Video here. Caption:

http://www.euronews.com/ In the gender equality stakes, Sweden is rated highly. But some Swedes feel it's being taken to extremes. It has the highest proportion of working women in the world and some two-thirds of university degrees are earned by women. New mothers and fathers both get generous parental leave.

Gender role neutrality initiatives, however, some feel are being exaggerated.

There's a politician who proposed that men should be required by law to urinate in a sitting position - partly because it leaves toilets cleaner and promotes prostate health, partly as an appeal for reason.

That politician, Viggo Hansen, told us: "When my son was in kindergarten, they tried to force him to pee standing up, when we had taught him to pee sitting down. When the school let him sit down to pee, there was no problem. I had read about a school in Norway that officially banned boys' stand-up peeing. Lots of people's reaction was that was taking away boys' right to be boys."

Link here. Excerpt:

'Action

Notice of proposed rulemaking.

Summary

On May 2, 2013, the Administrator of the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program received a petition (Petition 002) requesting the addition of prostate cancer to the List of WTC-Related Health Conditions (List) covered in the WTC Health Program. The Administrator has determined to publish a proposed rule adding malignant neoplasm of the prostate (prostate cancer) to the List in the WTC Health Program regulations.

Dates

Comments must be received by August 1, 2013.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'OPINION: One of the great problems with being a white, middle-aged male in New Zealand is that you are never cool, never in vogue and never given a fair go. There is a now cultural acceptance that your ethnicity, generation and gender is responsible for all bad things.

And that the best way to redress your appalling crimes against humanity is to ensure that every other group gets employment, educational and social advantages that will never apply to you. So it is that we are a society of quotas - official and unofficial.

And that being Maori, being young, being a woman, being gay or being disabled actually has its privileges. This is to make up for the accepted fact that white heterosexual older men run the globe.

Article here. Excerpt:

'LIBODE - The Eastern Cape is facing a crisis as the number of botched circumcision patients continues to escalate in the province.

Hospitals in the OR Tambo region report that they don’t have enough beds to deal with the increasing demand for medical treatment once a traditional circumcision is botched.

St Barnabas Hospital is one of the hospitals battling with the situation. The facility has run out of space, forcing officials to reopen an old and dilapidated psychiatric ward which had been closed for renovations.

“Twenty-five patients are being accommodated here and more are being admitted every day," said Doctor Lonwabo Sibembe of St. Barnabas Hospital to eNCA.

Nurses at the hospital say they are stretched as they try to care for the initiates and attend to other patients as well.

In the past two months, at least 30 boys have died as a result of botched circumcisions.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A WOMAN who undermined the criminal justice system by making a series of false rape allegations against former boyfriends has been jailed.

Leanne Black, 32, of Leadon Court, Thornhill, Cwmbran, repeatedly fabricated rape stories over an eight-year period, Newport Crown Court heard.

In one case, Black claimed she had been drugged and raped and in another kidnapped before being molested, the court heard yesterday.

Her partners would have been been jailed for up to five years if they had been found guilty of rape, the court was told.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'National Parents Organization of Connecticut is proud to announce that on June 25th Connecticut Governor Dannel Patrick Malloy signed into law HB6688 revising statutes relating to the award of alimony. It is effective October 1, 2013.

Working with Connecticut Alimony Reform, our new affiliate has begun to improve alimony statutes in Connecticut. HB6688 highlights the fact that alimony statutes are gender neutral in their application; makes the switch to gender inclusive language; and adds education and earning capacity to the list of factors for consideration. The law changes husband and wife to spouse. A sensible change in a same gender marriage state. It also provides for a study of the fairness and adequacy of state statutes relating to the award of alimony to be conducted by the Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Allegations of child sexual abuse are being increasingly invented by mothers to stop fathers from seeing their children, says a retiring Family Court judge.

Justice David Collier, retiring from Parramatta Family Court at the end of the month after 14 years on the bench, sees unprecedented hostility infiltrating the Family Court, and a willingness by parents to use their children to damage one another.

”If a husband and wife really get down to it in this day and age, dirt flies,” Justice Collier said.

The worst are those mothers who direct false allegations of abuse against former partners.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The 19 firefighters killed in an Arizona wildfire over the weekend were all part of an elite unit of 20 frontline firefighters. All but one of the firefighters from the Granite Mountain Hotshots unit were killed in a blaze that spread quickly through the town of Yarnell.
...
These men truly are an elite group of firefighters as they trek through the woods to reach the fires unobtainable by road. They carrying 40 to 50 lbs of firefighting gear with them. The firefighters in this group sleep out on the front lines as they develop the lines and try to protect homes from the fire.

The 19 firefighters killed from in the Granite Mountain Hotshots were all young, brave and very dedicated men and women.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ)— Hundreds of firefighters are battling a deadly wildfire that is still burning out of control in Arizona. It killed 19 members of an elite fire crew as they battled the blaze Sunday.

Twenty-two others were injured.

In Maryland, Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman directed all flags lowered to half mast to honor them.

“I want to honor the brave men and women who lost their lives or were injured battling the wildfire in Arizona,” said County Executive Neuman. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fallen heroes and the Arizona community as they deal with this tragic loss.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'For the first time since 1912, the USA will not have a male representative in the third round of the men’s singles at Wimbledon.

World No 1, Serbian Novak Djokovic made short work of dispatching the last American standing, Bobby Reynolds, under the Centre Court roof last night.

Any hopes of an American win now lie firmly in the women’s draw, but with Serena Williams' performance this week, things are looking like she could compensate all on her own at the moment.'

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Relatedly: Group blames Title IX for decline of college tennis

Article here. Excerpt:

'OTTAWA - The last three decades have been generally good for younger Canadian women in the work force — or at least much better than their male counterparts — a new analysis suggests.

A Statistics Canada comparison of employment trends from 1981 to 2012 shows working women in the 25-34 age group have seen an across the board improvement in employment prospects over the three decades.

Young Canadian women have lower unemployment rates today than they did, more of them are employed full-time, and they are paid better in real inflation-adjusted dollars.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men’s Wearhouse announced today the launch of its sixth annual National Suit Drive with a goal to collect 150,000 gently used professional clothing items through July 31, to give unemployed men a chance to look their best as they re-enter the workforce. Each year, National Suit Drive, the nation’s largest collection of business attire for men, encourages Americans to donate their gently used business wear to help give a fresh start to millions of disadvantaged workers still facing unemployment.

In its first five years, the Men’s Wearhouse National Suit Drive collected more than half a million pieces of business attire, including 120,000 suits, which helped thousands of men confidently re-enter the workforce.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A national poll released June 19 by Florida-based CapitalSoup.com to mark the anniversary found that 59 percent of Americans are in favor of including women in a future draft. The poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, found that support is strongest among Democrats, women and people ages 18 to 34.

It’s not the first time Americans have voiced support for the change.

Article here. Tangentially related to men's rights, admittedly, in that men are far more likely to be arrested and prosecuted on flimsy pretexts than women, much less on valid ones. Further to it, all I can say is fathers have been getting treated as criminals upon mere accusation and presumed guilty in courts as well as in public opinion now for decades. Seems the context of being presumed guilty and breadth of frivolous prosecution is now expanding. Once we start down the "slippery slope", it's hard to stop. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'As our nation rounds the corner on another birthday and continues its long history of trying to figure out exactly what it means to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, it's a good time to look at an increasingly "lost" group in our culture: our sons.

First, some fast facts about our boys. According to New York Times bestselling author Michael Gurian: