C O R R E C T I O N
In “Born to rape?” by Margaret Wertheim, there was a minor statistical error in the figures about rape rates in the United States. While the 1992 study cited does not, in fact, suggest that the overall percentage of rape in America is as high as 20 percent, another study, not cited by the authors of “A Natural History of Rape,” and a number of researchers interviewed for the article indicate that the rate of rape in the United States may be that high. The article has been corrected.
Brutal verdict
BY BRUCE SHAPIRO
(02/26/00)
Those cops weren’t murderers, but I sure as hell don’t want them on my street in New York City. They panicked, and cops shouldn’t panic.
– Dorothy Stade
I think that we are giving the cops too much slack even in your excellent article. I think that it went down like this:
Cop: “Put your hands up! Do you have any ID?
Victim: “Yes.” (reaches down to his wallet to produce his ID.)
Cops: (bang bang bang bang for 41 shots)
– Michael Kerry Jordan
I am at a complete loss as to the rationale of the jurors in the Diallo case. I truly believe that a righteous verdict would have been a conviction for manslaughter at a minimum. But at least one thing is clear: I have a better feeling for how white people must have felt when O.J. Simpson was acquitted.
– Kevin Hale
Contrary to what Sharpton says, it is not “any” man who has a right to feel he is being protected by police rather than shot at. It is the man who does not appear to threaten. Those who appear to pose a deadly threat invite the consequences. This said, it is another question whether Diallo posed such a threat. A jury of 12, including four blacks, apparently thought he did. I myself do not know the answer, but then, I didn’t hear or see the live evidence.
– David Cortes
The beating goes on
BY JILL NELSON
(02/26/00)
Data gathered by the FBI reveals that blacks commit most of the violent crimes.If everyday I stepped out my front door, and a green dog with blue spots bit me, after a while, I become suspicious of green dogs with blue spots! So it goes with racial-profiling. It exists because there is a just reason for it.
– Bruce Roberts
Anyone who has any street smarts at all knows that when the police are pointing guns at you and tell you to put your hands in plain sight you do not reach into a pocket. I do not condone the killing of Diallo at all — it was clearly a tragedy — but was it a criminal act? The jury did not think the prosecution made a good enough case for conviction. A jury made up of 12 people with Jill Nelson’s mindset would not have had to leave the courtroom for deliberations.
– John Curran
Let get this right. Four trained police officers could not recognize a wallet for what it was, a wallet. At close range they fired 41 times at a man missing him 22 times, they missed 55 percent of their shots. Who trained them? Where did the rest of the rounds go? Through the walls, into the street or did they just fall down? If anyone else did this they would be jailed for wanton endangerment of society.
– Mark Harvey
The answer to this problem is to add as many black police as possible to the NYPD and then place them all in black neighborhoods where they can then enforce the law, but the black officers don’t want to go to the bad neighborhoods any more than the white officers do.
– J. Watson
Slaves to science
BY WILLIAM SPEED WEED
(02/28/00)
William Speed Weed’s piece on science post-docs hits a number of true notes, but the picture he portrays is not the whole picture.
First, Weed’s piece would have us think that post-docs work hard so professors don’t have to. This is absolute nonsense. Science faculty who maintain funded research programs work as hard or harder than post-docs. As an assistant professor, I work harder than I did when I was a post-doc, way back in the mid-90s, and harder than the two post-docs that I have employed since achieving my supposed exalted professor status. Faculty not only have to produce research, they have to teach, prepare lectures, grade, meet with undergraduate students about their classwork and graduate students about their classwork or research, write proposals, review proposals, review papers, manage the finances of the research program, attend faculty meetings and committee meetings, and so on. It is true that I spend less
time in the lab than I did when I was a post-doc and less time than my current post-doc; I wish I had the time to be in the lab more, but other duties call.
Second, Weed would have us think that the “narrow” research we do is of little interest to anyone and that post-docs only do it because they hope that it’ll eventually get them a job and because they’ve been conned into thinking that doing science is prestigious. He is partly right — many post-docs are in exactly that situation, but he is also partly wrong. Believe it or not, some post-docs do it because they love what they are doing. Sure they want a job, but they also get a huge thrill out of understanding what is going on in that Petri dish or that far-away galaxy. These are the people who should be on the academic track. Anybody who doesn’t love it is surely
underpaid and underappreciated.
