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High school's kicker makes 50 yard field goals, but not allowed to play becau...
The star kicker is a girl: freshman Kacy Stuart: "I was playing kickball in 8th grade and my P.E. teacher saw me kick. He thought I had potential, so I played on his football team."
This year, Kacy moved. She is now playing football at the New Creation Center (NCC). It's a private Christian school.
"She's a good kicker. She has a lot of skill, and we're just glad she's on the team," school administrator Judy Foster said.
NCC belongs to the Georgia Football League. The group oversees athletic programs for private Christian schools and home school programs. Earlier this month, the executive board called the NCC coach and said Kacy was not allowed to play because she's a girl.
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Kacy says sometimes people ask her why she doesn't play a "girl" sport, or why she's not a cheerleader. "People were built for different things," she said. "I'm built to be a kicker. I just don't understand why people don't accept the fact that I like football and I want to play football."
(much more and a video at the link) The star kicker is a girl: freshman Kacy Stuart: "I was playing kickball in 8th grade and my P.E. teacher saw me kick. He thought... more -
If there's a long queue outside the ladies would you use the mens like desper...
Desperate to go, Marcia Cross found herself using the men's in a bathroom emergency.....I'm so glad Marcia found the "balls" to do this. If there's a long queue outside the ladies would you use the mens? Desperate to go, Marcia Cross found herself using the men's in a bathroom emergency.....I'm so glad Marcia found the "b... more
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Where have all the real men gone?
Top American columnist Kathleen Parker is causing a furore with her new book Save the Males, in which she argues that feminism has neutered men and deprived them of their noble, protective role in society:
Extract:
Saving the males is an unlikely vocation for a 21st-century woman. Most men don’t know they need saving; most women consider the idea absurd. When I tell my women friends that I want to save the males, they look at me as if noticing for the first time that I am insane. Then they say something like: “Are you out of your mind? This is still a male-dominated world. It’s women who need saving. Screw the men!”
Actually, that’s a direct quote. The reality is that men already have been screwed – and not in the way they prefer. For the past 30 years or so, males have been under siege by a culture that too often embraces the notion that men are to blame for all of life’s ills. Males as a group – not random men – are bad by virtue of their DNA. Top American columnist Kathleen Parker is causing a furore with her new book Save the Males, in which she argues that feminism has neu... more -
Wake-up call aims to restore men to their rightful role
THE feminist movement has a new hate figure – someone who has inspired more loathing among its members than Hugh Hefner, Peter Stringfellow and all the other male chauvinist pigs you can think of – and, shock, horror, she’s a woman.
American author Kathleen Parker has written a book entitled Save the Males that challenges the foundations of 21st-century feminism. Bravely she contends that, initially, through extreme feminism and its adoption by western society, women have demonised men and trivialised their contribution, especially to family life.
Her passionate defence of the male sex and their worth in the world at large has had many women across the pond foaming at the mouth. They regard Parker as a traitor to her gender. She dares to suggest that in trying to make the world fairer for women they have made it grossly unfair to men.
She argues that by going out of our way to make single mothers feel good about themselves, by diminishing the role of fathers, by elevating women as the superior parents, we have gone a long way towards destroying one of the major building blocks of society – the nuclear family.
She laments the destruction of traditional male values that she describes as being “masculinity tied to honour”, claiming that these values were regarded by feminists as a form of assault on the female gender. Thus there was a move towards Metrosexual Man, a softer, gentler creature who was encouraged to “get in touch with his feminine side”.
MORE THE feminist movement has a new hate figure – someone who has inspired more loathing among its members than Hugh Hefner, Peter Stringf... more -
Olympics to Test Gender of Some Female Athletes
By the time they arrive in Beijing, most athletes have resigned themselves to the possibility of undergoing a battery of tests for banned substances, like anabolic steroids and certain cough medicines.
But some female athletes may find they are asked to submit to an entirely different examination — one that will test whether they are, in fact, women.
Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate “suspect” female athletes, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. The lab is similar to ones set up at previous Olympics in Sydney and Athens, and will draw on the resources of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital to evaluate an athlete’s external appearance, hormones and genes.
Some medical ethicists have said the practice is too intrusive. “Real people are going to be hurt by this,” said Alice Dreger, an associate professor in medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University.
Although only athletes whose gender has been questioned will be tested in Beijing, the lab is a relic of an earlier Olympic era, when every female athlete was required to submit to a sex-verification test before competing in the Games. The tests emerged in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and other Communist countries were suspected of entering male athletes in women’s events to gain an edge.
Some female athletes in the past failed gender test exam. I never knew the Olympics tested the gender of athletes.
