By email:

A petition has been launched on Change.org urging that the First International Conference on Men's Issues be canceled via appeal to the conference venue's management. We have launched a counter-petition. If you could please sign and urge others to do so it would be appreciated. While petitions like this may seem not to matter, the local media in Detroit is taking it seriously, so a counter-petition seems like it will be helpful. Excerpt:

'To the City of Detroit and the World,

The Men's Human Rights Movement is a peaceful humanist civil rights movement, dedicated to compassion for men and boys. It is growing quickly due to support from people of every race, creed, color, gender, orientation, and ethnicity.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Little was said during Child Protection Week, which came to an end at the weekend, about the increase in the sexual abuse of boys.

"There is certainly less concern being publicly expressed. There is almost an assumption that boys are less harmed by sexual abuse," Childline manager Joan van Niekerk said.

"We come across some professionals who believe that boys cannot be sexually abused. We have increasing evidence that the sexual abuse of boys is as frequent as that of girls," she said.

University of KwaZulu-Natal education professor Deevia Bhana said that the abuse of boys was not sufficiently recognised or adequately dealt with compared to the sexual abuse of girls.

Article here. Excerpt:

'These solutions will come about by changes both in campus culture and its tolerance for the various kinds of date rape, acquaintance rape and other permutations of the problem, and in the enforcement of both regulations and the law. Most clearly, the best and most lasting solution would come from a recognition by young men, whether in fraternal groups or on their own, that there is essentially no difference between intentionally getting young women extremely drunk en masse at house parties and then taking advantage of them, and rape of any other kind. Laughing such practices off as a grand tradition and noting it was always thus in the groves of academe and in the frat houses located therein is no excuse whatsoever. It’s organized criminal activity, and it can’t be tolerated any longer.
...
The bill, SB 967, at its core states a compassionate human truth: “lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence,” and says that it’s the responsibility of the person initiating sex to ensure the other person consents, at every step of the way.

Critics will attack the bill as another manifestation of the nanny state, and say that it attempts to legislate romance. But looking at the actual text of the law rather than reacting from ingrained political bias may help here. In order to receive state funding, public and private colleges in California would have to maintain such a code aimed at stopping sexual assault. Important criteria contained in civilized countries’ larger rape laws are included, such as: “The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past sexual relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent.” It’s hard to argue with that.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A pair of friends at Cal State Long Beach said the bill seemed well-intentioned, but questioned how practical it is when it comes to ensuring consent throughout sex with their partners.

“I feel like their hearts are in the right place, but the implementation is a little too excessive,” said Henry Mu, a 24-year-old biology major. “Are there guidelines? Are we supposed to check every five minutes?”

The remark drew laughter from his friend and fellow 49er, Sue Tang.

“If you were to do that, it would definitely kill the vibe,” said Tang, 27.

Lowenthal said affirmative consent means an individual “must say ‘yes,’” and “if an individual says nothing, that doesn’t imply consent.”
...
Critics of SB 967 say the “one-in-five” women statistic is dubious, and is used by legislators and universities to create a climate of fear on campus that ignores the rights of the accused.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Let’s all agree—just for the sake of argument—that men are a lesser, subspecies of human, possessing below-average abilities in nearly all areas of life unrelated to bench-pressing or competitive eating. Agreed? OK, great.

The outsized recognition given their inferior intelligence has led them to believe, foolishly, that they are in fact the superior sex: more rational, better at explaining things, cleverer, and in possession of inherently correct opinions. It’s delightful, somewhat twisted amusement to watch them confronted with a little peek or window into their true position in the world; to cut down a man’s ego is like watching a dog try to open a door, or kicking up the dirt of an anthill and watching the ants scurry about, disoriented and scared.

That vague male fear is what made the app Lulu seem fun at first. Men were not allowed to use the app; if they tried to log on (which the app does through Facebook), they’d be coldly denied. Lulu was an app for women, and it allowed them to rate their male Facebook friends based on a variety of personality traits, physical feats, and sex skills, all, ostensibly, in service of warning fellow women about prospective dates’ red flags, and cheering on the good guys. Lulu was like writing “For a good time, call …” on the ladies’ room wall. It felt like wink-y, good old-fashioned misandry; while not especially effective in righting institutional and cultural wrongs, it let us saddle dudes with weird little negs like “OnlyWearsFratTanks” and cackle about it with each other. It was funny and seemingly lighthearted.

Article here. Excerpt:

'I have — tired — of the constant attacks on men these days.

From the "rape culture," to bumbling depictions of men on television, to the constant drumbeat that manly and masculine behavior is somehow antisocial, to the overmedication of primarily young boys in school, misandry is rampant in our current culture.

And all the while the administration and the media bleat about misogyny and the "Republican War on Women™.

Is misogyny real? Certainly.

But so is misandry. So is this idea that somehow traditional ideas of manliness and "the man thing" is the source of all trouble.

So forthwith is a defense of manhood, starting with a description of what a man truly is.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Ohio kindergarten teacher is suspended after a video shows her allegedly grabbing and shaking a 6-year-old boy.

Through tears, the boy's mother called for the educator's firing.

In a surveillance video from Riverdale Schools in Mt. Blanchard, Ian Nelson, 6, can be seen walking alone to the school bathroom. When he comes out, his teacher, Barb Williams, appears to pick him up and push him against the wall before grabbing his face and his shirt. She then picks him up again, and his neck appears to snap backward.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s not looking good for the British male. The push for the parity of the sexes has left males far behind their female counterparts in pretty much everything, explains the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman.

Early in life, boys lag behind girls in every one of Britain’s official early learning goals such as listening, concentration, understanding, reading, writing, technology, mobility and dexterity.