In closing, let me note that it’s 3 a.m. Sunday evening. I am in my office, writing a research paper and writing a problem set to distribute to one of my classes (and OK, blowing off a little steam by surfing the net-I’m human too). I have to be back here at 9 a.m. to attend class. And my post-doc, who’s a very bright fellow and who generally works hard indeed, hasn’t been here since 5 p.m. on Friday.
– Marc Hirschmann
Assistant Professor of Geology
University of Minnesota
While your article raises some interesting points, it’s important not to generalize too broadly from the bad experiences of a handful of people, or from a large group of people in the same field. The situation is not so dire in all of the sciences — I draw a quite reasonable salary as a post-doc in physics, and some colleagues at national labs would end up taking a pay cut in moving to a tenure-track faculty position.
Moreover, no one should go into the system with any illusions, at this point. Even as an undergrad, I was well aware that research science was not the path to fabulous riches, and the tight academic job market is exhaustively documented within the field. I went into the field, despite the long hours and low wages, because this is what I want to do. Yes, there are days when it’s drudgery — for every mad scientist cackling maniacally over his recently animated creation, there are three more waiting for UPS to deliver crucial body parts from Kuala Lumpur while Igor plays Nethack on the Frankenstein Castle workstation. But on the good days, it still amazes me that I can get paid to do what I do.
Finally, while it’s always tempting to admire the green grass on the other side of the fence, one shouldn’t overstate the advantages of other fields. Do some lawyers draw six-figure starting salaries? Sure. There are also recent law school grads stuck fetching coffee for federal judges, or working as public defenders, or chasing ambulances in the seedier parts of town. And the ones making the big bucks are not going home at quarter to 5 every afternoon.
– Chad Orzel
William Speed Weed’s article on post-doc hell seems pretty bang-on from where I sit. As a biology M.Sc. student at a major Canadian university I see many post-docs trudging in to the lab on evenings and weekends, sometimes with children and spouses in tow. The standard post-doc salary in Canada is $29,000, and that’s Canadian dollars! As a result of this eye-opening exposure to the lifestyle, I some time ago decided to forego a Ph.D. and seek work with my Master’s. I can skip the four to five years of extra student debt and 80-hour weeks and use my skills in a government or commercial lab, where I’d be paid about $35,000 starting out. That’s a lot better than living and working like a student until you’re 35 years old, in a world where secure academic positions are few and disappearing fast.
– Allison Mackay
Leave me alone, AARP
BY CHRISTOPHER SCANLAN
(02/25/00)
I am 16 years old and have been a member of AARP for five months. They sent me a letter exactly like the one Scanlan received and it was confirmed a few weeks later.
It is not such a bad thing to be a part of the organization, especially with the free membership, discounts, and the complimentary subscription to Modern Maturity. So maybe Scanlan should reconsider. I mean, it’s not like they actually know what your age is. I, for one, intend on being an active member until I myself turn 65 in 2048.
– G. Baum
Since when is 50 retirement age or even an early retirement age? As far as this “ancient one” is concerned, the AARP is nothing more than a useless political lobby for the wealthy. Retirement should be at least 62 in this age of lifespans of 75-plus. Making the wealthy pay for part of their own healthcare is heretical to the AARP. The wealthy do not pay Medicare taxes on their total income as do the great unwashed masses, but they expect the government to pick up their costs just as if they were living in poverty.
I am a boomer and obviously, I have no love for the AARP. When they demonstrate some real social conscience, I may be favorably disposed towards them, but for now they appear to be in it only for the money.
– C. E. Martin
The swimsuit issue is here!
BY LEE QUARNSTROM
(02/25/00)
Quarnstrom’s piece reminded me of Isaac Asimov’s book, “The Sensuous Dirty Old Man,” in which he said, “Sex is dirty, if you do it right.” The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has always seemed a little out of whack to me.
– Ron Stevens
Watch out Americans! You might see a naked person. Keep the lights off in the bathroom so you don’t scare yourself.
– G. Yeager
A ghetto mom talks back
BY CAROLINE RUHLE
(02/25/00)
I suppose I’m just another middle class white male who doesn’t get it. Ruhle has a college degree and some graduate training. Her article proves her ability to write well and communicate ideas forcefully. But she has never held a job. She claims to be disabled, but doesn’t say in what way. She is able to traipse all over New York City to look for a better and cheaper apartment.The ADA provides recourse for job hiring discrimination against the disabled. But she still doesn’t have a job. Why not?
