Letters to the Editor
LeCastor
Published Letters: 1916 Editor's Choice: 86
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anon, you can't be serious
[Read the article: I'm a student in Scandinavia terrified of rape]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]this does raise the question: how submissive and asexual do men women don't know have to be
before women feel safe. It appears that ANY expression of sexuality by men makes women afraid. If it weren't for online hookups where the women are explicitly looking for sex I wonder if anyone would ever have sex. It's obviously not possible to socially i.e. sexually interact with a woman you don't know (I guess maybe we could go back to the old system of no social interaction without an "introduction", but given how small many people's social circle is I don't know how well that would work).
-- anon
I mean, maybe you write this as a joke; I hope you don't really believe this.
Are you equating striking up conversations with women at Starbucks (perfectly acceptable), over a cigarette outside of the office building (acceptable) to cat-calling and yelling "Swedish whore" at passersby? I mean, is cat-calling and whore-naming the way you pick up women? Because that would explain your self-confessed lack of success. :)
I mean, what "expressions of sexuality" are you advocating for being totally acceptable? Flashing? Groping? Explicit propositioning?
You can't be serious.
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Democratic billionaire: Soros?
[Read the article: Still fair, still balanced]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He could do it. :)
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"Moderate Republicans" Have Compromised Themselves By Pandering to the Religious Right
[Read the article: For 2008, a hypothetical Democratic victory]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When McCain goes to Liberty University, when Guliani campaigns for Santorum, they alienate any Democrat that would have voted for them over a trained monkey running on the Democratic ticket. I can't picture myself voting for Republicans because we all know the debts they would have to pay to the religious right. If they people like McCain and Guliani abandon completely that constituency, they have more of a chance of capturing the center and winning.
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Tragula
[Read the article: A special Broadsheet farewell ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't see choice feminism as a new movement. It corresponds directly to the old feminism, which was about giving women the same rights and opportunities as men. The new feminism is the one the Statistical Feminists believe in, tracing every gender disparity back to discrimination. And determined to re-shape the social fabric into some 50/50 mold via affirmative action programs for women.
Yes, we agree! It's about women having the same rights and opportunities as men (i don't know if "giving" is a good word here). If you have the time, please read this letter I wrote about another Broadsheet post about tracing every gender disparity back to discrimination. It sums up my position nicely:
http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/11/13/sexism_racism/permalink/c4e011fca3158687e00ea45311541e22.html
And really, it's the young college feminists who are the ideological radicals, fresh from their women's studies indoctrination courses. When they mature they often realize that life doesn't always conform to an ideology.
Please, please don't stereotype us like that. I am a feminist, and i am young, and i'm still in school (grad school, albeit), but I never took a women's studies class in my life. I studied computer science and finance.
All women have ever had to do is whatever they wanted! To be free! Who cares whether more women choose to be homemakers than men. Why does that even matter?
Well, it's more complicated than you want to admit. until the late 1970's, women who wanted to go to Yale simply couldn't. Until the beginning of this century, women who wanted to go to law school couldn't. Many many things for women, like voting, reproductive rights, the army, owning property, are relatively recent developments. But women still lack the same rights and opportunities as men, even if it seems like we are all equal on paper. There is still pervasive discrimination in hiring, for many professions. Women still are not part of the draft, and cannot serve in many military positions. Women are still paid less than men (robert franklin will show up soon to present counterarguments). There is much more to be done, and it's hard to get it done when a whole set of women decides to take the easy way out and be dependents of their husbands, providing fodder for the screaming pundits, and essentially not taking advantage of these hard-won opportunities and rights. And the worst part is, these "choice feminists" start screaming like Caitlin Flanigan about how feminism is bad, etc. etc. It's like women shooting themselves in the head. It almost feels like not only do they personally want to make The Choice, but they want to do their best to take the rest of us womankind with them, and eventually, it won't be a choice anymore.
BTW I am a stay at home dad. Which would make me dependent on my wife. And I don't feel like I should be preparing for the day divorce hits us out of the blue. Many people have solid relationships that don't end badly. They trust their partners, and work together as a team.
I wish you the absolute best, honestly. But even in my tender youth, I have already seen parents of my friends divorce after decades of seemingly wonderful marriage. My favorite story: wife never worked, husband worked at a hedge fund, they lived a fabulous life. husband cheated on wife with some young hottie, left the wife. Now husband is sailing around the world with his hottie and his massive piles of hedge fund money, while wifey is working as a sales clerk at a department store, because even though she has a college degree, she has zero work experience in any field, and she's in her mid-40's.
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Some of us "diverse" folk
[Read the article: I'm a student in Scandinavia terrified of rape]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]go to the halls of power, my friend. We're all children of poor dirty immigrants, in a way. Lots of Italians and Irish in the house and senate. look, we just got our first muslim representative, we have our first half-kenyan senator.
just go to med schools and grad schools in general, and you will see that many many of the studnets are children of immigrants.
It's not just about cheap low-level labor.
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My Favorite of the 12 Things is This One:
[Read the article: What else we're reading]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"11. Don't try to figure us out. We don't even understand ourselves. Just think of us as a complex carbohydrate that's good for you."
*giggle*! yum, we're just too dumb to even understand ourselves!