Letters to the Editor
melthough
Published Letters: 1212 Editor's Choice: 98
-
"No, officer, ...
[Read the article: For sex, first sign on the dotted line]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't actually CONSENT to drive/get into a bar brawl/kill my wife in anger. You see, I was intoxicated."
Something here doesn't add up. If you voluntarily get drunk, you are implicity "consenting" to do things you wouldn't do if you weren't drunk. Isn't that the main point of drinking too much? I don't think it's fair to place responsibility for your drunken sexual exploits on the other drunk people you shared them with. And while I doubt that most women would actually get themselves dragged through the court system in order to do that, there are plenty of vengeful, manipulative people out there who will lie through their teeth to get back at someone, or because they have a personality disorder, or because that's how they get their jollies. And I also just don't get how people are going to prove they were drunk at the time of the alleged rape. Sounds like another nasty way to put rape victims on the defensive.
Even in the relatively few cases of clear-cut, violent rape by strangers with weapons in dark alleys, women who are raped are treated horribly in the U.S. courts (presumably the U.K. is similar? I don't know). But I don't think a drunk=non-consensual rule makes things fair for anyone.
-
My 5-year-old
[Read the article: Taking back "Slut-o-ween"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]SON is going trick-or-treating as a fairy princess butterfly. I did notice with some horror that one of the thrift store princess dresses we looked at had CLEAVAGE drawn on it. Size 6X.
Girls' clothes in general have taken an alarmingly mature turn since I was in size 6X. But if grown women want to dress as dominatrices, I guess that's their prerogative. For my part, I going as a Wild Thing. You know, from the Maurice Sendak book.
-
Sounds like Vermont!
[Read the article: The reddest place in America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The mayor of Rexburg says, "We live in a great community. Safe streets. Great schools." That sounds a lot like where I live! Vermont. Except it's, you know, the *other* color.
Safe communities have very little to do with who is in power in Washington. They have a lot to do with local community spirit. I don't have a citation, but I remember reading an article a couple years back about how local politics have a definite "liberal" tendency - presumably because it is easier to care about people when they're your neighbors.
And we do that in godless blue states too.
-
Dear Sit Stand Kneel
[Read the article: Which restroom should transgender people use?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You should add to your rant the fact that there usually many more urinals in a men's bathroom than there are toilets in a women's bathroom.
And I'm all for unisex bathrooms too. The most ridiculous thing happened to me the other day - I went into a gas station to pee and a mother and daughter were standing there waiting to use the women's restroom. These were lockable, one-toilet facilities. I said, "Is anyone in the men's?" The mom said no, and when I offered to let her go ahead of me in the men's room her eyes got big and she shook her head and wrapped her arms around her daughter - presumably to protect her from a raving maniac who would dare to lock herself in a bathroom that said "Men" on it instead of "Women."
So French WCs might be the wave of the future, but we've got a long way to ... um, go.
-
I agree with carolyn
[Read the article: Turning back the clock on single-sex education]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is a huge array of skin colors, but for some reason we *pinker* brown folks have this disabling need to simplify the whole business into black and white. Learning styles have a similarly nuanced spectrum, so let's not disable ourselves and our children by trying to simplify it into male and female.
There are so many different ways of learning - almost none of them fostered by being yammered at by an authority figure at the front of a classroom - and I don't think you actually solve any problems by taking 70 kids and sticking 35 boys in a classroom with one teacher and 35 girls in a different classroom with a different teacher. Do you really think there would have to be *boys* in the back row bullying people? Girls are arguably worse. What if we don't *have* back rows of classrooms? What if we put smaller groups of students with a similar cocktail of learning styles into classrooms with teachers who were good at mixing that particular cocktail?
If more of the affluent families would put their kids in public school and volunteer on the school board instead of segregating them in private schools, we might actually accomplish something with this system.
-
"next, please," this is why Cary writes the column instead of you.
[Read the article: I like a certain gentleman at work, but is he gay?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because he can tell the LW is very reserved from her writing style. Obviously, what you suggest is totally out of the question for her.
The next question, though, is why you and other people with no compassion bother to tear open this column every day and then leave your litter all over the comments section. Why would anyone accept social advice from someone so rude?
-
Tips go to broadsheet@salon.com
[Read the article: Sex and suicide attacks]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's for S. Curtis.
-
I wonder how many native Italian men
[Read the article: Veil vitriol hits Italy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]would be willing to sign the paper affirming the equal rights of men and women. Wouldn't it be cool to also make it a requirement for the priesthood? (Of course, women, poor souls, would never be allowed to sign....)