Letters to the Editor
Betsy1
Published Letters: 28 Editor's Choice: 5
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regrets
[Read the article: A case for parental notification]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ms. So writes: "For every story in which a woman moved on with a sigh of relief, there seems to be another story of lifelong guilt and regret."
Yeah. Just imagine the regret of the girl with abusive parents faced with an anti-choice judge, who might end up physically abused, kicked out of her home, and/or forced into a motherhood that ruins her chances of building the life she wanted for herself or for her children.
Regret is not something to base legislation on. To base laws that constrain women on the fact that women might someday regret some action they take is the embodiment of paternalism.
I would also like to agree with what someone said above: the law is not about protecting families from government interference. If there is no such law, there is no interference. On the contrary, the law would MANDATE government intrusion into families, no matter whether or not it is appropriate to do so.
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what's worse...
[Read the article: The apron versus the fire hose]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's worse is that it's not the movements he characterizes as being about police dogs vs. aprons; it's the oppression. The quote in full reads "Repression of blacks was the stuff of massive state-leveraged cruelty -- the police dogs and fire hoses -- while repression of women in this country was made of quieter stuff: bras, aprons and constitutional amendments." This is incredibly dismissive. He's essentially (and cavalierly) making an argument that the oppression of blacks was worse than that of women. Now, this is not a productive discussion to have. It just isn't. I don't think that a comparison can ever be made between two such different kinds of injustice, and I don't think that it's productive to try. But to so easily brush off the violence at the heart of the oppression women were fighting is both ignorant and disrespectful. Many women in the feminist movement were fighting for their and others' lives: against rape and domestic violence, most obviously, but also about the right to earn a living and control one's money and one's body, which are about as fundamental as can be. Bras were never at the center of that movement; women's lives were.
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false equivalency
[Read the article: How much responsibility for mothers-to-be?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have one small problem with this post.
In this context, it can be hard to hear that non-pregnant women should avoid alcohol just in case they become pregnant, or that pregnant women should avoid alcohol entirely even though science isn't settled on what effects limited alcohol consumption will have on a fetus. The advice itself may be sensible, and naturally parenting involves personal sacrifice.
You're making it sound like non-pregnant women avoiding alcohol is equivalent with pregnant women avoiding alcohol. Of course parenting involves personal sacrifice. But the key difference here is that a non-pregnant woman is not necessarily parenting! There's nothing "sensible" about telling a non-pregnant woman who's not planning on becoming pregnant not to drink. There is no equivalency between the risks for the former and the risks for the latter.
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Global Orgasm for Peace Day
[Read the article: More on gender testing in sports]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And on my birthday! What a happy coincidence.
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been there
[Read the article: My dad's doing too much creepy hugging]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm writing because when I read this article, I felt a shock of familiarity. Not at the way the writer describes himself - I am a woman in my mid-20s who generally loves hugging and affection with the important people in my life, and I'm generally well-adjusted. But I have the same feelings of creepiness and revulsion when my father touches me. It always feels like it lingers too long, like his hands go just a tiny bit too far down my back or my sides. Even when he simply squeezes my shoulder it feels vile to me. I noticed these feelings for the first time a couple of years ago. At the time, the strength of my feelings caused me to wonder (for the first time ever) if something had happened as a child that I repressed. But I've come to realize that it is a lot simpler than that.
I have a lot of anger at what feel like my father's failures as a parent that I've only just started bringing to the surface - things having to do with his role in my parents' divorce, with how he treats women (gallantly, but not equally), with his inability to see his own imperfections, and with many other small things. I denied my anger at him for many years, and I think that as I became an adult and these feeling started to surface, they manifested themselves in my resistance to his touching. But whatever else his flaws, he certainly never molested me. A hatred of being touched does not have to be about that. I think we need to be very, very careful about this repressed memory business; it can end up ripping apart the lives of innocent people.
Anyway, I just wanted to chime in as someone who has felt the same thing, and point out that that the anger can be about all sorts of things, not necessarily molestation. I know many people here will probably scoff at this letter, but I wanted to post it for the man who wrote in today.
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brilliant
[Read the article: The Politico: Exhibit A for our broken political press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bravo. I don't know how they could legitimately defend themselves from these criticisms. But I'm curious to see if they'll try. I think the closest they could come would be a "but the people WANT fluff!" Which of course would lay bare the bankruptcy of their own goals.
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Ireland abortion laws - get your facts straight, the sequel
[Read the article: Is it the sexism thing, or is it Katie Couric?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm pretty annoyed that you guys made the same mistake in describing Ireland's abortion laws that you did when you first discussed the Miss D case. A woman can leave the country for any reason, whenever she wishes; the country does not give pregnancy tests at the airports. It is because the girl is underage and a ward of the state that this was an issue.