There was a letter (toward the bottom of the page) by Ed Bartlett in a recent issue of the Washington Times. It makes the point that men are constantly villified by women's groups in order to obtain more funding for women's causes, i.e. domestic violence legislation or funding. "Feminists have found that portraying women as the helpless victims of male battering is an extraordinarily powerful tool for provoking female anger and male guilt. The end result is to stereotype and scapegoat men...The vilification of men in the name of female liberation is frightening and needs to stop."

AngryHarry also pointed me to this story from the UK Sunday Times. It's about a father who is suing for damages after her daughter accused him of sexually abusing her after undergoing controversial "recovered memory" psychiatric treatment. "If successful, it could open the floodgates for compensation claims running into millions of pounds. The British False Memory Society has 1,400 people listed on its database who claim they have been falsely accused of sexual abuse after adult children 'recovered memories'." That is a lot of people. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

AngryHarry submitted this article from the UK Independent, which states that the inventor of genetic fingerprinting, Sir Alec Jeffreys, believes that the benefits of collecting DNA information from everyone in the UK population would outweigh the drawbacks. Sir Jeffreys and I disagree. Genetic information is being linked to many kinds of diseases, and even mental illnesses and behaviors. Wouldn't it be convenient for the government to have access to this information once these traits are determined more precisely?

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald discusses a study which showed that women tend to use flirting techniques when meeting a male stranger, and will not give any rejection signals until she has assessed him fully. I found this interesting because men are often blamed for misreading a woman's body language, and this suggests that there is good reason for it - because she will in fact use courtship signals from the start. I wouldn't read too much into the article, though - I'm not aware of too many other studies like this one.

After SIXTY-THREE days of hunger striking to protest having his sons taken away from him in his divorce, Len Miskulin has decided to pursue other options than hunger striking. While I'm glad to hear Len will remain with us (he was willing to die this way), I am disappointed at the lack of activism that surrounded his work. This was no doubt due to the media gag order injunction that a UK judge upheld to prevent the local media from reporting on his situation. I would like to think, that if this had happened in the U.S, that there would be riots in the streets. But I'm not so sure anymore. Please drop Len a note of support at: jafp@talk21.com and wish him a speedy recovery to health. Len is currently unable to walk due to his starvation, and will need a few months to restore himself. To read Len's e-mail, click here.

frank h writes "This article at FoxNews.com describes the difficulties at Oberlin College which has a largely female population. The really disappointing thing is that the college administration is fearful of backlash from women's organizations should they actively recruit boys. Sexist statements from Clifford Adelman, senior research analyst with the U.S. Education Department ("Boys like to strut and make claims and tell everyone they are going to do something and then they don't do it") don't help much, but the article does make the point that getting men into college makes both the educational and social environments richer."

CNN had a health story on a new support group for men with prostate cancer. The group is called 2Against1 and New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, who has prostate cancer, endorses the site and says, "When a man is diagnosed, he needs someone thinking clearly...I found friends who had had it only after I went public a couple of years ago" The article is unique from one's I've read so far in that it also talks about the side effects of treatments and also how family members are affected by it.

Recently, we reported that tennis pro Boris Becker was frauded into fatherhood. He has recently changed his story and is now accepting paternity for the child. However, this Sydney Morning Herald article is one of a two-part series on men who are forced into paternity, and the first part deals with the legal issues surrounding "stealing someone's sperm." It is written by a woman who "During the 15 years I answered a Cleo advice column, I had many letters from women who were considering [tricking men into paternity] and wrote seeking my approval for staging a 'supposed accident.'" It's a really good article, and I can't wait to see the second part, on "Father's Choice."

Claude Saint-Jarre sent me a link to an essay that blew me away with its quality and message. Elizabeth Herron and Aaron Kipnis have been collaborating to help end the war between the sexes, and this essay demonstrates that they are really willing to hear both sides of the story, and to validate both men and women while addressing gender issues. Please read this article, if nothing else the examples they have of men and women's complaints strikes a balance like I have never read before. If you're a fan of Warren Farrell, this will certainly interest you.

Not PC writes "Despite the fact that he he was making weekly child support payments and had visited the support agency's offices twice recently, an Ohio county's child support agency claims that they couldn't find Charles Collins to give him a check for over $20,000 he overpaid. The agency is also trying to get $327,000 in unclaimed child support dollars to some 500 families. What do you bet that this is not an isolated incident? All those in favor of taking away the CS worker's driver's licenses and throwing them in jail, raise your right hand! And then click here for the story."

This is an excellent study about DV against men committed by women, written by Anne Lewis. The study examines many factors involved in DV against men (powerlessness, feeling trapped, etc.) and does so in a sympathetic way. However, the interviews with the abused men are the most haunting thing in the entire study, and such brutal honesty is hard to take, so don't read the study if you're depressed or feeling uneasy right now. And as Anne says "In giving abused men a voice and the opportunity to tell their stories in an atmosphere of trust, I went on a journey of discovery. As an abused person, I was giving myself a voice. The men's pain became my pain, their injustice my injustice, their anger my anger. I listened to myself as I listened to them, and in helping to free them, I freed myself. My inner processes were facilitated by the validation which I as a woman receive from society, and I sought to bring something of that hope and vision to the men whose stories I was privileged to share." Be certain that you read the study to learn for yourself.

Kathleen Parker's column in the Orlando Sentinel describes a campaign by Alabama to crack down on deadbeat dads. Ads were taken out in local newspapers which show pictures of deadbeat parents (only one of them, though, is a woman) with the title: "Lost Dogs: Have You Seen Us?" Although the ads are targeting the worst offenders, they still send a powerfully strong anti-male message, and some father's rights groups are planning lawsuits against the state for violating the civil rights of those depicted by the ads. Stuff like this really makes by blood start to boil. I wonder how many more steps can be taken to "beat dead" fathers who owe child support when absolutely nothing is done to ensure the money is actually spent on the child's needs? It just seems too one-sided.

I've been meaning to post this for a few days now - Trudy Schuett, who has time and time again shown a great deal of compassion and understanding of men's issues, wrote an essay on Themestream about creativity and gender. Her thesis is that the two have no connection, and that people mistakenly believe women are more creative because they give birth. "Creativity comes from the spirit, not from DNA...It's not a chick thing, or a guy thing. In fact, it is precisely the thing that will get us all out of this mess of gender issues, of feminism and masculism and mutual hatred and distrust." Check it out.

Not PC submitted this link to a news report that the Virginia Military Institute now has its first pregnant female cadet, and it has stirred up a lot of controversy. The Naval Academy policy states that "Pregnancy and parenthood impose significant responsibilities and demands upon midshipmen which are incompatible with service as midshipmen" but the woman (who was not identified in the article) was given three options for living quarters to accommodate her needs. Even women who have attended VMI gave disapproval of this situation, and feel she should either leave or be suspended during the pregnancy. One of them said "Cadets can accumulate demerits and wind up suspended essentially for being late for class and not shining their shoes, and yet this woman is far more irresponsible and gets 'almost preferential treatment.'"

Here's some news on how Randy Cunningham and James McDermott have been pushing for an Office of Men's Health, and the idea is gaining momentum as it's also being backed by the National Medical Association. However, as they remind us, "Both Congressmen stressed that the creation of an Office of Men's Health would not impinge on the funding or the status for the Office of Women's Health, which was created in 1990" it's a real shame they have to point this out, as it shows that we can never offer to help men without first deferring to women's concerns.