Letters to the Editor
Sandra M
Published Letters: 577 Editor's Choice: 139
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Is it feminst, or patriarchal, to be sorta turned on by this disucssion?
[Read the article: Blow-job blowhards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Blowing a guy is neither gross nor empowering. Blowing a guy because you wish to give him pleasure is hot; blowing a guy for any other reason can be kind of gross. Sort of like wiping the ass of a baby just weaned to solid food - if it's your baby, no problem. If it's a baby you're not really invested in, well, guesw what - it looks like shit, it smells like shit because it *is* shit.
I find this discussion appallingly anti-feminist. What if guys were writing these opinions - that licking pussy makes you gag and is part of the feminazi agenda? A world where a guy won't willingly go down on me because it turns him on to give me pleasure is not a world I want to live in. And a guy has every right - obligation even - to feel the same way.
My boyfriend has a broken back so sex just now is a little difficult. But he insists - insists! - on going down on me every night. He likes me to be pleasured and fulfilled. It makes him happy. I love him with all my might. And I return the favor it is with all the enthusiasm I can muster - making him happy makes me happy. Patriarch schmatriarchy. Ain't nothing but us love birds here. Can't you find somewhere else to look?
Think I'll go see what he's up to.....
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I'ts no more odd to be attracted to really overweight women...
[Read the article: Big love]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...than it is to be attracted to really underweight women. An actress 30 pounds overweight would have a very difficult time getting mainstream TV or movie work (unless she's being cast as the fat friend) and would be derided as fat and unattractive. But Audrey Tatou, at 5'3" and 85 pounds (Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) is about 30 pounds *under* weight and is considered attractive though she has the stature and physique of a pre-pubescent child.
We live in a culture where men drool over women who slim down to ridiculous proportions then get boob jobs to artificially re-inflate the breasts they've so sadly dessicated by maintaining a weight far below what is a normal healthy base line for their height (Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Courtney Cox). It's the most illogical behavior in the world, and certainly not the decision making of a sane, intelligent, confident woman.... but the results are held up to women everywhere as the standard of beauty to acheive. And then - this is the good part - guys who pursue the women who've reached this ideal get to know them and are taken aback that they act ..well...kinda psycho.
So it's difficult for me to tisk Mr. Max's preference. His liking of ample flesh isn't really any stranger than guys thinking jutting hip bones, visible rib cages and winged collarbones are the epitome of sexy. Both are several standard deviations from a healthy norm, it's just that, at this point in history, the scree at the emaciation end is considered ideal while the scree at the fat end is, well, not.
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Would everyone who was breast fed please raise their right hands...go ahead. Do it now.
[Read the article: More on breast-feeding from the Times]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah. That's what I thought.
It would be really interesting to see all the pundits line up according to see whether they've been breast or bottle fed, then compare IQs, professional accomplishments, athletic prowess, proclivity for depression, etc. etc. This is the only comparison of the effects of the breast vs. bottle that I consider valid and reliable. Yeah, maybe breast feeding gives a baby a better start (maybe); but there are so many factors between where you start and where you end up, it makes about as much sense to try to enforce breastfeeding as to enforce parents eeliminating all sugar, fried and processed food from children's diets before the age of 10. I mean, on its face, THAT certainly seems like it would give children a better start too, doesn't it?
Hilariously, I'm sure all these people screaming about how it's criminal not to breast feed don't have any idea whether they were, or not. Like my brother, who joined the La Leche League and became quite haughty on the subject...until my mother laughed in his face and told him he was a formula baby all the way (she didn't give a reason, which is fine by me).
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Barbie and the Million Dollar Dream House (now, complete with Abu Grahib-style torture chamber!)
[Read the article: Should Barbie die?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a child I loved playing Barie - dressing her up and pretending she was a stewardess, teacher, or (more often than not) a mysteriously wealthy non-working jetsetter. Then came the phase where it was more fun to tak eher clothes *off* - the better to put her in the 69 position with Ken (my sister and I didn't know what they were supposed to be doing in this position but we knew it was dirty). Occasionally we had whispered Barbie conversations comprised entirely of profanity: "Shit, did you fucking shit in my motherfucking shoe again?" "Hell no! I was out fucking Ken you fucking bitch!" Then we tortured her, then forgot her.
As an adult I came to dislike the subtle message of Barbie's wildly disproportionate body, but I also think that in a world saturated with television, movie, internet and glossy magazine images that are far more sexualized, unrealistic and demeaning, Barbie's bosomy legginess is mostly just....quaint. I'd rather see a Barbie doll than a Paris Hilton doll... Barbie is a blank canvas that you can project daydreams of professional accomplishment onto, a doll you can make over into the image of a real woman...Paris is just a blank, a woman made over into the image of Barbie, something far more poisonous to sell to young girls than Mattel's sweet relic of yore.
Andthank you Sarah Goldstein for admitting Barbie's last incarnation in your girlhood was as torture victim! I cut my Barbie's hair off, used magic markers to 'warpaint' her body, and burned her feet with lit matches. Now she sits, disabled but elegantly (if a bit tartily) dressed, on my bookshelf. We're friends.
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Spurious causal link
[Read the article: Send in the clowns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]..exacerbated by specious reasoning.