Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 227 Editor's Choice: 42
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I understand, but you may change your mind later
[Read the article: Am I a female misogynist?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I also have disliked women since I was young and have had few female friendships as fulfilling as those with my male friends. On the other hand, I am also a feminist, which is primarily about securing civil rights for myself in this male-dominated society. So, I submit that disliking women and being a feminist can be mutually exclusive.
In my case, I had an unloving father and a fashion-concious mother, who divorced when I was 16. To gain my father's approval was the unrequited task of my youth and I dressed plainly, ignored grooming niceties and tried to be as masculine as possible. The jobs I took were also male-dominated, and in the 70's, that was punishing - Anita Hill has nothing on me! I hated being a woman, and couldn't bear to be in female company - they were so frivolous. By the way, my father died without so much as an 'I'm proud of you.'
So, at the age of 50, after decades of working and competing with men, I got tired of the constant and meaningless games they play, and noticed how those games usually become more important than the job. I noticed that women quietly and competently got the job done. I also discovered new studies indicating that matriarchal societies were actually responsible for the birth of western culture, and that women's natural aptitude for leadership became lost to history as women and children became men's property.
I think that a lot of behavior that I hated in women was actually a mixture of learned behavior (what will win a "protector's" attention) and an instinctual way of seeing the world. Not competition, but cooperation, enjoyment of the moment, not constant struggling to get ahead in the future. I could go on, but basically, I began to see that stopping to get a manicure and enjoying beautiful things wasn't such a bad thing.
Now I make colorful, sexy clothes for women and foresee a future when women dominate government again. It did take 40 years for me to get there and I still get impatient with some women. But I generally forgive them their foibles, as I forgive men theirs. Thank the goddess we are different!
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Are we there yet?
[Read the article: America can't take it anymore]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So the CIA is Bush's secret police. All people in "The Party" are untouchable. We're passing laws restricting rights to scapegoated groups in this country. There are countless cases of bannings, if not burnings, of oppositional information in all media. I think Dick Durbin is right on the mark in invoking Hitler's infamy when referring to this administration.
It's clear that this administration is corrupt, operationally and morally. The involvement bleeds into all branches of government, so our so-called "representatives" will do nothing unless we demand change. Do we just sit in fear and click internet poll buttons for three years? Allow a handful of martyrs stand up and be marginalized, if not arrested, for our sins? Do nothing as thousands of people are disappearing? That's hardly better than what the German people did under Hitler.
If we don't all show up, in person, on the steps of the Congress and demand impeachment and removal of all the leadership - Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all their henchmen - on the issue of torture, we have not learned the lessons of history.
I think that torture is the one cross-party issue that will get everyone out of their seats and on the bus. A million-man/mom march with signs and speeches is nice, but thousands of people in the halls of congressional offices demanding to be heard is better. Who knew in the 60's that the experience of taking over the college administration building could be valuable in saving the country 40 years later? Yes, it's come to that.
Bottom line - we ARE there. Lets don't wait for the concentration camps.
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Good article
[Read the article: The real Calamity Jane]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I especially like the comparison to Courtney Love, who personifies desperation for fame sans talent. I get it immediately. Thanks.
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Bad Casting...
[Read the article: "Memoirs of a Geisha"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...is ubiquitous. It is pretty common for Hollywood studios to go for the big names, and in "Memoirs..." they got the top 4 Asian actesses, as if ordering them off the internet, sight unseen. Just from that fact, you know this is the equivalent of a supermarket magazine in film.
We, of certain age, grew up imagining a Roman Empire with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in it. Our own history has been Disney-fied, washed clean of unattractive people and ideas and fed back to us. I'm now skeptical of any vision of any culture presented in our media - even HBO's "Rome" and "Deadwood" are scripted to shock not educate.
Golden's book is suspect because of it's borrowed voice, of a Japanese woman by an American man. It's light entertainment, but clearly fiction. I watch Chinese language movies with subtitles on IFC and Sundance and love them for the glimpse into another world. But I am only looking at the Chinese filmmaker's vision, not at the culture itself. Who knows what cultural issues are hidden from our round-eyes by his/her self-imposed filter? I haven't seen many Japanese movies. Are the Japanese more circumspect about their lives or is it a movie distribution issue? I don't know. Any suggestions?
A concurrent issue is the prevalence of straight actors playing gay. Would "Brokeback Mountain" be opening at multiplexes around the country without Heath and Jake? This is the studios' decision to go for the volume market. They are betting that most multiplex viewers don't process their stimulation with much thought. So vote with your pocketbook! Don't go to see it and maybe Hollywood will get the message. But don't bet on it.