Next, Ruhle assumes that her son will not be able to succeed because he is raised in poverty. But he is an excellent student at a school for gifted children. He will certainly be able to attend good or even excellent colleges. Why would he be doomed to fail? Doesn’t she see the advantages she has given her son compared with her neighbors? She raises only one child, she has time to spend with him, and she provides books and probably discusses them with him. The other kids in the ghetto don’t have those things, and that’s what Traub wrote about in the New York Times Magazine.
Before stomping on Traub’s writing and beliefs, Ruhle should have looked around her neighborhood, talked with some children and parents, and talked with school teachers and social workers. Then she would realize that for the most part, Traub’s reporting was correct.
– Gregory Tetrault
Ruhle gave birth to her child a year after being disabled, which strongly implies that she conceived him after being disabled and unable to work. If she did this in the context of a secure marriage with a partner who had thought through the issues and was committed to providing for them, this decision would make perfect sense. But Ruhle seems almost proud to announce that she has never been married.
I feel bad that Ruhle’s child has to suffer the consequences of her many bad decisions, but I don’t see that the rest of us who have
exercised the least bit of responsibility in our own lives should be required to subsidize her bad decisions by giving her more “housing,
health care, child care and jobs programs.”
– Travis J.I. Corcoran
While I did not grow up in the slums of New York, I did grow up poor white trash in the Pacific Northwest. I was able to pull myself away and pursue a life beyond the class I was born into. What I could never understand was why, every time I created an opportunity for myself, I failed. Well, because it’s exactly as Caroline Ruhle writes: poor children learn that they can’t get what they want and they learn to not try and to not expect anything. I didn’t feel I deserved a great job or the well-to-do boyfriend, or the nice apartment and would do things to insure that I stayed in the class where I belonged. When I’ve explained my experience to my friends, they don’t understand. They also see me as middle class though I still do not see myself that way. Now I know someone does understand and that I’m not crazy. Thank you.
– Beau Ruland
You may be a ghetto mom but you’ve just come up with a topic for a Ph.D. thesis. You’ve hit the nail on the head. No one, absolutely no one gets anywhere in this world without the help or advantage given by someone else. Does anyone truly believe George W. would be where he is today without the backing of his family? Oh, please!
– David Pagel
Prime-time propagandist
BY DAVID MASTIO
(02/25/00)
It’s funny how left-leaning people are just good journalists, but if someone has a right-leaning or libertarian take on things, they’re “propagandists.”
I’ll take Stossel’s reasoned reports over the lies by omission and misrepresentations that I see in the so-called mainstream media any day.
– Scott Frost
Mastio’s article on ABC News correspondent John Stossel, while it makes a few sundry points worth noting, is simply a fishing expedition that looks in every nook and cranny in an attempt to debunk the work of a rare commodity: a journalist with an independent streak.
Stossel’s alleged misdeeds are a small price to pay. He consistently breaks new ground or takes a fresh angle on broken ground, pointing out the dreadfully obvious follies and abuses of big government that mainstream media folks, in their torrid love affair with the almighty state, simply refuse to fully acknowledge.
Stossel, like other contrarians, represents a new breed of journalist that is immensely threatening to the pampered Pollyannas who inhabit most newsrooms these days and make it a daily mission to play the race card even when racism’s not an issue, and who actually believe conservative thinking is more dangerous than leftist ideologies, which themselves are a proven menace to a truly free society.
Stossel perhaps needs to be mindful of his duties. We all do. But, as a conservative writer myself, I enjoy seeing the mainstream media’s reaction when they’re confronted with a journalistic gadfly.
– Mark Anderson
John Stossel, a right-wing puppet? Am I the only one who watched his subtle, brilliantly subversive ABC special on the underground pot-growing industry back in the spring of ’98? The one in which he sympathetically interviews many Mom & Pop home-growers as well as organized Humboldt careerists, and then asks the camera what the big deal is? I could hardly believe he got the piece past the ABC censors; I sat and watched it, dumbfounded and delighted at his daring.
He all but called for an end to the War on Drugs. If there are other right-wingers who share his beliefs, I sure haven’t heard them piping up.
– Melissa Lanning
In the article on John Stossel, the writer says, “Though Stossel’s special reports for ABC News are conservative, they’re also good journalism.”
Not everyone would agree with this statement. In fact, the organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting regularly exposes the inaccuracies and sloppy reporting committed by Stossel.
