Letters to the Editor
oxymoron
Published Letters: 320 Editor's Choice: 32
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I don't think anyone is assuming that abortion is an easy choice
[Read the article: Roe for men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The two choices for women here seem to be: Abort or face the possibility of raising the child on your own. It's not that simple. And how many women who would like to have that child will feel forced to abort if they realize they'll have to raise the child without any help from the father?
But I think that many married couples who want children face this decision AS A FINANCIAL ONE all the time. Oops, we're pregnant. Can we afford to have and raise this child?
I understand where the guys are coming from, and I hope that someday, the system will be fair for everyone. But right now it really isn't, and I feel that forcing a woman to have an abortion or support a child by herself is not providing her with a choice. Nor is it in the child's best interests, as many people have pointed out. That's why they call it "child support," not "baby mama support."
See, I just don't think that someone else should be forced to subsidize my decision (be it abortion, adoption, having the baby). As someone pointed out in an earlier post, it implies that I (by which I mean all women) must be dependent on men in this circumstance. If I get to make the decision, that means that I should take full and complete responsibility for that decision. Including financial responsibility. Why should that NOT factor in to the choice?
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Tom Cruise gets show yanked?
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does anyone take Tom Cruise seriously anymore? Is he REALLY that influential? It seems unlikely.
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Democrats prefer Hillary Clinton?
[Read the article: Is it 2008 yet?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since it's FOX news, I think we ought to take this with a grain of salt. The Repubs are pushing Hillary on us because they think she'd be easy to beat--and if that sounds like I've put my tinfoil hat on, well, I guess I have.
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Remember the 80's? (and Cayetana is right)
[Read the article: Who's the sexiest 6-year-old?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've never thought of it that way before, but you are absolutely right. Little girls cannot be sexy, no matter what they wear.
I'm thinking back to my 5 & 6 & 7-year-old days (ealy 70's), and how badly I wanted a pair of hip-huggers and a halter top--and how excited I was when I got them. I can't imagine how unsexy I must have been, a chubby unformed child, but heck, I was happy. I wanted trendy "grown-up" clothes--it wasn't that I wanted to look sexy, necessarily. (What's really funny to me is that the "grown up" clothes I wanted when I was a kid are the same "grown up" clothes that kids want now.)
When I was slightly older, my Mom had my hair cut (she was always getting it cut short, much against my wishes, since I wanted "sexy" long hair) and the veterinarian we took one of my pets to called me "young man"!!! Scarred for life ;-), I now refuse to have my hair any shorter than shoulder-length--although no-one would ever refer to me as "young man" now even if I was bald.
MY feelings about all this are sort of unformed, but I guess I would have to say that the more things change, blahblahblah. Remember when Madonna had her first hits and there was so much furor in the mainstream media about little girls dressing up like her, and what kind of message that would send? Or even earlier, when David Bowie and androgyny were really hot? I remember that it was really cool to be bisexual--or at least look like you were.
It's just that whenever this kind of thing comes up, people show every sign of not remembering THEIR childhoods--or even the trends of 10 years ago. Many of the people with young children are my age--folks, do you not REMEMBER wanting to plaster on the eyeliner and wear lace bustiers and rubber bracelets? Did the world end? Did you turn out to be a drug-addled slut?
I thought not.
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I don't think anyone said that children "cannot be seen" as sexual
[Read the article: Who's the sexiest 6-year-old?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But I DO think we need to separate what we're discussing here--little girls wearing inappropriate clothing--with pedophilia.
To a normal person, there is nothing sexy about a 7-year-old. And dressing them up "sexy" isn't what's attracting pedophiles--that's like saying a rape victim "asked for it" by wearing a short skirt. In fact, it's my understanding that what pedophiles LIKE is little girls who look like LITTLE GIRLS--not like adult women. Actually I remember a (I believe Japanese) movie in which a mother tells a daughter that she should "project an image of purity and innocence." The girl retorts "purity and innocence attract perverts". I always wanted that on a sampler.
Yes, there are a lot of people (mostly men) who want to sleep with young girls (and young boys). That's been going on for a very, very long time--much longer than low-cut jeans and thongs have been around. Yes, it's really kind of creepy that the naked women in Playboy and other skin magazines are shaved bare or nearly bare (though I have to say, anyone who cannot see how airbrushed those women are is seriously in need of glasses and a reality check). But you'll note that in all other ways, those women are WOMEN--not little girls--and would never, EVER be mistaken for little girls.
I just think that this is overreacting. If you don't want your kid wearing thongs and low-cut jeans, then don't let her wear them. If she says "everyone else does", point out to her that life sucks and she won't be a child forever.
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Also lacking statistical validity, but interesting
[Read the article: 9 out of 10 women in U.K. study call one-night stands "immoral"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I was in graduate school and teaching freshman composition back in the early 90's, our students were required to keep a journal. They could write on anything they wanted, but I would give them topics just in case. I used to use Harper's, specifically the page of statistics (I can't remember what that was called). One of them was about the percentage of people who sleep naked. Most of my students (18 or 19 year olds, mostly from Ohio cities/towns) were scandalized, and thought it was completely immoral that anyone would sleep naked.
Just kind of weird.