From SAVE: The federal Violence Against Women Act is more about breaking up families than stopping partner abuse. That’s the main conclusion of 6 years of ongoing research to analyze the effects of VAWA on our communities and families.

And no surprise, the real victims of partner violence are hopping mad, saying VAWA has created a “broken system that is in dire need of repair” -- see http://www.survivorsinaction.org/

Today SAVE unveiled a series of reforms:

1. Give priority for services to persons with evidence of physical violence
2. Cut back on false allegations
3. Remove harmful policies like mandatory arrest

Additional policy changes are laid out in our proposed Partner Violence Reduction Act: http://www.saveservices.org/pvra/

Family break-up is the number one engine of an expanding welfare state. So policy changes that reduce false accusations and promote partner reconciliation will save substantial sums of money and reduce the federal deficit.

Tom Martin, the man suing the Gender Institute at The London School of Economics for teaching sex discrimination against men, appeared on A Voice for Men Radio on Wednesday to discuss some of the anti-male academic practice he alleges took place at LSE, and, Mr Martin suggests, across a broad range of other academic fields too.

The radio interview is conducted by men's rights activists (MRAs) Paul Elam, and John the Other (JTO) - Tom also fields calls from listeners.

The show is archived at:

http://www.sexismbusters.org/

(The interview with Tom Martin begins 36:30 minutes into the show)

The story has been covered by The Evening Standard, The Guardian (x4), The West End Extra, Forbes Magazine, and many websites - these links all available at http://www.sexismbusters.org/ too - including a contact email for Mr Martin.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Let’s make this perfectly clear: there is no rape culture at Yale.

If Yale had a rape culture, there would be students and faculty speaking in favor of rape. Rape would be a common practice; it would be routine to hear someone talking about raping or being raped by someone last weekend. People would discuss what styles or methods of rape they prefer. Obviously, the existence of a rape culture is a farcical idea. These things just don’t happen at Yale.

There are isolated incidents of rape, and that is surely a severe problem. Beyond the physical harm the victim suffers, rape erodes trust. Like any crime, it arouses fear.

Rape falls somewhere on a wide spectrum between murder and robbery. The number of people who commit rape is a tiny percentage of the population at large. The vast majority of people are not criminals.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Girls are overlooked when it comes to tracking the school dropout crisis in cities and towns across our country. Overlooking the problems that threaten the education of girls makes this crisis far more critical. Even though every state, even individual schools, counts dropout rates differently, estimates show the nationwide toll of dropping out:

• 50% Native American girls
• 4-in-10 black female students
• nearly 4-in-10 Latinas

Absenteeism, often triggered by feeling unsafe at school, can lead to dropping out completely.

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Ohio woman is accused of raping her 10-month-old son, videotaping it and sending it to her Michigan boyfriend.

Ashley N. Jessup, 24, was indicted in Columbus on Thursday on two counts of rape, one count of child endangerment and one count of pandering sexually-oriented material involving a minor.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien says the rape charge could land her life in prison.

O'Brien tells The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/n2XPEK ) that Jessup emailed the videos to her boyfriend in Battle Creek, Mich., where his ex-girlfriend discovered them and contacted police.

Jessup is being held in the Franklin County Correctional Center in lieu of $1 million bond. Court documents do not list an attorney for Jessup.'

(Warning: Graphic Content)

Story here. Excerpt:

'GILBERT, Ariz. - A Gilbert woman is accused of sexual conduct with a minor -- her 10-year-old adopted son.

According to police, the victim told them that his 39-year-old mother bound his hands and feet, forced dog excrement into his mouth and duct taped it shut.

The victim added that she burned his penis with a lighter, then sodomized him repeatedly with a toothbrush. Police say there was another incident where Jennifer Barnes repeatedly burned the victim's penis with a curling iron. In both cases, the victim bled.

During a physical exam, it was discovered that the child had large scars on his pelvic area and legs, consistent with healed burns. He also had three distinct scars, consistent with his disclosure of being sodomized.
...
She was arrested and faces sexual conduct with a minor and child abuse charges. She remains in custody without bond.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman accused of murdering her ex-lover after drugging him and mutilating his genitals has been formally denied bail in a Sydney court.

Jian Chen, 48, is charged with one count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder and one count of murder.

She is accused of using sleeping pills to spike the soup she gave her former partner at her North Ryde home on February 9
...
Once Mr Peng was asleep, Chen allegedly bound his hands and feet and stabbed him a number of times in the neck and groin, before cutting his penis and scrotum.

"An attempt to castrate him had taken place," said police facts.

"The victim also had lacerations to the left side of his groin and his penis had been scalped."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A former Florida middle school teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old student in a high-profile case is reportedly back in court Thursday to ask a judge to reduce her probation.

