Letters to the Editor
Linney Uston
Published Letters: 256 Editor's Choice: 5
-
A mistyping
[Read the article: Chatty Cathy, Taciturn Ted?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]An error I made is that Cathy Young didn't write for Broadsheet, she wrote for Salon back before Joan Walsh started turning it into a spear-carrier for her pet causes. (There are other individuals I could mention in her place: Tracy Quan, for instance.) I use Young strictly as an example because it illustrates how far this publication has fallen in terms of diversity of viewpoints on gender issues. But lay that aside.
Look- Trace has shown an obvious bias throughout her history of postings, and this context is relevant when reading this one. As it stands, her belief system can be summed-up with: "Women are no different from men, except for the ways in which women are morally superior and more intelligent" and this posting should be read in such a context. For that is the dominant leitmotif of Broadsheet- even moreso for many of the blogs it links to and endorses.
If I was at all inclined to crassly exploit people's good-faith efforts by making frivolous accusations of sexism, then I would probably find it all an extremely compelling endeavor to arrange my life around. Alas, I don't. Mainly because I lack Tracy's well-esatblished aversion to respecting men as equals.
-
Criticize feminism once, you'll be on thin ice for the rest of your career...
[Read the article: Katie Roiphe's morning after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I was furious at Roiphe, for sending a message to young women that all sex was OK sex, and that they were probably complicit in any violent sexual experiences they might have had."
Rebecca could've saved herself a lot of anger. The only way she could've possibly gotten this "message" out of The Morning After is if she did not know how to read. Or if she willfully misread it.
Roiphe's crime was to suggest it's emotionally-manipulative to inflate the threat of rape up to titanic proportions and it does women no favors to give them a distorted picture of the risks they face. She essentially urged women to stop viewing the world through victim-goggles. Indeed, the "rape crisis feminism" she described wanted to have it both ways: rape is to be regarded as the worst possible crime on the planet, but it also includes having bad sex after a glass of wine.
The legacy of this hysterical mentality has not been benign. Just ask the Duke Lacrosse team.
And how interesting that grudges among feminists can persist for decades... especially ironic that this comes from the same camp which likes to say that women's style of communication is more cooperative and less contentious.
-
Michelle1971-
[Read the article: Katie Roiphe's morning after]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Superb. Salon ought to turn Broadsheet over to you.
-
Pathetic little tantrum
[Read the article: No apologies, Katie Couric!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Has it ever occurred to Salon's self-appointed Vagina Avenger that Couric simply wasn't that great a choice to begin with?
Oh, no. Of course not. Play the gender card. That always works. Or blame the audience in TV land. Whatever.
I'd say the real sexism was promoting a woman into a position without paying heed to her abilities.
-
@Anonymous & Amy Winehouse
[Read the article: Women want brawn for now, brains for good?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't be silly. It only counts as domestic violence when a man is guilty of it. When a woman does it, we must raise our fists in solidarity and chant "you GO, girl!"
Because of "equality" or something.
-
Ahh, a "continuum"
[Read the article: "Her face was nothing but red"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How convenient that word is. It so handily connects things which would ordinarily be seen as having little to no connection whatsoever.
The "continuum" shows that there's no real difference between, say, involuntarily genital cutting in southern Sudan and voluntary labia surgery in LA. The "continuum" shows there's no real difference between Ming-dynasty foot-binding and wearing uncomfortable shoes in Manhattan.
The oppression of women in far-away times and places can so conveniently become ways to illustrate the victimhood of white women in the First World: the "continuum" links them!
-
Foolish question, Anon above
[Read the article: Pseudopsychology Today]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"What makes evolutionary psychology intellectually better or worse, intellectually more rigorous or less rigorous than women's studies?"
That's a dumb thing to ask. Women's studies-- which replies mainly upon literature criticism methology-- is far easier to grasp and it gives her reasons to feel all huffed-up and truculent.
Evolutionary psychology, on the other hand, makes her feel offended therefore it's a baseless cult. It just so happens that The Truth corresponds exactly with Lloyd's emotional reactions.
Funny how everyone who pushes-forward the whole "gender is a social construct" hypothesis never even attempts to prove it, as if repeating the assertion over and over is equvalent to proving it.
Gee, if gender was so obviously a social construct, you'd think there be... uh... a scintilla of EVIDENCE for that hypothesis. Right? Maybe something which could be scientifically verified?
Or, even better, maybe the hypothesis would actually PREDICT something, right? That's what hypotheses do. Maybe there's some tribe in the Amazonian jungle where only women hunt wild animals, right? If there is, anthropologists have yet to observe such a tribe. Because that's exactly what you'd expect to find if the "gender is a social construct" hypothesis had any speck of predictive power whatsoever.
Carol? Your thoughts on this? Any at all? These are some good questions we'd like to see on Broadsheet in future.
-
asage
[Read the article: Pseudopsychology Today]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I also hate it when people choose a particular endpoint, and then try to fit the interpretation around it."
I agree. Like, to pick a random example, when someone chooses the endpoint that any differences in outcomes between the sexes is solely due to male perfidy, and then fits their interpretation of all events around that conclusion?
Yeah, I hate it when people backwards-reason like that.
-
Re: asage
[Read the article: Pseudopsychology Today]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"why do men like big breasts, and does this article have it right?"
I think Jared Diamond in "The Third Chimpanzee" had some interesting insights on this question.