenly, men were the root of all of women’s problems and since they had all the power, we had to fight them.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Male circumcision vs. FGM

A common question I am often asked is "Leyla, isn't male circumcision (MGM) just as bad as FGM? Is it not sexist to leave male circumcision out of the debate and only focus on female circumcision?"

Okay. Deep breath. Let me start by saying I do not think any child should be cut whether it's a boy or a girl. I do not agree with the practice of circumcising a male baby for non-medical reasons, as babies and children cannot give consent. Having said that, I cannot accept a comparison of male circumcision to FGM. The practices themselves, as well as the intent behind them, are fundamentally different. Allow me to explain.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A campaign to promote medical male circumcision has been stepped up in the Western Cape with the launch of two mobile surgical theatres.

Circumcision, which can be done in 30 minutes, protects men against HIV, as well as sexually transmitted infections.
...
“We’re finding very few men are asking for MMC at clinics. We need to think out of the box – so we’ll be launching radio adverts and putting branding on taxis and spaza shops to encourage men to get medically circumcised through our 'Get Wise, Circumcise’ campaign,” said Nikki Soboil, CEO of SWHP.

A cartoon character, "Clever Dick" is the campaign’s ambassador.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a South African community where large numbers of men had been circumcised, women who had sex only with circumcised partners had a 15 per cent lower risk of being infected by HIV compared with women who also had uncircumcised partners, it found.

"The risk reduction is small, but it is a start," said investigator Kevin Jean of France's National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS).

The study was presented on the final day of the 20th International AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia.
...
There was also good news from the questions on sex behaviour: men were unlikely to engage in unprotected intercourse after being circumcised, he said.

"What we are seeing is an indirect effect," he said. "Circumcision reduces HIV among men, and if fewer men are infected, they are less likely to infect women."

He stressed, though: "The message still has to be made that they use condoms."'

Article here. No mention if men are afforded the same right. Excerpt:

'The nation’s highest immigration court has found for the first time that women who are victims of severe domestic violence in their home countries can be eligible for asylum in the United States.
...
Since 1995, when federal officials first tried to set guidelines for the immigration courts on whether domestic abuse victims could be considered for asylum, the issue has been reviewed by four attorneys general, vigorously debated by advocates and repeatedly examined by the courts. With its published decision, unusual in the immigration courts, the appeals board set a clear precedent for judges.