Article here. Excerpt:

'An Ohio National Parents Organization member recently wrote to me to let me know what responses he’d received from the Ohio legislators he’d written to. He was writing to advocate for a presumption of true shared parenting during temporary orders. “True shared parenting” means joint legal decision-making authority (legal custody) and substantially equal parenting time (physical custody). One of our esteemed legislators blew the issue off, informing this man that (as the man reported to me), “temporary orders are simply temporary, and that they are not the final orders that the magistrate can rule to set what is in the best interest of the child.”

Well, of course, temporary orders are temporary. Hard to argue with that. But it’s a terrible mistake to conclude that they don’t matter much. They are vitally important.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the Independent this week, Yvette Cooper suggested that British boys should grow up as ‘confident feminists’. They need to have lessons in feminism to help them learn how to treat women, she argued.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Fox News host Megyn Kelly is charging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with being “guilty” of sexism after her comments on the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling.
...
“We should be afraid of this court, that five guys are determining which contraceptions are legal or not,” Pelosi said Thursday. “It’s not her boss’ business.”

Kelly went after Pelosi’s remarks, saying “Nancy Pelosi either doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or she’s intentionally misleading you,” and called the gendered attack an “attempt to stoke resentment.”

“First of all, the gender of the justices in the Hobby Lobby majority is totally irrelevant,” Kelly said, pointing out that the justices who ruled in the majority for Roe v. Wade were also men. “Does Ms. Pelosi think those justices were ill-equipped to fairly decide that case? Or is it only when a judge disagrees with Ms. Pelosi that his gender is an issue.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'In a sharply-worded parliamentary question to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), Likud-Beytenu MK Moshe Feiglin is demanding some answers regarding a highly controversial advertisement campaign that he says appears to encourage “gender warfare.”

The campaign encourages divorced mothers to make use of a new “fast track” for child support debts in the Hotzaa Lapoal, Israel's Collection Agency, which enforces judgements regarding debts. Long lobbied for by genderist women's groups, the fast track's employees will save mothers who are owed child support much of the hassle that accompanies the collection of money that is owed them.

The campaign depicts divorced mothers dressed in military camouflage fatigues, as a way of driving home the message that they are "fighting a war" for their children by making use of the fast track.

Video here. On July 9, 2014, Created Equal's team downtown was met with verbal and physical abuse by one passerby. Please pray for this young woman.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The finding that one in five women are sexually assaulted in college is as widely known as it is startling. Countless media reports repeat and recycle the alarming statistic, and it headlined the initial report introduced by Vice President Biden from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Campus Assault.

But how trustworthy is that figure of one in five? An earlier poll found it was more like 1 in 40, but should it matter whether the real number is closer to the high or low end of the scale?
...
“If sexual intimacy under the influence is by definition assault, sexual relations down through the ages would be classified as an assault,” says Sommers, a former professor of philosophy who has made a name for herself as an outspoken critic of contemporary feminism. “What might be dismissed as a foolish drunken hookup is now a felony rape.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'That New York Times editorial justifying a lower standard of evidence for students accused of sexual assault is getting strong pushback from a group that advocates for accused students.

Judith Grossman, a lawyer and co-founder of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, wrote in a letter to the editor of the Times:

Far from a mere expulsion, those wrongfully accused yet caught in up in the campus tribunal process face life-altering devastation that places their education, careers and emotional stability in great jeopardy.

A really bizarre and disturbing story about the criminalization of male sexuality. Excerpt:

'UPDATE

Following intense national scrutiny and criticism, police in Manassas will no longer pursue efforts to take photos of Simms’ erection. The warrant calling for the explicit photos will be allowed to expire.
...
A 17-year-old from Manassas City, Va., who is facing felony charges in a sexting case might be forced to show police his erection, his lawyer told the Washington Post.

Simms is facing two felony charges for manufacturing and distributing child pornography after he and his then-girlfriend, who was 15 at the time, exchanged explicit pictures and videos.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Many colleges and universities are "failing to comply with the law and best practices in how they handle sexual violence among students," according to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who Wednesday released a survey of colleges and universities.

Article here. Excerpt:

'David Cunliffe's apology for being a man has been described as "gutsy" by the head of Women's Refuge.

Women's Refuge Chief Executive Heather Henare said Cunliffe's comments were ones she had been waiting to hear.

"That was pretty gutsy and I think that it's unfortunate that that part of his speech was picked up in such a negative way," she said.

The Labour leader addressed a family violence conference in Auckland in conjunction with an announcement that his party would put forward a $60 million plan to tackle domestic violence.

