Letters to the Editor

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Marianna Trench

Published Letters: 329     Editor's Choice: 37

  • Relevance

    [Read the article: Baby Brangelina!]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I generally don't pay a whole lot of attention to celebrity news, but the apparent reason behind this famous divorce struck a chord with me, a childfree woman who has seen many couples of my acquaintance in conflict over when, and if, to have children. People don't seem to understand that this is an area in which there is little or no compromise. If you're thinking about getting married, make sure you're both on the same page. It will save you a lot of trouble down the line. Some folks do change their minds and become eager to parent, but you just can't count on that, and it's morally reprehensible to try. Even if they give in to keep the peace, they could end up being distant and uninvolved, and who would want a child to have one parent who wasn't really engaged with them? Let's face it, folks: some people--and there are more of them than you would like to believe--really would rather have a career than a child--and it has nothing to do with economics or lack of maturity.

    Jennifer Aniston generally isn't on my radar most of the time, but I had to respect her for not giving in to that pressure. She should be held up as an example of a woman who didn't give in to cultural pressure. If she does decide to have children in the future, it will, hopefully, be in her own sweet time, in a relationship in which she can imagine sharing parenting. And if she really doesn't want to--and doesn't give in to the pressure to show up on the cover of Good Housekeeping with a little expensively-dressed and egregiously-named accessory--I may just start watching her movies simply because she's a kindred spirit. Katharine Hepburn had a mind of her own, too.

  • Of course, if Condoleeza Rice had married and reproduced...

    [Read the article: Oh, so that's Condi's problem]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    we wouldn't be subjected to her whiny apologetics for the administration, or HER INCOMPETENCE IN THE DAYS BEFORE 9-11.

    Sigh...I miss Madeleine Albright, a woman with a spine and a brain.

  • dinner whores and the men who date them...

    [Read the article: "Meet the Dinner Whores"]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    deserve each other. And most are, in the end, probably perfectly happy with the transaction. One gets a swanky night out; the other gets an armful of eye candy.

    If you're whining about this situation, you probably wouldn't be able to afford a dinner whore anyway.

  • What will the anti-choice do...

    [Read the article: Should we stop worrying about Roe v. Wade?]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    when they're up the spout, themselves?

    Roe v. Wade ceased to affect me permanently the day my husband got his lab tests back indicating that he was shooting blanks. While I'm still deeply concerned for those women and girls who didn't demand an end to abortion rights and who will bear the brunt of a reversal at the hands of the Supreme Court, there's one group for whom I will shed no tears nor lose any sleep. That would be those anti-choice protesters who, while they shrieked for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, waved pictures of bloody fetuses, made their children carry signs saying I'm Glad My Mommy Didn't Abort Me, and engaged in all kinds of hysterical and embarrassing theatrics outside clinics, were surreptitiously taking advantages of the services those clinics had to offer. Read these stories (http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml) and pick your jaw up off the floor.

  • William McKinley

    [Read the article: "As far left as it gets..."]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    was one of the most corrupt, incompetent presidents the U.S. has ever endured. No wonder Fox thinks defacing his statue is a scandal.

  • what really grates on me...

    [Read the article: Our kind of celebrity]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    is the way Stahl worded that question. I could see asking how her own parenting experience informed her television role--not a stellar question, but a reasonable one--but to ask her if "being a mommy" (not a mother, mind you, but a MOMMY) is the "best experience of her life" is a deeply condescending and insulting question to ask any professional. Can you imagine asking Paul Newman or Clint Eastwood that question? (Does Clint Eastwood even HAVE children? I don't even know!)

    Oh, but the look on her face when Huffman bit her head off was priceless. I've never seen Huffman in anything--don't watch TV, haven't seen her movie--but in me she's got a new fan.

  • uh, yeah...about that homophobia thing...

    [Read the article: I'm a lumberjack, but I'm not OK]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    I wouldn't want my husband ogling other men, either...

  • thank you, cosmicmojo

    [Read the article: In student-teacher sex scandals, is there a double standard?]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Finally, on the last page, SOMEONE brings up the power issue.

    It's not about people widely separated by age having sex, regardless of which gender the older one is. It's about the fact that these are CHILDREN, and the adults are authority figures, people they're supposed to be able to trust to look after their interests, and people who hold the future of those children in their hands. Regardless of what you may read in the Penthouse forum, sexual awakening is NOT in the same category as Algebra II.

    That said, why is it more titillating, or scandalous, to hear about a female teacher seducing a male student? It's as creepy as a male teacher seducing a female student, or a male student, or whatever. No more, no less.

  • My husband is a big fan of Kathleen Turner

    [Read the article: Kathleen Turner: Over 50, sexy and as smart as hell]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    ...precisely because she always plays a grownup. He also thinks that Diana Rigg is sexier now than when she was in "The Avengers." I think he'll be sorry to hear that Turner won't be doing any more American films. I hope she shows up on the European screen at some point in the near future.

    Oh, by the way: he's 35 and is utterly bored by most younger actresses.

  • Maybe it's Bin Laden, not the tape, that we should be looking at...

    [Read the article: Bin Laden is back; let's smear Michael Moore]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    He's the administration's Emmanuel Goldstein. Enemy of the people, a complete invention of the Powers That Be that provides a lightning rod for collective hatred...and, consequently, in his mouth all the most reasonable oppositional arguments suddenly sound demonic. Oh, Bin Laden sure is a useful tool, and has been since that horrible day four Septembers ago. The U. S. originally created him, after all, and now the government may be keeping him alive for useful purposes. Maybe his escape from Tora Bora wasn't entirely due to incompetence.

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