Letters to the Editor
JennyLynnF
Published Letters: 48 Editor's Choice: 2
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It's a healthcare issue, stupid
[Read the article: Maternity leave ... from math class?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a health care issue, not an opportunity to send a moral message. Women, even very young women, need adequate time to recover after childbirth and the newborn needs constant care to ensure optimal health, period. If the Denver school system allows its students excused medical absences for other reasons, then it should be required to do so for its postpartum students as well. To deny medical leave to these students is gender-based discrimination. If the school system wants to get into the business of puritanical morality legislation, then it should conduct DNA testing to determine the identity of the father and ensure that both parents are punished equally. If the male parent is a fellow student, he should be suspended for an amount of time equal to the female parent's absence. If the male parent is an older male, then he should be required take an unpaid leave of absence from his job equal to the new mother's absence. How the school system will enforce the latter I do not know, but it will probably require a hefty amount of taxpayer money and the cooperation of local law enforcement as well. Still though, small price to pay for the return of the country to the days of the Salem Witch Trials.
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Read Paul Krugman's NYT editorial about Obama and Reagan
[Read the article: Who among us does not love Ronald Reagan?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think anonymous @8:29am Tuesday provided a service by pointing readers toward Krugman's editorial about Obama's comments and Reagan. Truthfully, I have been disappointed that Salon editorial board, so synonymous in my mind with insightful criticism and reporting, has apparently decided to turn a blind-eye to Obama's flaws and faults as a candidate - the #1 flaw being his desire to be all things to all people. As Krugman noted in his editorial, a Democratic candidate who prides himself on his liberal voting record should be reminding people about the enormous class divide and wage stagnation among working class people that occurred during Reagan's 8 years in office. I was a teenager during the '80's, and I remember them as being a very depressing time, full of lay-offs and drug wars and the decline of independently owned and operated businesses. So why then is Obama talking about Reagan's "optimism" and "entrepreneurship?" That was Reagan's projected image, but the real effects of his policymaking were far different than the cheery hype that surrounds his memory. I worry that Obama, too, will seek to model himself after Reagan- as a positive image maker whose decisions will only further the economic divide and reinforce socially repressive policies and ideas already in place.
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Sexual maturity in youth is like stargazing in daylight
[Read the article: Lindsay Lohan strips for "The Last Sitting"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The thing that bothers me the most about this replication of Monroe's photo shoot is that it highlights the perception that mature women are not considered sexy by this society. Monroe was 36 at the time of the original photo shoot. Lohan is 21. Also, the original Monroe pictures show a voluptuous adult aware of and apparently enjoying the effect her that sexual magnetism was having on the observer. Lohan appears to be a child - underweight, unhappy and aping a grown up being sexy. There is a reason that mature women are innately sexier than girls - sexual power is more mental than physical and young adults just don't have the experience to exert that kind of power. To view feminism through a sexual,rather than occupational lens, these photos pinpoint precisely the feminist territory that has been lost since Monroe's death. The sexual power of mature women is more threatening now than then.
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Tronic
[Read the article: Lindsay Lohan strips for "The Last Sitting"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dr. Seuss was an author grounded in reality but who simply chose to veil that reality in fantasy prose ostensibly aimed at children but really meant for adults. Too bad that you are unable to detect such subtleties because I would imagine that you would also be unaware of the differences between women who enjoyed sex and girls who like to play dress up. Men who find girls attractive are really turned on by the fantasy of exerting power over someone weaker than themselves.
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Hotrod
[Read the article: Lindsay Lohan strips for "The Last Sitting"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Vrroom buddy!
I know a lot about men like you. To say the least, you don't interest me. Your fear of women interests me more.
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Tronic
[Read the article: Lindsay Lohan strips for "The Last Sitting"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, I think you hate/fear Dr. Seuss.
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Satire shoots but doesn't score
[Read the article: Attention, all you memoir fabulists!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Your satire comes close but misses the mark by lumping together the Bible, the Adventures of Marco Polo and other works by serious literary figures with memoirs of modern day authors who want to make a profit. While it may be silly to expect the publishing industry to ferret out every untruth in every literary work, the marketing of books for profit has turned this art of the written word into a complex machine. This is where the real satire should be properly aimed, at the fact that profit, not art, is the primary motivating factor in today's book-making industry. For another thing, and another reason your satire misses, is that many things have changed since the majority authors you satirize penned their works. Literary standards were not what they are now when, for example, the Gospels were written, and it is probable that the authors did not see their embellishments as lies. Today the concept of the novel has been well established, as has the general of realistic fiction. Non-fiction, today, is clearly understood to mean true, and while authors have license even within non-fiction to change names and dates, what Ms. Seltzer created is properly termed realistic fiction. I am sure that she knew this when she marketed her book. Therefore, I conclude that Ms. Seltzer lied, and she did so because non-fiction memoirs sell better in today's market than works of realistic fiction. She can claim altruistic motives for her actions, but I do think she was trying to bolster her bottom line more than the greater good of humanity. Which brings me to the motivations of authors like Nabokov. I am not sure that he cared about the greater good of humanity, but he certainly cared about the craft of writing and one can presume that this is what motivated him and others like him to write.