Picture and article here. The original page in Dutch is found here.

"The petition is coming down in less than a week and we will be short of 1,000 signatures," writes Paul Elam at "A Voice for Men". Elam is asking people to step up and sign if they have not, and to post links to the petition as widely as possible. "An innocent man's life and future are on the line..." writes Elam.

When did the building of affordable housing to those in need become a gender issue?

Why am I asking this question you ask? Well on FaceBook today, where I am a fan of Habitat for Humanity, I received a notification about Lowe's sponsored "Women Build week." I followed the link back hoping to find that this idea was initiated by Lowe's as a promotional stunt but instead found an entire division of Habitat devoted to the "women build" program that traced it's history back 20 years. I am surprised and very disappointed to learn that an organization that I have participated with since I was in high school is not as egalitarian as I had presumed.

The Women Build FAQ pages address this issue as such:

"Does Habitat promote feminist issues?
We believe that decent, affordable housing is not a feminist issue. It is a quality of life and basic human dignity issue facing families everywhere.

Boycotts and letters may have some marginal effect on media's misandry. However, it seems more and more likely that giving public recognition to marketing departments who don't follow the crowd in this manner might be even more effective in squashing modern culture's affinity for male bashing. Commercials like Pledge's newest spot could be a shining example of how marketing campaigns can deliver effective advertising without male bashing while even displaying *gasp!* gender equality. If the people responsible for that Pledge commercial were given some public support/recognition for gender equality, they'd eat it up. And let's face it, society takes marketing to heart most of the time and sometimes uses it as a template for behavior: "Well in this commercial/movie the girl got her way all the time by having a temper tantrum and screaming - that must be acceptable, right?".

Article here. Excerpt:

'The horrifying part of it all is that, for the most part, fraternity members are allowed to get away with their absurd behavior, with people taking a “boys will be boys” approach to the whole thing while turning a blind eye to the darker assault-driven side of their behavior. People treat the rumors of frat house rape as just that; rumors that shouldn’t really be given much credence.

Rape is very much a part of college life, though, no matter how much we want to ignore it. Studies suggest as many as one in four college-age women are the victims of rape. A full 10% of these rapes are believed to have taken place in fraternity houses. As is typical with rape, however, very little of it gets reported, possibly as low as 10%, and in even fewer cases the perpetrator is ever brought to justice.

http://www.theboysinitiative.org/

'The Boys Initiative is a groundbreaking national campaign to shed light on disturbing trends in recent years pertaining to boys’ and young mens' achievement. The spark for the initiative was the now well documented decline in their academic performance over the past two decades. This is part of a disturbing trend of their decline in other areas impacting physical and emotional health, performance, accomplishment and social adaptation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'For the last ten years, the feminists have been whining that women scientists are victims of sex discrimination. The essence of feminism is to complain that an oppressive patriarchy is preventing women from earning more money and getting the academic appointments and recognition they think they ought to have. The National Science Foundation and other experts have refuted the feminists’ crybaby act, but the feminists ignore the evidence and continue to proclaim their victimhood and demand taxpayers’ money to remedy it.

The feminists got Congress to hold hearings on the fictitious “crisis” of sexism in the sciences, hearing only from feminist witnesses. Congress then created a program (called ADVANCE) that awarded millions of dollars to feminist university professors for anti-bias centers and workshops. This is just another feminist racket to get government to pursue their anti-male agenda. The feminists control academia and are skilled in getting grants of taxpayers’ money.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'NAIROBI, 25 April 2011 (IRIN) - A global advocacy group for gender-based violence survivors has called on the International Criminal Court to reconsider its refusal to recognize forced male circumcision as a form of sexual violence in a case against alleged organizers of Kenya’s 2007-2008 post-election crisis.

Brigid Inder, executive director of The Hague-based Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, said the judges’ decision to classify forced male circumcision under "other inhumane acts" was "a misstep" that failed to take into account the element of force and purpose of the crime.

"We don’t agree with the judicial decision; we think it's a wrong classification," Inder told IRIN.