– J.W. Flenner
Damaged goods
BY BETH BROEKER
(02/24/00)
Of all of the possible published factors that might have led Jeremy Strohmeyer to commit such a crime, the latest one really stands above the rest. It is not, however, the mental illness of his biological mother. He learned his values, as we all do, from his (adoptive) parents, parents who later announced to the world that they wished he had never been their son. This kind of attitude would have influenced every aspect of young Jeremy’s early life and would probably have produced a sociopath regardless of the genetic material available.
– Geoffrey Williams
Although adoption practice has evolved, adoption practitioners are in reality no more accountable to adoptive parents and adoptees today than they were in the fifties and sixties. American adoption and foster care systems exist in a accountability vacuum, with practitioners free to play God as they like.
The Strohmeyer’s suit is not about water under the bridge, it’s about holding the County of Los Angeles, who handled Jeffrey’s adoption, responsible for repeatedly lying and stonewalling. The motives, which Broeker imagines to be benign, are frankly unimportant.
– Ron Morgan
So the author of this piece is “an adopted child?” Tremendously developed writing and research skills for one so young. Seriously, the fact that the juvenilization of adult adoptees continues even among those who should know better is discouraging.
There probably aren’t that many women who relinquish without pain, and there certainly weren’t many birthmoms who relinquished while happily married, but to make the leap that therefore all of these accidental pregnancies were suffered by drug addicts, abuse survivors or emotionally unstable women shows a real lack of understanding as to what motivates women to give their children up to adoption.
– Ann Henstrand
Dr. Fart speaks
BY STEPHEN G. BLOOM
(02/24/00)
I‘d like to congratulate Stephen G. Bloom on an excellent article on a tricky topic.
Farting continues to become more mainstream as the months and years pass. There is, right now, a delicate balance in effect. Too much acceptance by the population, and farts may risk losing their humorous edge.The question we ponder is this: Are farts inherently funny? Or do we simply find them funny because of the fact that they are “taboo?”
At farts.com, we walk that fine line every day. As we continue to expand our content, grow our audience, and bring a sense of community to our fans, we do so with one belief held strong:
If we can make a difference in the way the world perceives and accepts farts, one individual at a time, we are going to get pretty damn rich.
– Dr. Rex Breefs
Resident Flatologist
Farts.com
Who else would have the balls to research and publish this story?
Thanks for making my day. The guy in the cube outside my office just asked why I had tears running down my cheeks.
– M.H. O’Connor
Forced crossing
BY PAM ROSENTHAL
(02/24/00)
Thanks to Pam Rosenthal for her insightful review of John Colapinto’s “As Nature Made Him.” The outcome of this case indeed has no clinical value in the specious nature/nurture turf war over sex identity.
As one of John Money’s former intersexed “non-human” experimentees I speak from personal experience to assert that the outcomes of highly anomalistic cases of children who are deemed available for experimentation, for whatever reason, actually provide no useful data. Unless of course there are still some holdouts who require more evidence of the strength of the human spirit.
– Kiira Triea
Coalition for Intersex Support Activism & Education
I read with more than casual interest “Forced Crossing,” by Pam Rosenthal. I was born in 1952, a hermaphrodite with ambiguous genitalia. I know several people who were born intersexed and assigned a sex they later changed. I think it is obvious that gender is innate and influenced somewhat by socialization.
The etiology of gender is extremely complex and impossible to predict. Only we know what gender we are. I predict though, that some die-hard gender theorists will seek to reestablish Dr. Money’s false theory.
I am glad that Rosenthal is so forgiving of Dr. Money. I, however, and the thousands of other intersexuals who have had their lives so adversely affected by him are not so forgiving.
– Tasha L. Thompson
The only difference between me and Brenda/David is that there is no reassuring gender fuckup in my life to explain my homing-pigeon fascination for all things mechanical and monetary and all manner of firearms, as well as kittens, quilts and handspinning my own yarn. No one had to teach me to take everything in my house apart because it was “feminist.” My parents just learned to hide the Allen wrenches if they didn’t want the phone in pieces.
Gender behavior and gender identity are unrelated. This is the core message of feminism — and I don’t see how David’s experience as a child challenges this. My basic gender identity as a woman isn’t undone by my dislike of ruffles and bows any more than David’s identity as a man was undone by his dislike of them.
– Janis Cortese
Pick me! I’m a real multimillionaire!
