The Blokes' Book

The Blokes' Book is a directory of services available to men across a broad range of health and wellbeing areas including crisis services, relationships, fathering, eating right, being active, weight control, alcohol and drug use, preventable diseases, suicide prevention, legal and financial support, etc. It also encourages men to be proactive in taking control over their physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing. Download Ver 1.0 here as pdf (2Mb) 10,000 hard copies are also being distributed throughout Perth and regional WA during June 2012.  If you would like to have hard copies sent to you, you can request these via orders@man.org.au The Blokes' Book is produced by the Men's Advisory Network (MAN) Inc and funded by the WA Department of Health.

Stay-at-home husbands more likely to divorce: study (Canada)

Endless laundry, diaper changes, toddler tantrums, meal prep.

Stay-at-home moms may wish their husbands could walk a mile in their shoes. But if domestic harmony is the goal, dads may be better off at the office, according to a study published in the American Journal of Sociology.

For men, it seems, lack of paid work is an even greater predictor of divorce than marital unhappiness.

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Fathering in Australia among couple families with young children

There has been growing recognition of the importance of fathers to families in recent years. Societal trends, such as rising levels of employment among mothers of young children and recognition of the importance of the father–child relationship, have given more prominence to the contribution that fathers make to family life. Governments are increasingly interested in creating conditions that can foster fathers’ involvement in families; for example, through promoting more flexible working arrangements or by ensuring that children maintain contact with fathers following family breakdown. This growing interest in the role of fathers has been mirrored in the scientific community. However, there has been a limited amount of research on fathers in Australia, with the result that there remains much to be learnt about the ways that Australian fathers contribute to families and how they feel about themselves as fathers.

This report aims to increase understanding of the many ways in which fathers in couple families with young children contribute to family life, through the study of their time investment with children, their supportiveness as partners, their financial contribution, their parenting behaviours and styles, and their perceptions of their own adequacy as fathers. The impact of fathers on children’s wellbeing is also examined.

What Men Want — in bed

Sex therapist Bettina Arndt is keen to talk to men’s groups about her new book , What Men Want—in bed, which explains why sex matters so much to men. Over 150 men kept diaries for her, talking about what it is like to live with that constant sparking sexual energy—relentless, uncontrollable, all-consuming. Their painfully honest, confronting, often hilarious stories explain their quest for sexual adventure, their secret delights, longings, frustrations, their fears and their intense joy in making love.

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Wifely duties spark a firestorm

The sex therapist Bettina Arndt's latest book The Sex Diaries has been selling like hottie-cakes, with 10,000 off the shelves in the first three weeks. Based on the bedroom revelations of 98 Australian couples over six to nine months, it has lifted the lid on the unspoken topic of men and women's biologically mismatched sexual desire. Of course Arndt has been excoriated by feminists for saying that much marital disharmony might be overcome if women just "put the canoe in the water" and start paddling, even if they don't feel like it.

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