Her comments followed allegedly inflammatory statements by leading politicians that have raised concerns among civil society groups in Kenya that the crime could be repeated in the 2012 elections.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of boys in a Philippine city turned out Saturday for a daylong "circumcision party" to provide a safe, free procedure for a rite of passage that most local males undergo as preteens.

Some boys cried in their mothers' arms while others bit their shirts to stifle sobs as doctors carried out the surgery on dozens of makeshift operating tables inside a sports stadium in Marikina city east of Manila. Outside, other boys lined up to await their turn.

"I'm a big boy now," one boy who had just finished the surgery bragged.
...
As of mid-afternoon, nearly 1,500 boys aged 9 years and up had been circumcised while many were still waiting in line, city health officer Dr. Alberto Herrera said.
...
Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz says the city has applied for a Guinness World Record for most people at a circumcision event.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'There are many things a man would do for the woman he loves but not every man would consider losing part of his manhood.

But Guy Ritchie is said to have agreed to say sayonara to his foreskin to please his then-wife Madonna.
...
The mother-of-two who co-founded the modern Kabbalah Centre in L.A. is reported to have said that Madonna: ‘keeps a kosher home, she observes Shabbat, she circumcised her son and had her [ex-] husband circumcised’.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigating the death of 2-year-old Jamaal Coleson, Jr. following a circumcision Tuesday at Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center.

"They gave him anesthesia, and after the circumcision he woke up he was fine," said Jabbar Coleson, Jamaal Jr.'s uncle, who lives in Jonesboro, Ga. "He asked to eat, he asked for something to drink, and then he started complaining about pain in his stomach."

Jabbar said his nephew was in the outpatient ward when doctors noticed something was wrong. But four hours passed before the toddler was rushed to the emergency room, he said.

The case, which has been reported as an accidental death to the New York State Department of Health, highlights the extremely rare complications of the procedure performed widely throughout the United States.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A mother has been arrested after allegedly pushing her baby in a stroller down a flight of stairs at the Lake Street light rail train station Tuesday evening.

Police said the incident happened during an argument between the mother, 26-year-old Lisa Marie Martin, and her boyfriend. When officers arrived, they found the boyfriend holding the 4-month-old baby as Martin yelled at him. His face was bloodied. A crowd had gathered around them.
...
Martin was then seen pushing the stroller down the steps. The stroller tipped over before it could reach Martin’s boyfriend, and the baby fell out onto the concrete stairs.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Brown wrestling program feels its being targeted for elimination because the school wants to reduce the number of recruited athletes.
...
If Brown reduces its number of female athletes the school must stay in compliance with Title IX - a law that promotes gender equity in college sports.

The program feels its being targeted to reduce the number of male athletes because the sport doesn't have a female counterpart.

"To be honest, most of the kids were shocked because as (Goldberger) spoke we didn't fit most of the criteria that he talked about," Cowman said. "That's why we feel that we can fight this."

The team, alumni and friends of the program have been active drumming up support since the committee made its recommendation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Before Title IX it was common in sports played by both genders, such as basketball and soccer, for the men’s coach to get paid five times what the women’s coach was paid, and for the men’s teams to fly to exotic places while the women took a bus to the next state. Doing away with such blatant discrimination gave women a chance to have as rewarding a college life as the men, and increased their visibility so that others wanted to join them.

But when the government steps in with good intentions, it often goes overboard. Sports are just one of the many offerings at a school, and shouldn’t be regarded as more important than the others. No one cares if more women than men choose to take dance or more men opt for the challenging “Principles of Coaching Basketball 101.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'When the University of Delaware announced this year that it was demoting its men’s track and cross-country teams to club status, the news was sad but not surprising to many who follow college sports.

Delaware is one of dozens of universities that have eliminated low-profile men’s teams like wrestling, gymnastics and swimming in an effort, the universities say, to comply with Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in education.

But in cutting the men’s varsity track team, Delaware took the practice a step further. The university did not make the argument that it needed to cut the team to immediately comply with the law — after all, it plans to add a women’s golf team in the fall. Instead, officials say they are ending the track program, which has its 100th anniversary this year, out of concern that they could not remain compliant in the future. '