BY CARINA CHOCANO
(02/24/00)
I would marry Trey Parker if he lived in a box and his living consisted of cleaning windshields with spit and toilet paper. He is a brilliant, hysterical and damn sexy man.
– Christine K.
Boulder, Colo.
Just writing to let Trey Parker know I’m available. I’m not a forensic scientist, but I do watch the “New Detectives” on Discovery and “Autopsy” on HBO. Nor am I a marine biologist, however, I have seen “Jaws” and I’ve been known to sit in front of the Animal Planet network (I’m also a big fan of “When Animals Attack.”) If Trey’s still at a loss about who to take to that big silly award show, tell him I look pretty hot in skimpy designer dresses. And by the way, the Union (the North) won the Civil War after crushing the separatist Confederacy of the South. I’ve even seen that Ken Burns documentary. I even liked it.
– Kaarin Von
Just because Trey Parker got rich and famous by some random cartoon animation with patchwork drawings and overuse of juvenile profanity doesn’t exactly mean he’s the prize husband material for some “marine biologist.” So you’re worth 15 million and think answering “Who won the Civil War” is the smartest test for your future bride?
Answer this Mr. Smarty-Pants:
What is the value of your soul once you realize those millions mean absolutely nothing?
– Erica Wiechers
When bad shows become truly abominable
(02/23/00)
Okay, so now that it’s clear that she’s unwilling to perform her duties, the crown goes to the runner-up, right?
Good Lord … “I didn’t know what I was doing.” Did she happen to notice the title of the damn show?
– Sean Medlock
I‘m all for reality-based TV, and I think that the audience deserves the satisfaction of seeing these two publicity-hungry souls forced to live with the consequences of their short-sighted actions: make ‘em live together — if not for their happiness, for ours!
– Bryan Gailey
Be fruitful and multiply
BY MICHAEL KRESS
(02/23/00)
If a woman becomes pregnant, a fundamentalist will assert that her situation is God’s will and adamantly insist the pregnancy be carried to term. Yet these same fundamentalists are often willing to spend thousands of dollars and endure years of invasive medical techniques, some of which require the “sinful” behavior of masturbation in their quest for a child.
Since I am not a fundamentalist, I view infertility as nature’s way of telling a couple they are not biologically fit for reproduction. When a couple seeks technological solutions to override this judgement, they set themselves against nature. Wouldn’t a fundamentalist couple who makes the same decision be setting themselves against divine judgement and will of their own God?
– SuZett Estell
I wish every infertile couple would give a lot of thought to their reasons for wanting children before going to extraordinary lengths to conceive. How much of this is genetic vanity? That child who needs to be adopted can be your kid just as much as one you give birth to.
I remember the mother of the septuplets in Iowa saying she’d never have considered abortion because her multiple pregnancies were “God’s will.” But the infertility that led her to take drugs to conceive WASN’T God’s will?! Talk about having your cake and eating it too!
– Pat Bryant
Al Gore-leone
BY JAKE TAPPER
(02/23/00)
I am a fan of Mr. Tapper’s writings, but comparing Gore to the Godfather is about as ludicrous as believing that John McCain is some kind of plastic saint. Gore is no more unscrupulous thnt any of the other candidates, and I believe that the public is beginning to view Gore’s relentlessly unfavorable coverage as just another in a long series of press attempts to damage all who have participated in the Clinton administration. It is painfully clear if Gore wins the presidency, he will do it despite the best efforts of the press corps to paint him as ruthless, corrupt and wooden.
– Dan Van Neste
What on earth possessed Jake Tapper to construct the parallel lives of Al Gore and Michael Corleone?
I think Mr. Tapper must be mentally and morally exhausted from his travels through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.
How about sending him off a couple of months on a beach in Sicily or Corsica?
– Al Magary
San Francisco
Brando’s performance was captivating, but goodfella Al Gore-leon is so boring he doesn’t merely send his enemies to sleep with the fishes, he puts the fish to sleep!
– Richard D. Henkus
Breaking the silence
BY RAHNA REIKO RIZZUTO
(02/18/00)
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto tells a story that needs telling. It would have sounded so familiar to my mother. Was my mother also a Japanese-American victim of internment? No, my mother was a British citizen, interned for three years in a Japanese camp simply because she was British. Mom’s family would return to England every several years to retain their citizenship, but like many Japanese-Americans, her family had three generations of history in the country of her birth, which was China. Her father had, in fact, been hired by the Chinese government to help modernize the Chinese postal service. And my mother was always vehement in her condemnation of the behavior of some English, for example, in foisting the opium trade on China. In her internment camp, in Santo Tomas in the Philippines, she almost starved to death, and was as skeletal a figure as many in the German concentration camps.