"I'm sorry for being a man right now because family and sexual violence perpetrated overwhelmingly by men," Cunliffe said.
...
Henare welcomed Cunliffe's apology and said Labour seems to understand the gendered nature of violence.

"We house at least 209 women a night in this country and so we need a government that's going to stand up and address that," she said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Labour leader David Cunliffe's [link added] apology for being a man is "insulting" because not all men are abusive, Prime Minister John Key says.

"It's a pretty silly comment from David Cunliffe," Key said.

"The problem isn't being a man, the problem is if you're an abusive man, and I think it's a bit insulting to imply that all men are abusive.

"A small group are and they need to change their behaviour and be held to account.

"Is he really sincere about that statement? Tomorrow afternoon is he going to go down to the local rugby club and say 'I'm sorry for being a man'? I don't think so."

Cunliffe made the apology at a Women's Refuge symposium today, where he also pledged to invest an extra $60 million into family violence services.

He spoke of the "bullshit, deep-seated sexism" still prevalent in New Zealand.

"It needs to stop," he said.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The nation has snapped back to its pre-recession self in terms of total employment, according to job numbers released last week.

Now there’s about 138,780,000 jobs filled in the country, the number the United States had when the recession began back in December 2007.

But a curious thing has happened: Men now fill fewer positions than they did before the recession.

To put it another way, although men still occupy more jobs than women overall, today women make up a larger portion of the workforce than they did before the economic downturn. At the start of the recession men held 3.2 million more jobs than women, but that gap has narrowed with men holding 1.6 million more jobs than women.
...
The jobs traditionally occupied by women simply weren’t hurt as much by the economy as the jobs typically occupied by men, according to Hartmann.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Police would lose the power to unilaterally “drop” rape investigations, even if they think there is insufficient evidence to proceed, under Labour plans to revolutionise the way sexual crimes are handled.

At present there is no obligation for police to refer cases to the prosecutors before a decision is made to drop a case. But under proposals to be put forward by the shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry on Monday, officers would have to get the agreement of the Crown Prosecution Service to end an investigation.

Ms Thornberry will say that she hopes the plan would end the culture of rape and sexual violence being an “optional” crime to investigate and help end a “culture of defeatism” where the authorities believe there will never be a large number of rape convictions because it is “too difficult” to prosecute.

Article here. Excerpt:

"Schoolboys need to have lessons in feminism to help teach them out to treat women, Labour claims.

Compulsory sex education classes should be held in all schools to tackle the rise of sexist abuse fuelled by internet porn, Yvette Cooper said.

The shadow home secretary warned a culture is spreading in schools where girls are subject to verbal abuse and have their shirts undone and skirts lifted by boys who do not respect them.

Schools, colleges and universities are to be consulted on changes in rules – or the law – which are needed to tackle the problem.

Labour warns too many boys believe abuse is ‘normal’ and it is fuelling a culture of violence against women and girls.
...
She recalled one teacher describing how teenage girls face vile verbal abuse on a daily basis. 

Girls are 'heckled if they dare to speak in class, their shirts forcibly undone, their skirts lifted and held by groups of boys'.

Came across this piece in my travels and thought it could use some attention. I like how the author takes the time to identify the phenomenon of "toxic femininity" in its many forms. After all, if feminists have been so good at the ways masculinity can be toxic (and in fact I agree; for some men, their idea of 'masculinity' is toxic to them and others), then why isn't anyone doing the same for women? Can there be no toxicity in women's pursuit of or general ideations around femininity? Heck, yeah! Excerpt:

'Toxic femininity is not a personal trait of individuals. It is an aspect of a gender role, and since gender roles are a matrix of customs, expectations and policing, they are social rather than individual. That is what it means to say gender is constructed, if always on a pretty fixed base of biological sex for the huge majority of us, and this is where the construction takes place. (Gender identities are different; they inhere in individuals.)

I have drawn up a preliminary list of types and aspects of toxic femininity. They come from things I have picked up in the femmisphere in posts and comments, from things I have seen in the men’s side of the gendersphere and some come from personal experience. I wanted to list and name them so that people can use this in their own discussions and would have something to refer back to. The list is preliminary and suggestions on additions are gratefully accepted.
...
Damseling is the female end of White Knighting – one cannot exist without the other. It is a celebration of helplessness and dependence on someone else’s protection. This is really nothing other than a feudal relationship. Depending on someone else for protection is a form of vassalage.

Examples include -