Article here. Excerpt:

'Antonio Bandera took a last nervous drag on his smoke Friday as he readied himself for the grueling eight-hour entrance exam for elite Vienna Medical University. Making the cut's hard enough, he said, and this year his chances may be even smaller: The university is grading men and women differently based on gender.

"It's not right to give one sex or the other the advantage," he said. "How you score should determine how your chances are."

The university's policy is apparently unique in Europe. Those responsible for giving women a grading edge are aware that it could expose the institution to EU legal action, on charges of discrimination, but they argue that it's needed to even the playing field. Since the Vienna medical school introduced its current entrance exam six years ago, they say, women on average have scored significantly lower each time than men.'

Hello MRAs,

Here is another try at setting up a Men's Rights Group in London. 2010 was my last bash at it, with no real interest.

Paul Elam's "A Voice For Men" has flourished since then and I am eternally grateful beyond all words for what he and the AVFM team is doing, for MRAs worldwide, alongside all our other active, online and offline activists.

Why am I writing in again? Well John-The-Other is now involved in Vancouver with other MRAs, I am no JTO by any stretch, I am no great organizer and have no personal ambitions of leadership, but if they can do it in Vancouver and Australia, why not London too?

My original request was for a men only group, I felt men needed to find our feet independently. I was wrong, some of the most well spoken articulate MRAs speakers are woman. I don't think we can advance far without women, and there is always a danger we could become a reflection of Feminism ourselves, by not being challenged, in an unhealthy closed atmosphere like many hateful Woman's Groups.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Eastern Cape* - The high number of deaths at circumcision schools in the Eastern Cape required action, the SA Communist Party in the province said on Wednesday.

“This challenge warrants all people of our province to unite and fight against malpractice of this old custom,” SACP spokesman Siyabonga Mdodi said in a statement.

The SACP called on community forums, traditional leaders, law enforcement agencies and the health department to intervene.

The SACP said at least 20 initiates had died this year alone and scores more had been injured.

“Four had penile amputations and 131 (were) admitted to hospitals.”'

---
* Ed. added link

Article here. Excerpt:

'Pro-choice women have long asked men to remain silent when it comes to the issue of abortion. The theory was that it’s a woman’s choice, and therefore no man should have a say in the matter.

And while Sara Robinson of AlterNet makes it clear that she doesn’t believe that men have the right to stop the killing of their own children, she does believe that men need to start speaking out in favor of abortion. In her post, “Abortions Have Made Life Better for Millions of Men: It’s About Time to Speak Up in Support,” Robinson reminds us all that “for every single woman who’s ever had an abortion, there’s a man somewhere in the story.” But it’s only those who supported the abortion who matter to Robinson. She writes:

But even as we’re getting an aggrieved earful from the full chorus of patriarchal bullies, our own pro-choice men have receded into the background of the conversation, to the point where they have no voice at all. Worse: these sweet guys think that by holding their tongues, they’re doing us a favor.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday accuses Corpus Christi, Texas of discriminating against female applicants to the city's police department by requiring them to pass a physical test that favored men.

The Justice Department said the female pass rate for the test, which was used between 2005 and 2011, was 80 percent lower than the male pass rate and that it excluded otherwise qualified applicants from consideration for hire as entry-level police officers based solely on their gender.

The test, which included push-ups, sit-ups, and a 300-meter and 1.5-mile run, had identical cut-off scores for men and women. But between 2005 and 2009, only 19 percent of the female applicants who took the test passed it, compared with 63 percent of the male applicants, according to the Justice Department.

It said the disparate results "constitute a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment by women of their rights to equal employment opportunities regardless of their sex."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'New figures show teenage girls are more likely to achieve good grades in practical courses designed to lead straight to a job in traditionally male-dominated industries.

They were almost twice as likely to score highly in vocational qualifications sat between the age of 14 and 16, while results were around a third higher in courses sat in the sixth-form. The disclosure – in data published by one of Britain’s biggest exam providers – comes amid continuing concerns over the gulf in standards between boys and girls.
...
According to figures, girls are already ahead in most disciplines by the age of five and the gap widens throughout compulsory education.

