Letters to the Editor
maggie
Published Letters: 53 Editor's Choice: 3
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the sexuality continuum
[Read the article: I'm not really interested in sex and never have been]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, why all the preliminary shrinking? Of course the writer is confused and anxious. She's 22 and she wrote the letter! As an older woman who's thrilled to be somewhat asexual after years of letting good sex get in the way of my good sense in choosing partners, I found much of that response unnecessarily alarmist.
Over the years I've noticed that humans vary as much in their desire for sex as they do in their sexual preferences. I've also noticed personally the variation in desire that comes with age, love, and physical attraction. Our culture, on the other hand, has swung from "do your marital duty for god and country" to copulate early and often like chimpanzees. Unlike sexuality itself, the need to enforce a particular brand of sexual normalcy seems to be universally consistent.
To some extent, although likely unintended by Mr. Tennis, the response struck me as implicitly enforcing our current cultural obsession with sex. We are constantly getting "you don't measure up" messages from advertisers (and women's magazines especially), especially about sexual desire and sexual attractiveness. We're at least becoming more enlightened about sexual preference; let's also become more enlightened about sexual desire.
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Hilarious!
[Read the article: Why Bradsheet?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm still chuckling, but do I see a few grains of truth in there. Isn't it amazing how celebrity culture is still in high school? And how Bradsheet wouldn't even read like a spoof if it were Jensheet?
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callous disregard
[Read the article: Mary Cheney's memoir to come out soon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If this is true, it is another classic example of how easily greedy and ambitious parents can overcome their sense of love and responsibility toward their own children, much less anybody else's.
Consider Strom Thurmond who nurtured his daughter in private but strenuously sought to keep her publicly subordindate and separate. Then there's the "Decider" and the many rich and powerful parents who voted for him knowing his views towards his own daughters' most basic rights. And let's not forget Thomas Jefferson and the infamous 3/5 rule aimed at keeping his own children enslaved.
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eeuuwww!
[Read the article: Daddy's little virgin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I saw a video of a purity ball on some news show. My gut said "subliminal incestuous lust" and I felt like tossing my cookies.
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Commander in chief
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does anybody else think ABC killed C-in-C on purpose? I loved that show at first but who could even figure out when it was on! And the storylines quickly degenerated into tabloid sex issues. Geena Davis did such a good job conveying power and dignity that she must have made the suits-in-chief uncomfortable. After all, we wouldn't want people to get comfortable with the idea of Hilary in the Oval Office, would we? And I'm not even a fan of HRC.
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If Grey's is female friendly, I'll take Charlie Sheen
[Read the article: "Gooey girls' fare" goes prime time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was a Grey's fan but the finale was so awful I have no interest in continuing to watch. The sex scene was so poorly done it was repulsive rather than erotic and the Izzie thing so grating I nearly cheered when her man died. That is, if I could have considered the hyperemotional girly mess as entertainment.
Because the show really did have a few well-drawn characters and some well-written scripts, I saw it through to the end hoping the writers would still redeem it with something smart and witty. Instead we got a cliche. As someone who believes entertainment both affects and reflects our society, I was dismayed at how the writers trashed the women characters and ultimately their audience.
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Desperate to be housewives?
[Read the article: The damage done]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The media hullabaloo today about women and marriage is just as cloying and obnoxious as it was in 1986. It's true the 1986 silliness was damaging to a lot of insecure women. But touting all these later marriages merely prolongs the stereotype of women desparate to marry. Why not talk about the millions of women who don't want the legal tie or who simply don't have any great desire to get hooked up monogamously, maritally, re-maritally, or whatever? How about dissecting that new survey that purportedly shows men more marriage-minded than women?
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Of course it mattered!
[Read the article: Why the Rove story mattered]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I completely agree with your reasons and am grateful for the skeptical approach War Room took to Truthout's Rove story. Those of us who find the MSM completely bushist need reliable alternative news sources and not Drudge-like pandering to our hopes and dreams (like seeing Rove and most of the current administration in prison-orange). Your insistence on maintaining journalistic standards is critically important when so much of the press has been cowed or co-opted.
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See the movie before you comment
[Read the article: Sympathy for the she-devil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After seeing the movie, I read this article and then the letters. I am curious why people think they can comment intelligently on a movie they never saw.
That said, I agree that the portrayal of Miranda was refreshing. However, I still sided with Andie in ultimately rejecting the world of fashion. Yes, choosing between nearly identical belts might mean huge bucks to an industry whose sole purpose is to market female insecurity. I could appreciate Miranda's professionalism but not her profession. The movie purports to satirize our obsession with anorexic slenderness, trendy fashion trivia, and the modern version of footbinding, but it gives the industry far more respect than it deserves.
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Middle school cool?
[Read the article: Touched for the very first time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hope this article was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek because it strikes me as atypically silly and age-ignorant. You sound like the desperately aging 30-40 somethings who still think middle schoolers set the standard for what adults consider appealing or interesting.
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Mark MY words
[Read the article: The midterm elections: The GOP's Iraq, or Florida revisited?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No question about that. They have the machines stragegically rigged and/or they'll trot out the tall boy in the flowing robe in some fashion. My question is what will we do about it. Are we the People are we we the sheep?
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Is biology destiny?
[Read the article: Sexless and loving it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hmmm, the entire article reads like the typical symptoms of perimenopause.
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Ignorance or deliberate amnesia?
[Read the article: What's in a name?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Funny how quickly these self-proclaimed intellects have forgotten King Hussein of Jordan -- friend of Bill, George H.W., Jimmy and Gerald, and probably Dick Nixon as well. If I recall correctly, his funeral was practically a national day of mourning here in the U.S.