Letters to the Editor
Rowyna
Published Letters: 105 Editor's Choice: 36
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no matter how smart, talented or rich you are...
[Read the article: Lose pounds, pad your paycheck?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No matter how smart, talented or rich a woman is, she is still judged on her appearence before anything else.
You might be well educated, well spoken, well dressed and highly skilled, and what it all comes down to is your physique.
I 100% agree with the poster above who said that this is especially a problem for white women because of the ideal of white women as being frail, pretty and virginal. Fat women are not frail. Our culture denounces them as ugly. And many are a bit fat because of past pregnancies, so not so virginal either.
Men are allowed to be fat, as they're judged on their acomplishments and wealth, not on their looks.
Black women, while they suffer many grevious stereotypes, are not under the same 'frail white lily' stereotyping that white women are (although they still suffer a wage gap because of their fatness, and compounded with the wage gap they suffer because of their race and gender as well, a fat black woman still probably earns less than a fat white woman).
White women are seen as the gatekeepers of morality in our society, and we are ever moralising the 'sin' of fatness. (Just look above at the guy who grouped it with drug and alcohol addition... the other big sins in our society! Why, throw in the sins of homosexuality and abortion, and you'd have a whole sinful party!) So, obviously we judge them harshest when it comes to failure.
Just look at the way we treat the white female celebrities who do drugs and flaunt their sexuality... compare that to the treatment of male celebrities who do the same. Men can be fat, take drugs and have lots of sex and suffer no social backlash... were a woman to behave that way she would be burned at the stake.
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when two products are the same...
[Read the article: Was this review helpful to you?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When two products are basically identical (like the tissue in this article) it probably doesn't really matter which one you pick, and as such the reviews are little more than an entertaining distraction (I mean, would you really trust someone who is so passionate about klenex that they log on to Amazon and right a review? I'd be rather skeptical about that fact alone).
Reviews are helpful when a product appears to be something it is not. I recently went and did my holiday gift shopping on Amazon and was looking for an ipod holder/gel skin. I found some pretty looking ones for a low price -- I was almost sold! Then I came to the reviews... averaging 3 stars... not a good start. I then read the several outliers who gave the product a 1 or 2... all of whom had experienced issues with shipping and missing pieces. That sort of information is invaluable in a customer review, since it isn't the sort of thing that a professional reviewer is likely to tell you.
Things like shipping time, broken products, helpfulness of customer service staff, and return policies are all important tidbits that often get lost in the ether of internet shopping. I suppose they're not so much a review of an actual product so much as the company who supplies it -- but either way, they're helpful.
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Stop skulking around!
[Read the article: Go away, can't you see I'm writing?!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think its really important to be upfront about the time you need. Before going to the computer room, etc tell your entire family what you're doing. Say 'I'm going into the spare room to work on my writing for an hour. Please don't come in and disturb me while I'm working'. At first, you'll be distrubed. Your husband will come in, the kids will come in, the nosey cat will walk across your keyboard! Don't despair, calmly tell each person who comes in that they are disturbing you, and politely ask them to leave. If the hassle you to see your work, tell them politely that you aren't ready to share it, and you will tell them when you are. Then tell them to leave.
Do this everyday. Eventually, you will have established a routine of people leaving you alone. They'll be curious at first, so don't engage them. Just keep telling them to leave you alone until they do. Don't worry about seeming rude. In any relationship its important to have personal space, and this is your space. You should reassure your spouse that you will share with him when you're ready, and I honestly suggest that you try and think of a few things you could share with him now. Maybe you're not ready for him to read the draft, but an explination of what you're thinking about plot/character-wise might help you brainstorm, or even cement some of your ideas.
But if you're serious, you can't be skulking around trying to sneak off to write and not be disturbed. Of course people keep harassing you -- by sneaking off and trying to avoid them, you've piqued their curiosity. You're only making them MORE interested by such behaviour. Stop. Tell them exactly where youre going (spare room) what you're doing (working on chapter 3) and for how long (probably an hour). Then tell them that you expect to be left alone unless there is some sort of household emergency. When someone comes in to bother you, look very concerned and ask them what the emergency is. They should get the hint.
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Very cool
[Read the article: Finding Iowa Caucus results online]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pretty awesome. One thing that totally blew me away was the difference between the number of democrats and republicans returning results. I mean, according to the map Huckabee is sitting at 35,401, while the Obama as the frontrunner Dem has only 4,558. Did I miss something? Are there just a crazy ammount of Repulicans in Iowa, or did none of the Dems bother to caucus? Maybe I'm just displaying my ignorance of the whole process, but it seems pretty bizarre to me.