Last year, some 62 per cent of girls achieved five good GCSEs, compared with just 55 per cent of boys. Almost one-in-10 boys also failed to gain at least one C grade at the age of 16 – almost twice the failure rate of girls.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Large numbers of boys are failing to develop a love of reading during primary education because of a shortage of male teachers combined with an anti-book culture among many fathers, an inquiry has found.

Gavin Barwell, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy, said reading was not seen as a “masculine thing” by boys – leaving them lagging behind girls from the age of four onwards.

In many cases, schools failed to equip them with a selection of adventure and action novels by authors such as Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.R.R Tolkien that are significantly more likely to appeal to boys at a young age, he suggested.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has just released its draft recommendations to screen for intimate partner violence (IPV) in healthcare settings. The panel says all women should be assessed for IPV: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/draftrec2.htm

But if you're an abused man.... you didn't make the cut.

There's hope: the Task Force recommendations are just a draft, so if enough persons complain, maybe they'll change them to include men.

Here's how to email your polite comments: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/uspstf-responses/

Take 5 minutes today - you may save an abused man's life.

Sincerely,

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

Story here. Excerpt:

'Audrey Grabarkiewicz, a 46-year-old preschool teacher at Lake Bowen Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C., will not serve jail time despite being arrested for throwing alcohol and sex parties for teens last year, WSPA-TV reports.

According to CBS, the "sex parties" took place in the summer of of 2010, and Grabarkiewicz was charged with 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Late last week, Judge Larry B. Hyman Jr. sentenced the teacher to three years probation and 120 hours of community service, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Today, Congresswoman Laura Richardson introduced the Protecting Adoption and Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Act of 2012. The legislation will create a National Responsible Father Registry, giving unwed fathers the chance to register and be notified of court proceedings involving the child and relieving birth mothers of the burden of notifying the birth fathers.

Congresswoman Richardson’s legislation has been endorsed by the National Council for Adoption and the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

“Too often, a child misses a critical window of opportunity to be adopted simply because there is a lengthy and cumbersome process of locating the father and adjudicating his parental rights,” said Congresswoman Richardson.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Even if criminalization is impractical, this week’s German court ruling against circumcision on children, except for medical purposes, sent a much-needed message.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi publicized the latest feminist lament that “a new analysis of campaign coverage found that women aren’t even the principal news source on a topic they would presumably know best: women’s issues.”

That apparently means sexual issues: “Major news outlets, print and TV, turn mainly to male sources for their take on abortion, birth control and Planned Parenthood, according to a study by 4th Estate, a research group that monitors campaign coverage.” Farhi turned to "women's groups" for comment -- just one kind of women.
...
What’s a little ridiculous is that this whole story on alleged media one-sidedness only consults the feminist spinners – from Michael Howe to Terry O’Neill of NOW to Julie Burton of the Women’s Media Center.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'More than 300 women, a record high, have filed to run for Congress this year, which means a likely gain of female members come November. In addition to greater parity for women--who’ve been chronically underrepresented--more women in Congress could bring another benefit: Less gridlock.

Female senators have a markedly more bipartisan vote record than their male peers do. Moreover, studies in personality research find that women are more cooperative than men, more willing to compromise, more empathetic and, moreover, more polite.'

Article here.

'(NEWSER) – Want to help Houston foot the bill for its rape investigations? Visit a strip club. The city doesn't have the funds to quickly analyze evidence collected in rape kits, so the City Council passed an ordinance yesterday imposing a $5-per-visitor "pole tax" on strip joints and other clubs that host adult entertainment (think wet T-shirt contests). The money collected will go toward processing Houston's rape kits; an estimated 6,000 sit untested, the Wall Street Journal reports. With 30 clubs subject to the tax, as much as $3 million could be raised annually.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Berlin's Jewish Hospital will suspend circumcisions after a German court ruled this week that performing the procedure on religious grounds is unlawful, a hospital spokesman said Friday.

"We are suspending circumcisions until the legal position is clear," Gerhard Nerlich told AFP, citing head of internal medicine Kirstof Graf.

The hospital performs 300 circumcisions a year, a third of which are for religious reasons and the remainder due to medical concerns.

"We regularly performed circumcisions before this ruling but we don't have the legal freedom to do so any more," said Nerlich, adding that two procedures had already been cancelled.'