I know that Mom would never have approved of what happened to Rizzuto’s family. She always said that her enemy was not the Japanese people, she would always blame the war itself. All these stories need to be told.
– Andrew John
Laughing gas
BY SEAN ELDER
(02/22/00)
On the one hand, the anonymous Onion editor quoted in Sean Elder’s column about humor on the Web has a point — 99.999 percent of all online humor sucks. I can even understand his claim “It’s not that (the Onion) is the best humor thing on the Web — we’re the only humor thing on the Web.” On the other hand, I’d like to respectfully suggest he go fuck himself. The truth is not that the Onion is the only humor thing on the Web, it’s just the first. For the rest of us, it’s a matter of cutting through the crap to get noticed.
I don’t wish to sound arrogant — “secure humorist” is an oxymoron. Just trying to cut through said crap and tempt people to judge for themselves if our little dog and pony show, AbsolutelyTrue.com, belongs in that .000l percentile.
– John Corcoran
Editor, co-founder, conceptualizer, researcher, writer, pseudonymous writer, copy chief, towel boy, columnist, critic, headline writer and caterer
AbsolutelyTrue.com
Pros and amateurs
BY ANN MARLOWE
(02/24/00)
Ann Marlowe is right on. It’s incredible how much one can internalize other people’s expectations. When women begin to think of themselves as weak, financially or otherwise, they contribute to their own degradation. And who, besides an actual pro wants to think of herself as selling her favors? I used to reach for the dinner check all the time, but over the years I was reprimanded by both men and women for my behavior. At the time, I defended myself by saying that he worked hard for the money, and so did I, so why not? Apparently, both sexes find that statement sufficiently frightening that I started wondering if I was wrong. Well, I’m not wrong. Look, I don’t want to tell the young men I date not to send me flowers. But I send them flowers too.
– T. Sanchez
The problem is not that women want to make less money
but that “women’s work” is always valued less. Why should an engineer make more money than a teacher? Are engineers more necessary to the world? Or why should the person who mows your lawn make more than one who takes care of your children? Why should we have to choose between a satisfying job and a high-paying one?
If all women left low-paying fields, the world would fall apart.
– Rachel Orfila
I want to leave a profession of mindless spinning for money for something with a contribution towards society either through teaching, working with the elderly or on public policy. I’m the first to admit it’s for me and not anyone else. If a man thinks that’s sexy because it seems altruistic and sweet or appears like he could take on the role of financial protector that is his problem and I don’t think I’d be interested. But I in no way am setting my sights on a millionaire (I work with some people lucky to be blessed by this Internet economy and frankly am not impressed by their interpersonal skills, inadequate attention to their families, four-day-a-week travel schedules, etc.) I’m interested in a man who is intelligent, responsible, warm and fun regardless of the profession he chooses, be it janitor, writer, web designer, teacher, investment banker or bus driver.
– Bronwyn O’Malley
I am a married woman who has always made much more money than my husband, and that doesn’t bother either of us.
Some of Marlowe’s arguments seemed to be based on the assumption that women have a choice in how far their careers will go. I am here to tell you that there are still gross inequities in salaries between men and women who have the same job, and that the glass ceiling really does exist. These inequities are not because women are “settling.” You have to be a voraciously ambitious woman to make it to the same level as a moderately ambitious man in corporate America today. And competence has nothing to do with it. I have seen many male twits promoted over the heads of competent women. Say what you will, it is still a boy’s club out here in corporate
America.
– Kay Robart
This is one thought-provoking article! But I am afraid Ann Marlowe is too quick to label people who don’t want to climb the career ladder in the traditional sense, be they male or female, as some sort of resentful underclass. “Getting to the top” takes time and energy that might be spent elsewhere, say, raising children or having friends and interests outside the workplace or just plain having a balanced life. Women are less pressured, in general, to give up everything else to have a “great career” (that is, a high-paying one), so is it surprising that some of them decide to do other things with their time, other things that may not have as much monetary value but are valuable in other ways?
– Ann Muir Thomas
It’s not “bad” for women to lower their ambitions, just as it’s not “bad” for women to want to look physically attractive. It’s part of the mating game.