Complete article found on NYTimes.com By the time they arrive in Beijing, most athletes have resigned themselves to the possibility of undergoing a battery of tests for ban... more -
Fatherless Homes and What Feminism Really Is
Opinion piece of feminism and what equality among genders REALLY is. Because it's not just about women "overcoming" the men. We've all got something to gain from this.
People think that by labeling myself a Feminist, I am silently proclaiming to the world that I hate men. I don't. Feminists aren't all lesbians. I love men. I'm in love with a man. I can't generalize the other half of the human race into a bunch of dogs who do nothing but fuck, eat, drink, and beat on their women when the urge hits them. No good feminist can, without taking their eyes off the prize we all seek: true equality. Bitching about EVERY MAN is just an attempt to make women higher than men, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but when it comes to true equality, if that's how you're handling this movement, you're not doin' it right!
That said, feminism -- the struggle for equality between women AND men -- cannot be achieved without men. If feminism was about the equality between women, we'd be fighting for equality AMONG women, which would probably contain arguments on race, religion, culture...but not men. See the difference, ladies and gents?
In my short lifetime, I have witnessed the rise and fall of my household, as well as the familial progressions of some acquaintances and friends. Of my close friends, only two have had both a mother and a father in their households.
Other than that, pretty much everyone else shared my condition: surviving by their single mom, no father in sight. My mom had a boyfriend, at one point, whom, as far as I knew, had no real job to speak of, and a history of drug abuse. If I wanted to form my idea of what a real man should be like off of him, I would want a man who will go to any conniving lengths to get what he wants. (I dated a man like that, by the way. He ran me $3000.) Not long after my mom became paralyzed by a tumor, her boyfriend disappeared as well, much to the relief of my brother and I.
It's a fact proven by US Department of Health & Human Services that 71% of all pregnant teen girls are from fatherless homes, and it's also a theory that most women never get over the absence of their fathers. Looking back at my first boyfriend and the heartache I caused for my own mom from all the times I tried to defend him when he purposely terrorized me with what I call "pregnancy threats," I see now that I easily could have been one of those knocked-up girls as early as fourteen. Without my brother, the only positive male role model for the first 16 years of my life, I could very well have been a statistic.
Some women never meet people like my brother. Some girls never know how good men should act and treat women. They, like me, grow up with skewed visions of love and relationships.
CLICK THE LINK FOR MORE Opinion piece of feminism and what equality among genders REALLY is. Because it's not just about women "overcoming" the... more -
Sex tests for female athletes in Beijing
"Beijing Olympics organizers have set up a gender determination lab to test female athletes suspected to be males.
Suspected athletes will be evaluated from their external appearances by experts and undergo blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination.
Experts say test results for about one in 500 to 600 athletes are abnormal.
Gender verification tests emerged in the 1960s when Communist countries in Eastern Europe were thought to be using male athletes in women’s competitions. The tests were used at the Olympics for the first time at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
The concept has drawn criticism over the years, largely because certain chromosomal abnormalities may cause a woman to fail a test, even though it gives her no competitive advantage. Also, if a female athlete fails a test she must have a physiological examination, which many consider invasive and a privacy violation."
Picture: Santhi Soundararajan, an Indian silver medalist female runner at Asian Games who failed a gender test in 2006 (Getty images).
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Do you think that gender determination procedures for professional athletes are fair or constitute privacy violation? "Beijing Olympics organizers have set up a gender determination lab to test female athletes suspected to be males. ... more -
Are men having an identity crisis?
Women are emotionally-vacant pigs and men are emotionally-unstable psychos.
Wait. That’s not right.
But it is in so many ways. Welcome to the new millennium, boys and girls, where gender equality means “let’s adopt the worst of each other’s stereotypes.” It’s a madcap race to the bottom rung of the sexual identity ladder. Wheee!
Confused like me about the opposite sex? Read the entire post by clicking on the link. Women are emotionally-vacant pigs and men are emotionally-unstable psychos. Wait. That’s not right. ... more -
Feminists - a red rag to misogynists?
Rape conviction rate is plummeting, the sex industry is booming, women's bodies are picked over in the media, abortion rights are under serious threat and top business leaders say they don't want to employ women. It all adds up to one thing ... an all-out assault on feminism. But why?
.. i wish Julie Birchall could chime in on this one. Rape conviction rate is plummeting, the sex industry is booming, women's bodies are picked over in the media, abortion rights are... more -
GenderVision: Trans Partners - Gender & Relationship, part 2
Part 2 of an extended, in-depth interview with well-known transgender advocates Helen Boyd and Betty Crow. Helen is the author of the book "My Husband Betty", which explores the relationships of crossdressing men and their female partners, as well as a follow-up, "She's Not the Man I Married", a more serious and expansive examination of gender roles in relationships. Betty Crow is a professional actor who has appeared on daytime TV in "All My Children" as a transgender woman, who also works as a web designer and 3D animator.