Debra Lafave, 31, a former teacher at Angelo L. Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Fla., pleaded guilty in 2005 to having sex with a 14-year-old boy in the summer of 2004, when Lafave was 23-years-old.

The case never went to trial because the victim's mother did not want her son to testify, fearing his identity would become public.

Lafave agreed in a last-minute plea deal to three years of house arrest followed by seven years of probation. But a lawyer for the woman is asking a judge Thursday to reduce her probation by four years, arguing that Lafave -- now a mother of twins -- is a responsible adult, according to the station.

Article here. Excerpt:

'CHILDRENS’ CHARITY PLAN Ireland has called for September 22 to be declared the International Day of the Girl in order to focus the world’s attention on the importance of girls’ rights.

Today’s report found that fathers, brothers and husbands play an essential role in creating true gender equality.

However, gender equality is good for boys too, highlights Plan Ireland’s 2011 ‘Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls‘ report.'

------------

Column: Men need to help with gender equality – but it’s good for them too

'On the domestic front, fathers could stand back a little bit and see what they can do to break down such gender stereotypes. Could they help more with household chores or caring for the younger children? By doing so, these small changes can give an example to their sons and lead to a new breed of male.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'How might gender politics interact with economic anxieties and class conflicts in a race between Warren and Brown? For years, conventional wisdom has held that female candidates fare relatively well when "it's the economy stupid," and not crime or national security. Traditionally women were presumed to be more honest and compassionate than men and accustomed to balancing budgets. Traditionally, female candidates have exploited feminine stereotypes in advancing themselves and items on a feminist agenda, notably suffrage. (Government is "enlarged housekeeping," Jane Addams once said.) But the extreme, atypical economic crisis currently confronting voters can't simply be said to require better housekeeping; deficit reduction is not an exercise in compassion, and neither honesty nor compassion seem highly valued today, as male and female Republicans alike run as un-compassionate conservatives and self-styled mama grizzlies revel in ruthlessness.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Soccer authorities in Turkey may have hit on the perfect solution for unruly fans: Ladies Night!

The Turkish Football Federation had planned to make Istanbul favorite Fenerbahce play two games in an empty stadium after fans invaded the pitch after a friendly against Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk during the summer, according to a Turkish Weekly report.

But new rules say those games will be open only to women and children under age 12, National Turk reports. Admission is free.*

The policy got its first test Tuesday night in Istanbul, as 45,000 women and children turned out to watch Fenerbahce and Manisaspor face off in the Turkish Super League.

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last night at NYU'sskirball Center audience members gave an overwhelming victory to the team defending the proposition "Men Are Finished." According to the final votes, Dan Abrams and Hanna Rosin convinced 46% of the audience to change their minds over the course of the evening, winning the Oxford style debate by a landslide (See full numbers below). Their argument: as a result of a changing economy and shifting cultural values, men, who were once seen as the dominant sex, are now in a deep slide to number two status.

The resolution was opposed by Christina Hoff Sommers and David Zinczenko, who argued that men still hold more political and economic power, and that, although women have caught up or surpassed men in some regards, this does not mean that men as a whole, are finished.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A B.C. man who was abandoned as a teenager is being sued by his elderly mother for parental support.

Ken Anderson, 47, has been fighting a lawsuit by his mother, Shirley Anderson, 73, since 2000.

Shirley, who has not had a relationship with Ken or his two siblings for decades, is asking for $750 per month in support from each of them.

A rarely used section of B.C.'s Family Relations Act says adult children are responsible for legally supporting parents who are "dependent on a child because of age, illness, infirmity or economic circumstances."

The B.C. Law Institute recommended repealing the section in a 2007 report.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sabina Amiga, Trudi Seely and Anna Tierney open the doors (and plump the sofa cushions) of their women-only therapy clinic, Woman to Woman, next Monday. According to Seely "there is a trend for this kind of clinic in America", but surprisingly, Woman to Woman will be the first private practice of its kind in central London that is not semi-charity-funded.

A former lawyer, a novelist and a businesswoman, who all retrained as psychotherapists, the trio hope to make therapy more accessible and acceptable for women like them.

"There is quite a shortage of therapy in general for people who can't afford to pay, so the NHS is very limited on who gets seen and there are long waiting lists," says Tierney.

"So career women and high fliers wouldn't be taken on by charitable organisations because they're earning too much," explains Amiga.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'JENNINGS, La. — A Lake Arthur teenager has been ordered to serve two years of probation after she pleaded guilty Sept. 7 in state court to falsely accusing a police officer of raping her.

The American Press reports (http://bit.ly/qjfACs ) 18-year-old Meghan Franks must serve 90 days in the parish jail and pay fines totaling $1,140 plus court costs.

District Attorney Michael Cassidy says all fines and costs must be paid within the first 18 months of probation.'