October 15, 2012
News Clips
- Male sex-abuse survivors learn it’s OK to talk about it
One in six boys have at least one unwanted or abusive sexual experience before age 16, according to MaleSurvivor, a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent and heal the sexual victimization of boys and men. Experts believe this estimate is low.
Daily Camera
October 14, 2012 - ‘Slut’: Gender Policing As Bullying Ritual
Research suggests that for girls, “slut” and its derivatives are among the most common and most feared of possible pejoratives hurled in the high-school social arena, equivalent in regulatory power to the “fag” label for boys. Both “slut” and “fag” tell young people that they are doing their gender “wrong” and that they’d better get in line or suffer the consequences.
Huffington Post
October 12, 2012 - Boy Scouts’ confidential abuse files go online next week
The public will get an unprecedented look inside the Boy Scouts of America next week when more than 20,000 pages of previously confidential documents concerning alleged child sexual abuse within the organization are released. Against the Scouts’ wishes, the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the so-called perversion files to be disclosed four months ago. Since then, attorneys have been redacting the names and contact information for child abuse victims and those who reported the abuse, per the court’s order.
Yahoo News
October 12, 2012 - Obese Teen Boys Have Up to 50 Percent Less Testosterone than Lean Boys, UB Study Finds
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A study by the University at Buffalo shows for the first time that obese males ages 14 to 20 have up to 50 percent less total testosterone than do normal males of the same age, significantly increasing their potential to be impotent and infertile as adults.
HealthCanal.com
October 11, 2012 - The Boys Who Bike for Breast Cancer: The Bicycle Diaries, Part 2
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is upon us, and nothing says “awareness” like a couple of fit, 20-something men riding their bicycles roughly 7,000 miles (from Anchorage, Alaska to Cartegena, Colombia), wearing jerseys bearing the logo of the HERS Breast Cancer Foundation (HBCF).
Huffington Post
October 11, 2012 - The Boys Who Would Be Bieber
Today’s youth don’t dream about playing center field for the Yankees or piloting a spacecraft to Mars. Instead, they aspire to become the next Bieber.
Wall Street Journal
October 11, 2012 - Dooming boys to be unprepared, unmotivated
At the eighth-grade level, 37 percent of girls scored proficient or above in writing on a just-released federal test, compared with 18 percent of boys.
What happened? Educators somehow overlooked the fact that boys pick up literacy skills later than girls. When boys get slammed with early academic demands they can’t handle, they tune out. They assume school is for girls, and they move on to more interesting activities, such as video games.
Gannett
October 11, 2012 - WATCH: Maryland teen bullied while taping news segment about bullying
A Maryland TV station went to interview a teenager about his experiences being bullied. Instead, they got a live demonstration. As a WHAG-TV crew prepared to talk to 15-year-old Preston Deener outside Brunswick High School, three boys started attacking him.
New York Daily News
October 10, 2012 - Suicide is epidemic for American Indian youth: What more can be done?
Suicide figures vary from community to community, with the most troubling numbers in the Northern Plains, in Alaska and in parts of the Southwest. In Alaska, the suicide rate for young Native males is about nine times that of all young males in the United States, while Native females in Alaska kill themselves nineteen times as often as all U.S. females their age, according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
NBC News
October 10, 2012 - ‘Better’ neighborhood a mixed blessing for youth
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Moving to a more prosperous neighborhood may help some girls from poor areas feel less distressed, but could harm some boys, a new study suggests.
Chicago Tribune
October 8, 2012 - The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study — the Largest Public Health Study You Never Heard Of, Part Three
This is Part Three of a three-part overview of the CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experience Study — the ACE Study. “Adverse childhood experiences” has become a buzzword in social services, public health, education, juvenile justice, mental health, pediatrics, criminal justice, medical research and even business. Many people say that just as you should know your cholesterol score, so you should know your ACE score. But what is the ACE Study?
Huffington Post
October 8, 2012
Opinion
- Don’t leave the boy children behind
One thing that he said has rung true for me – that on the days of the year where we recognise women and girls, and provide them with opportunity to expand their horizons, we should be giving the same exposure to boys.
News24
October 11, 2012 - Confessions of a Girl Boy Scout
I was surprised to learn this week that girls aren’t allowed to join the Boy Scouts in the US. In fact, membership policies are pretty strict — as Ryan Andresen recently discovered when he tried to get his Eagle Award and was denied because of his sexual orientation.
No girls. No gays.
Meanwhile, both are allowed in the UK — which happens to be the home of the entire international scouting movement.
Huffington Post
October 8, 2012 - How to talk to children about sex
“[Many] adults lack knowledge about the facts of puberty. Their discomfort, often coupled with various belief systems, prevent them from talking to children about what is happening to their bodies during a very confusing and embarrassing stage of their lives. But talking dispels embarrassment and normalises the changes.”
iol Lifestyle
October 8, 2012 - Study: Facebook Can Reduce the Spread of STDs
A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests that public health messages on Facebook are effective at increasing condom use among young adults–thus decreasing the chance of spreading STDs–at least for a little while.
Forbes
October 9, 2012
Book Review
- Raising Boys Feminists Will Hate
This new book, “Raising Boys Feminists Will Hate” says that feminists want nothing more than to “take your son and eradicate his masculine uniqueness.” Discuss.
International News
AFRICA
- Report Highlights Education Barriers for Adolescent Girls
A new report is drawing attention to the plight of under-educated girls as the U.N. marks International Day of the Girl Childon Thursday.
Plan International says while school enrollment levels for girls and boys have reached “global parity” at the primary school level, school completion rates for girls have lagged behind.
The child development organization says 39 million girls between the ages of 11 and 15 are out of school.
Voice of America
October 11, 2012TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
CHINA
- Should boys start school after girls?
A professor has suggested that boys should start school one or two years later than girls, which has heated up debate on tolerance and discrimination in the education system.Wu Bihu, a professor from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University, suggested on his micro blog at the end of September that girls should start school at 6 to 7 years old, but boys could start at 7 to 8.Wu believes boys and girls differ in their stages of mental development.
China Daily
October 10, 2012
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
- Dumas: Education system not helping boys
“We are destroying our boys in this country. Our education system is not built for training men. Little boys cannot sit down, little boys can’t stay quiet, little boys have to stand. They are different! And we continue to treat our boys like girls. You are destroying them.”
Trinidad Express
October 12, 2012
UK
- Eating disorder cases at record level including boys as young as 10
The biggest number of hospital admissions were for 15-year-old girls with 220 needing treatment compared with 190 the year before. However, boys as young as 10 were also among the cases highlighted. A total of 203 admissions were male, including more than a dozen 10-year-olds.
London Evening Standard
October 11, 2012 - Marriage no longer a key goal for girls, survey suggests
Boys are included in this year’s survey for the first time as a point of comparison over gender issues. The survey reveals differing attitudes between the sexes on family and parenting issues and on how gender will affect other aspects of their lives.In terms of employment, the girls had a more optimistic outlook than the boys. Only 19% of the girls believed their career prospects were worse than those of their mothers, while 38% of the boys said they expected to be less successful than their fathers – but one in five of the girls aged 11 to 21 thought women were treated less fairly by employers.
BBC News
October 8, 2012