Dayton Murphy

This article contains references to domestic violence, child abuse, rape, sexual assault and suicide. “Men’s liberation movement” is the kind of phrase that makes you reflexively tighten your sphincter. “Who or what”, I hear you ask, “do men need to be liberated from?” The answer is, as it so often is, other men. Why then, in the nearly 50 years since the first men began collaborating with second- and third-wave feminists, has a men’s lib movement failed to cement itself?

On October 15, 1951, Rio Vista became the first city in California to fluoridate its water supply. Rio Vista was one of the first of perhaps a dozen cities who participated in what is now recognised as one of the most successful public health campaigns of the 20th century. However, by 1956 Rio Vista had removed its fluoridation equipment, and is now one of a handful of cities in the United States which has banned its use completely.