Helen & Betty's profound love and respect for one another shines as they share their insights and experiences about the complexity of gender, gender identity, sex, love and marriage. Helen talks about her own experience in being partnered with a trans person, speaking from a feminist perspective about transgender identities and negotiating relationship while navigating the spectrum of gender expression. Betty talks about the importance of their marriage to her, of her desire to "grow old" with Helen, and how doing so requires a commitment on her part to a partnered approach to her transition. Together, their refreshing candor and evident love for one another make this a not-to-be-missed program. Part 2 of an extended, in-depth interview with well-known transgender advocates Helen Boyd and Betty Crow. Helen is the author of the ... more -
GenderVision: Trans Partners - Gender & Relationship, part 1
Part 1 of an extended, in-depth interview with well-known transgender advocates Helen Boyd and Betty Crow. Helen is the author of the book "My Husband Betty", which explores the relationships of crossdressing men and their female partners, as well as a follow-up, "She's Not the Man I Married", a more serious and expansive examination of gender roles in relationships. Betty Crow is a professional actor who has appeared on daytime TV in "All My Children" as a transgender woman, who also works as a web designer and 3D animator.
Helen & Betty's profound love and respect for one another shines as they share their insights and experiences about the complexity of gender, gender identity, sex, love and marriage. Helen talks about her own experience in being partnered with a trans person, speaking from a feminist perspective about transgender identities and negotiating relationship while navigating the spectrum of gender expression. Betty talks about the importance of their marriage to her, of her desire to "grow old" with Helen, and how doing so requires a commitment on her part to a partnered approach to her transition. Together, their refreshing candor and evident love for one another make this a not-to-be-missed program. Part 1 of an extended, in-depth interview with well-known transgender advocates Helen Boyd and Betty Crow. Helen is the author of the ... more -
The sexist media conspiracy theory
Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a “Media Hall of Shame,” starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter.
But many in the news media — with a few exceptions, including Katie Couric, the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” — see little need for reconsidering their coverage or changing their approach going forward. Rather, they say, as the Clinton campaign fell behind, it exploited a few glaring examples of sexist coverage to whip up a backlash and to try to create momentum for Mrs. Clinton.
“I get it, that in this 24-hour media world, you’ve got to be on your game and there’s very little room for mistakes,"Phil Griffin [senior vice president of NBC] said. “But the Clinton campaign saw an opportunity to use it for their advantage. They were trying to rally a certain demographic, and women were behind it.”
Taking aim from the inside, though, was Ms. Couric, who herself has faced harsh criticism as the first woman to be the solo anchor of an evening news broadcast. Ms. Couric posted a video on the CBS Web site on Wednesday about the coverage of Mrs. Clinton.
“Like her or not, one of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued — and accepted — role of sexism in American life, particularly in the media,” Ms. Couric said. She went on to lament the silence of those who did not speak up against it.
The perception that sexism tainted coverage of the Clinton campaign — a view expressed on Internet postings and in conversations among women — appears to be gaining ground more in political circles than in the mainstream news media.
Mrs. Clinton may have begun that discussion in her concession speech on Saturday when she said that women deserve equal respect, along with equal pay, and that “there are no acceptable prejudices in the 21st century in our country.” She was referring to what emerged as conventional wisdom during the campaign that racism is no longer tolerated in America, but sexism is.
Cable television has come under the most criticism. Chris Matthews, a host on MSNBC, called Mrs. Clinton a “she-devil” and said she had gotten as far as she had only because her husband had “messed around.”
Mike Barnicle, a panelist on MSNBC, said that Mrs. Clinton was “looking like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court.” Tucker Carlson, also on MSNBC, said, “When she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.”
The establishment news media were faulted too. The New York Times wrote about Mrs. Clinton’s “cackle” and The Washington Post wrote about her cleavage.
Ken Rudin, an editor at NPR equated Mrs. Clinton with the actress Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction.” “She’s going to keep coming back, and they’re not going to stop her."
The cable networks do not reach as many viewers as the broadcast networks — 2.6 million per night for prime-time news programs on cable compared with 23 million for broadcast — but their coverage runs in a continuous loop, is amplified by the Internet and is seen by many people involved in politics.
Some are calling for boycotts against MSNBC and CNN, and many are urging Mr. Obama, who addressed racism in a major speech, to address sexism, too. Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination,... more -
All-female law firm defends sexual stereotypes
An all-female Buffalo law firm is getting a mix of cheers and boos for a series of ads that tout its woman power. “Ever Argue with a Woman?” reads the headline of one of the ads for Schroder Joseph & Associates LLP.
“Labor Pains? Talk to us. (We’re women . . . We get it),” states another in the series of ads for the firm that specializes in corporate labor and employment law.
