Letters to the Editor
Serai1
Published Letters: 553 Editor's Choice: 33
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@Cataract
[Read the article: "We need to be vulgar. This is our revolution"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For that matter, it bothers me that, out of two film versions of the same religious story, the one that can best be described as a snuff film - basically two hours of a man being beaten to death - gets treated as some sort of rapturous experience by millions, while the other, which cuts the violence to a bare fraction but includes a tender love scene between a beautiful man and woman, can draw enraged protests around the country.
Humans, go figure.
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Really.
[Read the article: "You Don't Mess With the Zohan"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's called "acting" for a reason!
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How sad
[Read the article: Genghis Khan, Harlan Ellison and RFK]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Forty years ago to the day, and this is the only mention of RFK on the whole Salon site. How utterly sad.
*sigh*
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*giggle*
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This kind of thing is endemic to the Cult of Personality. Every young, fairly good-looking guy who gets famous will attract this kind of talk from a few starry-eyed "spiritual" types, usually women. I've seen this kind of thing from fans of several cutie-pie Hollywood actors, for instance. (When The Matrix came out, Keanu Reeves of all people was being touted as the New Messiah. If THAT isn't absurd, I don't know what.)
*shrug* It's not important. There will always be some folks looking for the Space Brothers to usher in the new Age of Aquarius. They're harmless.
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Uh huh
[Read the article: And the winner is ... ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know, I can see the visual reference in the Beijing picture. But that tower and the cathedral? I gotta strain pretty hard to see it there. Makes me wonder what kind of mind looks around and sees genitalia everywhere.
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Bwahaha!
[Read the article: Single women should be ashamed of themselves!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been single for about 15 years, and I can say unequivocally that the most miserable years of my life were the three I spent married. The whole "single women are miserable" thesis exists to shore up the "motherhood is the only good state for women" idea. Another concept that is not only outdated, but sadly out of touch. Neither motherhood nor marriage is right for every woman - some of us are just not cut out for either, and the sooner our culture starts teaching girls how to examine themselves and figure such things out, the sooner we'll all be better off.
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*snarl*
[Read the article: How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I could only make it through the first ten paragraphs or so of this article. Then I had to stop. There are not words enough in the English language to describe how despicable these people are. To call Rove a snake would be an insult to cobras everywhere. To call Bush a jackass would shame every donkey in the world. They're scum, plain and simple, pure trash.
Shame on the American public for putting up with them for a single day, let alone eight long years.
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The wrong fit
[Read the article: The mother-daughter wars]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For a while I was very close friends with a woman who, in mid-life, finally found her calling. She started writing, opening a flood-gate of inspiration, declaring that she'd discovered why she was born. I was delighted. I encouraged her, and we had many discussions over several years about writing and the things she was creating. Then...she got pregnant. Everything else got thrown in the back seat, and despite years of cynical talk about parenthood and not wanting to even think about reproducing, suddenly there was no talking to her about it. She would not brook the merest hint that it might not be a good idea.
Guess what? She's miserable now. She loves her kid, but her writing has stalled, and the progress she does manage to make it slow and difficult, and she greatly resents the enormous effort she has to make at something that was so joyful and productive there for a while. I feel sorry for both her and her daughter, who will have to deal with all that pent-up resentment.
So many people think that we "second-wave" feminists rejected motherhood out of fear or distaste or bad experiences, but this is one aspect that many do not get - that one of the biggest reasons to take motherhood down from its holy pedestal is simply that it's not right for everyone. The crime of our culture in this regard is not that motherhood is prized, but that it is assumed to be the greatest and only worthwhile pursuit for women, and that is simply, flatly untrue. It is the greatest and only worthwhile pursuit for some women, not all. There is so much misery that comes of cramming yourself into that box when it doesn't fit, of assuming that because you're pregnant, you MUST give birth. Believe me, I've worked in social services, and have seen many, many women who should never have had children. It's more obvious with women who have great gifts to give the world and find themselves either swallowing the bitterness or throwing it at their kids, but it's just as true for women of more ordinary lives.
If we as a society would teach our kids how to look at themselves realistically and decide whether parenthood is right for them, and then refrain from judgment when they choose not to take it on (let ALONE adult women who choose so), there would be a lot less of this kind of unhappiness around.