Seven-year-old boys are 7 percent less likely to meet reading standards compared to 7-year-old girls. With age, that gap widens—8 percent by age 11, and 12 percent by age 13. While 66 percent of females pass high school with a grade of C or higher, only 56 percent of males do. This naturally leads to more women applying for college than men.

Article here. Excerpt:

'California lawmakers want to take the burden of preventing rape off victims by requiring that college students looking to hook up prove they had agreed to have sex.

The "affirmed consent" standard - already in place at many universities - could be required at all publicly funded California colleges and universities under a proposed state law being considered by the Legislature.

The move comes as women's groups - joined by President Obama - have expressed outrage at the lax way college officials across the country have responded to reports of rape on their campuses.

But some say that requiring each partner to explicitly agree to have sex goes too far into people's bedrooms and unfairly limits due process rights of the accused.

Article here. Excerpt:

'“We were friends.”

Over the course of a nearly two-hour conversation, Daniel Kopin returns to this point again and again. Ten months after an evening that irrevocably changed two young people’s lives, Kopin, a 21-year-old former Brown University student, still sounds genuinely shaken as he recounts his reaction to an August 8 email that confronted him with a stark accusation: “Dan, you raped me.”
...
“I was in shock—total disbelief,” Kopin says, growing visibly agitated as he recalls reading the email. “I couldn’t—I mean, I called my mom. Being accused—something must be wrong, something must be off. That was my initial thought. But it became clear, as I looked over my facts, the text messages I had—as I racked my memory—it became clear that this was not true. What she was saying was not true.”
...
One irony of this particular story is that Kopin and Sclove share a common background of progressive activism—an interest that helped form a bond between them after both transferred to Brown in January 2013 (Kopin from NYU, Sclove from Tufts). Kopin, the younger of two sons of physician parents, attended the Rashi School, a Boston-area Jewish school that has a strong social justice orientation; both at home and at school, he was raised in an environment where “believing the victim” in a sexual assault case is a widely shared principle. Today, he speaks earnestly of his gratitude for the support he has received from friends who are “who are a part of this feminist community that I’d like to consider myself a part of.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Duke is one of a few schools with a tough new policy: If a student is found culpable for sexual misconduct, expulsion is the presumptive punishment. Most schools haven’t gone that far. Universities want to support victims, but they don’t want to freeze out the perpetrators. They get blamed both for not taking alleged victims seriously, and for not doing enough to protect the rights of the accused. A finding of culpability with a lenient sanction is one way to split the difference. But it’s an uneasy compromise that causes its own set of problems, as a case that unfolded this spring at Stanford shows.
...
Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, who helped design the ARP as the faculty chair of Stanford’s Board of Judicial Affairs, told me that many more students are making complaints than did so under the old system. That’s true nationally as well since the DoE letter clarifying the standard. Dauber thinks preponderance of the evidence is sufficient. “Reviewers are very careful and want to do the right thing,” she said. “No one thinks, ‘this guy is 51 percent responsible, so let’s throw him out of college.’”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Peter Yu, Drew Sterrett and Lewis McLeod were headed toward bright futures at prestigious colleges and universities when each got involved in one-night sexual encounters.

All three young men claimed the encounters were consensual — but the women asserted otherwise. In each case, campus officials found the men responsible for sexual assault and expelled or suspended them.

But all three are pushing back, suing the schools on charges that their rights to a fair hearing were violated.

As universities and colleges launch intensified efforts against sexual misconduct, more cases are shifting from campuses to courtrooms.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'U.S. fertility is not recovering from the financial crisis — and demographers aren’t sure why.

The fertility rate fell to a record low 62.9 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2013, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The total number of births, at 3.96 million, inched up by a mere 4,000 from 2012, the first increase since the financial crisis. But the total fertility rate, or TFR, the average number of children a woman would have during her child-bearing years, fell to just 1.86, the lowest rate in 27 years. TFR is considered the best metric of fertility. A TFR of 2.1 represents a stable population, with children replacing parents as they die off.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Let this article be proof of the nature and character of many of the people who oppose progress for Men’s Human Rights. And let this issue be a rallying point for those who truly oppose violence and advocate social justice.

The first First International Conference on Men’s Issues is scheduled to be held on June 26-28 in Detroit, Michigan. It is scheduled to be a great event. Never before has such a diverse a group of people met to engage in an exchange of ideas from a perspective of compassion for men and boys.

This event will unite academics and advocates from diverse backgrounds and across the political spectrum. Included among them is Dr. Warren Farrell, three-time board member of the National Organization for Women-New York, Senator Anne Cools (the first black female senator to be elected to Canada’s upper house), Erin Pizzey (the founder of the first-ever battered women’s shelter), and many more.

Unfortunately, this is apparently too much for those who oppose the idea of a men’s human rights movement. Organization against the conference for a planned protest on June 7 appeared on Facebook, where threats of violence were made by anti-MHRA commenters were allowed to remain but comments by men’s advocates requesting an open dialog were repeatedly deleted. In the characteristic Orwellian nature of those who oppose men’s issues, the administration of the group rationalized this by claiming that they need to “make a safe space.”
...

Remember those ads on TV years ago: "Read TIME... and un-der-staaaand!". I have a different motto for them these days: "Read TIME and *BLOW CHOW*!!" :) Article here. Excerpt:

'A growing movement driven by misogyny and resentment is pulling in frustrated men struggling with changing definitions of masculinity. A men's fitness columnist on why they should walk away.

Imagine a kid who got a cone with three scoops of ice cream in it. Good flavors, too. Like peanut-butter chocolate, plus a scoop of cookie dough. In a waffle cone. And then this child whines about the lack of chocolate sprinkles on top.

Welcome to the men’s rights movement.