Mens Rights = Equal Rights

October 18, 2009

THE “PAY GAP”

The “pay gap” is probably the most widely-cited example of supposed disadvantages faced by women today. It is also totally misleading, as it is only a snapshot of average yearly full-time incomes that does not account for overtime (about 90% male), type of work, or other non-discriminatory, voluntary factors. The Department of Labor recently funded a study that proved this and found the pay gap is caused by choices, not discrimination.
http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf

Gender pay gap is not what activists claim

http://wwww.examiner.com/x-22884-Canada-Politics-Examiner~y2010m2d22-Gender-pay-gap-is-not-what-activists-claim

Equal pay statistics are bogus because they don’t compare like with like

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/vickiwoods/7957186/Sorry-ladies-Im-not-worried-about-wage-gaps.html

See also, Prof. June O’Neill, Ph.D. (former director of Congressional Budget Office), “The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000,” American Economic Review, 5/03.)

This was further supported in the book “Why Men Earn More" by Warren Farrell, Ph.D., which examined 25 career/life choices men and women make (hours, commute times, etc.) that lead to men earning more and women having more balanced lives, and that showed how men in surveys prioritize money while women prioritize flexibility, shorter hours, shorter commutes, less physical risk and other factors conducive to their choice to be primary parents, an option men still largely don’t have. That is why never-married childless women outearn their male counterparts, and female corporate directors now outearn their male counterparts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0752118220071107?feedTy…

Farrell also lists dozens of careers, including fields of science, where women outearn men.

Women simply have more options than men to be primary parents, and many of them exercise that option rather than work long, stressful hours. That is why 57% of female graduates of Stanford and Harvard left the workforce within 15 years of entry into the workforce.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/03/15/optout.revolution/

This is an option few men have (try being a single male and telling women on the first date that you want to stay home).

Blaming men for women’s choices is unfair. In fact research shows most men have no problem with their wives outearning them. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23413243

Research also shows most working dads would quit or take a pay cut to spend more time with kids if their spouses could support the family.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/Careers/06/13/dads.work/index.html

Research also shows that parents share workloads more when mothers allow men to be primary parents.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-04-equal-parenting_N.htm

For more, see:

ABC News: “Is the Wage Gap Women’s Choice? Research Suggests Career Decisions, Not Sex Bias, Are at Root of Pay Disparity”

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeABreak/story?id=797045&page=1&CMP=OTC-R…
http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/04/magazines/fortune/muphy_payact.fortune/i…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23413243

GENITAL INTEGRITY

Role of the Foreskin

The male foreskin is a highly-functional sexual organ that has been present in all mammals for over 60 million years, but is most highly developed and erogenous in the human male. In addition to protecting the glans and producing chemicals such as pheromones and anti- viral substances it contains a profusion of nerves that are highly sensitive to fine touch and are also found primarily in our lips, eyelids and fingertips.

The president-elect of the International Society for Sexual Medicine, Dr John Dean, has commented on his netdoctor entry on circumcision that a reduction in penile sensation is an “almost universal’’ result of the surgery.

A recent study used fine-touch medical instruments for the first time ever to study the fine-touch sensation on 19 points of the penis and found circumcision removes the most sensitive part of the penis and that an intact penis is much more sensitive than a circumcised penis. Sorrells, Snyder, et al., “Fine-touch pressure thresholds in the adult penis,” British Journal of Urology International, v. 99, issue 4, p. 864, April 2007. http://www.livescience.com/health/070615_penis_sensitivity.html

The full study is posted at
http://www.nocirc.org/touch-test/bju_6685.pdf

A subsequent study in China confirmed the same thing. Yang DM, Lin H, Zhang B, Guo W. [Circumcision affects glans penis vibration perception threshold]. Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue 2008; 14: 328-30, Dept. of Urology, the First Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou,Guangdong 510120, China.

Prior studies on this issue – which had mixed results – were unreliable because they were based upon self-reports of men who were either circumcised as adults for medical purposes or were circumcised as children and could not compare the difference. One of the study’s authors, Dr. Robert Van Howe, explains that the male foreskin is concentrated with high-sensory nerve endings that are only found in our eyelids, lips and fingertips. The foreskin has many other roles as well, such as acting as a buffer and lubricant.

Non-religious circumcision has been traced to the prevention of masturbation. And historically circumcision has been a cure looking for a disease, constantly being claimed to prevent one disease after another and repeatedly disproven afterwards. For more, see http://www.circumstitions.com/

HIV Prevention

There has been a flurry of media coverage over three studies in Africa that found male circumcision reduces the risk of contracting HIV. The conclusions of the studies have been criticized by a number of experts. See

http://www.circumstitions.com/

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians reviewed the studies and concluded there is "no evidence to support routine circumcision of newborn and infant males." They also suggested parents wait until their child is old enough to give informed consent, and added: "There is evidence that circumcision does result in memory of painful experience."
http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/no-evidence-to-support-routine-ci…

This confirms what the American Academy of Pediatrics found long ago. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990302063210.htm

Dr. Dean Edell called the African/HIV conclusions "silly" and warned, "it will backfire." He recognized the gender double standards, the loss of sensation in the penis, how condoms and education are the solution, and how the U.S. has the highest rate of circumcision in the West and also the highest rate of HIV while European men don’t circumcise and have lower HIV rates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlsUg0sdAtE

In fact, there is research showing female circumcision also reduces the changes of contracting HIV. Stallings, R. Y., and E. Karugendo. “Female Circumcision and HIV
Infection in Tanzania: For Better or for Worse?” Abstract of paper given at Third International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment. Rio de Janeiro, July 25–27, 2005. But even the least intrusive form of female circumcision is illegal to perform on an infant girl. But the male foreskin is gynecologically equivalent to the removal of the clitoral hood, one of three forms of female circumcision all of which are forbidden by law. See Darby, R. and Svoboda, J. S., ‘A rose by any other name?; rethinking the similarities and differences between male and female genital cutting,’ Medical Anthropology Quarterly (2007), Vol. 21, Issue 3, pp. 301-323.
For much more, see:
http://www.circumstitions.com/
http://www.circumcision.org/
http://www.nocirc.org/
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org/
http://www.catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/
http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/
http://www.stopinfantcircumcision.org/
http://www.arclaw.org/

THE “HOUSEWORK” MYTH

The media has repeatedly publicized studies that purportedly found men do not do their share of housework. These studies, including one by the United Nations, were seriously flawed as they did not account for work outside the home and/or failed to factor many traditionally male forms of housework. The mass media also virtually ignored subsequent studies that disproved the housework myth. For instance:

A recent 25-nation study by economists from Berlin, Brussels and Texas, which included rich and poor nations, found men do as much work as women when all types of work are combined.
http://www.slate.com/id/2164268/

A University of Maryland study found the total workloads of married mothers and fathers is roughly equal when paid work is added to child care and housework, at 65 hours a week for mothers and 64 hours for fathers.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007204060320
A University of Michigan study found women work an average of 11 hours more housework per week more than men while men an average of 14 hours per week more than women outside the home.

MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD

INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/chandigarh/Harassed-men-kin…
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090817/jsp/nation/story_11368453.jsp
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/harassed-husbands-plan-struggle-against-biased-laws_100232981.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4859757.cms
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071203&fname=Husband+(F)&sid=1
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Mens_groups_rise_against_DVA_…