In recent weeks, the marketing strategy has been the subject of Internet debate on the American Bar Association’s Web site, as well as adrants.com, a site with an advertising industry following.
The main criticisms of the ads, which play up the firm’s feminine strengths, is that they perpetuate sexual stereotyping.
“Great, next they’ll sell us on female surgeons because they sew better,” reads a post on adrants.com.
A comment on the ABA Web site said the ads open the door to male lawyers touting masculine virtues and suggests some not-so-politically-correct tag lines.
“Men Work Harder and Don’t Take Time Off For Childbirth” or “How Many Women Play Pro Football . . . Women Are Weak,” are two of the proposed male-centric ads.
“Sexism is sexism and humor is just a veil to excuse it,” the ABA site comment concludes.
The ads were created by Jennifer Dowdell, an account executive at Business First, who tapped her background in graphic arts. Dowdell’s goal was to come up with marketing materials that captured the firm’s personality while promoting its skill set.
In addition to the “labor pains” and “argue with a woman,” the campaign also taps themes tied to sexual harassment and maternal instincts. An all-female Buffalo law firm is getting a mix of cheers and boos for a series of ads that tout its woman power. “Ever Argue with a W... more -
Lisa Simpson: feminist hero
Lisa Simpson with her activism, enthusiasm for hobbies and books, love of cartoons and animals, and regard for feelings and unicorns - might just be the most visible, mainstream feminist of our time.
Here's a compilation of Lisa's best moments. Lisa Simpson with her activism, enthusiasm for hobbies and books, love of cartoons and animals, and regard for feelings and unicorns -... more -
In India, adolescent boys, not girls, are bigger victims of forced sex
NEW DELHI: Urban Indian teenagers are being hounded by demands for non-consensual sex, with boys apparently being more at risk. According to a study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University of the US, 15% of boys and 3% of girls reported that someone forcibly tried to have a physical relationship with them. Boys who had friends of the opposite sex were more likely to report attempted forced physical relationships. In fact, the most commonly reported perpetrators were female friends for boys (72%) and neighbours (60%) for girls. NEW DELHI: Urban Indian teenagers are being hounded by demands for non-consensual sex, with boys apparently being more at risk. Accord... more
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Indian couple abandoned their newly born twins at the UK Hospital as they were the...
Apparently the couple wanted a son to carry their name forward and when they discovered that they had in fact just had two daughters, they decided to give them up. Even more poignant is the fact that they had Infertility treatment in India to conceive these babies and rather bizarrely, the couple are 59 and 72 years of age. [Ed: The hospital denies these reports and that any babies were abandoned] Apparently the couple wanted a son to carry their name forward and when they discovered that they had in fact just had two daughters, ... more
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Men in Grass Skirts
This cut down of the feature documentary "Na Kamalei: Men of Hula" features legendary teacher Robert Cazimero and the only all-male hula school in Hawaii.
These men go beyond deep-rooted stereotypes of "grass skirt girls" and reveal a story of Hawaiian pride through the exploration of male roles in the hula tradition--past and present. This cut down of the feature documentary "Na Kamalei: Men of Hula" features legendary teacher Robert Cazimero and the only a... more -
Woman mistaken for a man settles NY lawsuit
A woman ejected from the female restroom after a New York City restaurant mistook her for a man has settled her discrimination lawsuit for $35,000, she said on Tuesday.
Khadijah Farmer , a 28-year-old lesbian, ate at the Caliente Cab Restaurant Co. last July with her girlfriend and a friend after marching in the gay pride parade in Greenwich Village.
When Farmer went to use the restroom, the restaurant's bouncer told her men were not allowed in the women's room, according to the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the lawsuit.
Farmer said she volunteered to produce identification proving she was female but was rebuffed. A representative of the restaurant was not immediately available for comment.
"People come in all shapes and sizes, and they shouldn't be discriminated against because they don't match someone's expectations of how masculine or feminine they should be," Farmer said in a statement. A woman ejected from the female restroom after a New York City restaurant mistook her for a man has settled her discrimination lawsuit... more -
Could God be female?
A majority of people think God is male with nearly half of the population in Britain believing that all religions discriminate on grounds of gender. The survey showed around three quarters, or 73%, of those who classified themselves as Christian considered God as male.
The poll was commissioned by the Movement for Reform Judaism in Britain to coincide with its launch of its new daily and Sabbath prayer book, or Siddur. The prayer book removes male descriptions of God such as King, Father and Lord, in favor of "gender neutral'' expressions such as Eternal One and living God.
It includes mentions of prominent women from the Old Testament for the first time in prayers such as the Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. It also provides prayers for 21st century problems such as environmental and natural disasters and prayers for depression, miscarriage and the death of a child. A majority of people think God is male with nearly half of the population in Britain believing that all religions discriminate on grou... more
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