At the moment, the way we communicate about mental health is unhelpful to a large number of men. “Counselling is basically a female-friendly activity,” says Martin Seager, a clinical psychologist specialising in male mental health. “It’s not the standard way a bloke deals with his feelings, sitting down eyeball to eyeball and being asked: ‘Tell me how you feel.’”
Seager has 30 years’ experience in the NHS and is a partner in the Men And Boys Coalition, which aims to foster positive public discussion about masculinity. Their website is big on discrimination against men and boys, citing “structural challenges faced by men as parents, particularly new fathers and separated fathers; institutional responses to male victims of rape and domestic violence; and the disparity in approaches to male and female prisoners”.
I meet Seager in a cafe in central London. He is passionate about what he sees as the unjust narrative surrounding modern men. “I hate this term ‘toxic masculinity’,” he says. “The narrative goes that men are too preoccupied with being perceived as strong and that they need to soften up a bit to help themselves. What I am saying is, let’s change the narrative. So we still use the strong male archetype but suggest that seeking help and discussing your problems is the truly strong thing to do.”
Category: Gender Equality
New Jersey Judge John F. Russo, Jr. Suspended
A New Jersey judge with some worthless opinions on sexual assault prevention faces a three month suspension after allegedly asking a woman seeking a restraining order if she “closed her legs” in order to prevent an assault, among other abuses of authority.
At a May 2016 hearing, in which an unnamed woman appeared in court hoping to get a restraining order against a man she claimed sexually assaulted her, threatened her life, and made “inappropriate comments” to their child, Ocean County, New Jersey superior court judge John F. Russo, Jr. reportedly had the following condescending and absolutely wrong things to say:
The pressure to be beautiful in Bangladesh – BBC News
“As women we are often compelled to portray our beautiful selves,” says Habiba Nowrose, a 29-year-old photographer documenting the pressures on women in Bangladesh to be attractive.
“In that path to avail beauty we are made to strip off our individuality, stories and traumas.”
“We become anonymous even to ourselves and our identities remain concealed.”
The women in Habiba’s photos look bright and colourful but their faces are entirely covered, representing a loss of the inner self even though outwardly the women have made great efforts to look beautiful.
Public sex banned in two New Orleans gay bars investigation
Two New Orleans leather bars known for their cruising scenes have been hit in recent months with charges, fines, and a shutdown in sexual activity (which is barred in public venues by Louisiana State Laws). Some have assumed that the impositions on Phoenix and Rawhide 2010 have been politically motivated, perhaps the result of a homophobic witch hunt (“an attack on one of us is an attack on all us,” read a message posted by Phoenix management on the bar’s Facebook in February), but a recent article in New Orleans LGBTQ magazine Ambush paints a more nuanced picture of investigations arising from direct complaints that are the result of community in-fighting and sexual discrimination.
via Public sex banned in two New Orleans gay bars investigation
Pay Gap Between Men and Women Might Be Worse Than Previously Calculated
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day on which we acknowledge that a woman would have to work a full fifteen months to earn what a man in an equivalent role makes in a year. Since the wage gap is 80 cents to the dollar—that is, a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar a male peer earns—it takes women until April 2 to earn what men make between January and December. Many women of color have to work even longer to catch up to both their white male and their white female peers.
However, a recent study suggests that we might have to push Equal Pay Day a few more months down the road. As Vox reports:
“The commonly used figure to describe the gender wage ratio—that a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man—understates the pay inequality problem by leaving many women workers out of the picture,” authors Stephen J. Rose, a labor economist and fellow at the Urban Institute, and Heidi I. Hartmann, the founder of IWPR and an economist in residence at American University, argue in their report, titled “Still a Man’s Labor Market.”Specifically, it leaves out women who have dropped out of the labor force temporarily, often to care for family.
via Pay Gap Between Men and Women Might Be Worse Than Previously Calculated
Ousted Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen Loses Las Vegas Council Run
A former Nevada congressman ousted over allegations of sexual harassment was looking to make his political comeback in the race for Las Vegas City Council on Tuesday. He missed his chance—barely.
Former Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen came just five votes away from winning a spot on the June general election ballot in the race to become a councilman for Ward 3. The top vote-getter, Olivia Diaz, got 33 percent with 1,016 votes, while the first runner up, Melissa Clary, narrowly beat Kihuen with 28 percent and 866 votes, meaning both will appear on the general election ballot in June, according to the Nevada Independent. Kihuen got 861 votes.
In 2017, three women who worked with Kihuen said he sexually harassed them. In 2018, the House Ethics Committee found the women’s allegations to be credible. According to Roll Call, the committee reported Kihuen “made persistent and unwanted advances towards women who were required to interact with him as part of their professional responsibilities.”
via Ousted Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen Loses Las Vegas Council Run
Microsoft employees confront CEO over company’s treatment of women | Technology | The Guardian
A group of Microsoft employees dressed in all white challenged the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and top human resources executive, Kathleen Hogan, over the company’s treatment of women at a Q&A session on Thursday, according to Wired. The all-white outfits were a reference to the US congresswomen who wore white during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this February.
via Microsoft employees confront CEO over company’s treatment of women | Technology | The Guardian
Microsoft employees confront CEO over company’s treatment of women | Technology | The Guardian
A group of Microsoft employees dressed in all white challenged the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and top human resources executive, Kathleen Hogan, over the company’s treatment of women at a Q&A session on Thursday, according to Wired. The all-white outfits were a reference to the US congresswomen who wore white during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this February.
via Microsoft employees confront CEO over company’s treatment of women | Technology | The Guardian
Leaked Microsoft Email Chain Reportedly Describes Hellish Workplace for Women
An internal Microsoft email chain, first reported by Quartz, reportedly details a litany of egregious acts of sexual harassment and discrimination experienced by women at the company. The chain received hundreds of responses since it began on March 20, according to Wired, prompting employees to protest the toxic work culture at a Q&A with CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday.
“This thread has pulled the scab off a festering wound,” a Microsoft employee wrote in the email chain, Quartz reported. “The collective anger and frustration is palpable. A wide audience is now listening. And you know what? I’m good with that.”
The allegations in the email thread include issues now viewed as typical within the tech industry—such as a lack of promotions and unjust treatment toward individuals from employees from underrepresented groups within the company, Wired reported. Microsoft employees were still reportedly emailing within the chain on Thursday morning.
via Leaked Microsoft Email Chain Reportedly Describes Hellish Workplace for Women
Former Netflix Employee Says She Was Fired Over Pregnancy
A former Netflix executive says that the company fired her after she announced she was pregnant.
Variety reports that Tania Zarak, who worked as a manager in Netflix’s international originals division and filed a lawsuit against the company on Tuesday, says she was left out of meetings after announcing her pregnancy in early November 2018. She says that her boss Francisco Ramos began to ignore her in the office, make rude comments about her appearance, and even had her removed from a show she was working on.
Outstream Video
00:00
00:00After Zarak complained to HR, Ramos called her in to his office to ask when she would be taking maternity leave. Variety reports:
via Former Netflix Employee Says She Was Fired Over Pregnancy