By intellectualizing the mating ritual, you are turning people into asexual beings. Making statistical differences between male and female salaries insignificant is like turning Rebecca Romjin into the Hulk. Nobody wants to see that.
I’d like to thank Marlowe for pointing out that sexual diversity is alive and well, and I’m looking forward to reading her book.
– Howard Goldowsky
Ann Marlowe makes some valid points, but she too blithely dismisses women’s work-versus-family conflicts as a cause of income inequality, because she assumes that these conflicts only begin to affect women after they become mothers. I think they affect us much sooner.
Many young women assume they will take time off from their careers to start families a few years after college or grad school, and will have to balance work and family thereafter. Some women may feel, consciously or unconsciously, that it’s not worthwhile to devote massive time and energy to pursuing high-powered careers that are bound to be derailed a few years down the road, before they’ve had sufficient time to achieve many of their long-term goals.
Perhaps more important, since young men may anticipate that they’ll have to support their families single-handedly for some length of time — a length of time most likely determined by their wives, not by themselves — they’re likely to feel more pressure than women do to choose higher-paying careers.
Marlowe heaps scorn on low-paying jobs in publishing, auction houses and private schools, but these are careers that many people love passionately and find deeply rewarding. If women pursue them more often than men do, perhaps this is not because we lack the self-respect to choose careers based solely on their income potential, but because we feel freer than men do to choose work that we truly love, regardless of salary. That’s not fair or equal, but I don’t think the advantage here is entirely on the side of the men.
– Sonya Martinez Mukherjee
Marlowe identified many ways in which women create situations, through choice of profession and choice of mate, in which their marriages are economically beneficial. While she attributes these choices to women’s desire to be supported, I believe that there is another dynamic at play. Women know that most men want to play the role of provider. When women are extremely successful in lucrative careers, it becomes impossible for men to play that role. Thus, many women, either consciously or subconsciously, insure that their careers will not threaten men. I know many women who seek out men who are more “successful” for fear that a relationship with a man whose career has stalled will eventually fail due to his insecurity.
– Karyn Schwartz
I didn’t howl in outrage as Marlowe presumes some readers would. I did shake my head and say, She’s got to be kidding.
Yes, money is a factor when a woman chooses a mate. And some women marry for money. But of course, men do too and always have. Does the term dowry ring any bells?
To say women take low paying jobs to make themselves more attractive marriage partners is ludicrous. Marlowe uses the phrase “post-deb, waiting-to-wed” and believe me, “post-deb” is the key part of that phrase. I doubt a post-deb’s future husband sees her as his little under-achiever that he can rescue, but he may see her finishing school manners, college education, family money and connections and future inheritance.
Marlowe is right that men rarely say, “What a great person, but we can’t get married because she’s a nursery school teacher and doesn’t have a dime.” But you also don’t often hear middle or upper class men say, “I don’t care if she’s a high school drop out and bags groceries at the A & P, we’re in love.” People tend to choose marriage partners within their economic group.
– Susan Ochs-Scher
Ann Marlowe’s article, in the guise of alerting us to a feminist issue, manages to be sexist and classist at the same time. True, some women do set a priority on their potential partner’s (male OR female) earning potential. But the statement that “Girls still grow up thinking of work as an option, while boys know it as a necessity” situates Marlowe squarely in the ranks of the upper classes. Moreover, she maligns women who choose “helping professions” such as teaching as deluded saps of the patriarchy, waiting for their multimillionaire to come — therefore they choose “a less responsible, less stressful or less remunerative” profession.
There is an element of sexism that steers women toward teaching or nursing because of a putative female caregiving nature, but to say that these jobs are less valuable simply because they pay less feeds into the sexism that Marlowe purports to deride.
Yes, some women do like money. But to attribute many women’s job choices to an internalized sexist view of male financial power ultimately effaces to the true sexism in the workplace. For example, instead of asking why women teach, why not ask why teachers, whose jobs are demanding, responsible, and stressful, are not paid adequately?
Feminism does demand that we examine our actions. But Marlowe’s essay gives too little credit to the women of all classes who work hard for too little reward.
– Marya Janoff
Interesting point and not without some validity, however reams of social science research, most notably by Paula England, shows women get paid less than men in all fields, regardless of years of education or experience or productivity. Even women who don’t send out “take care of me vibes” by taking female jobs or working less hard are short-shrifted on average.
This has been proven true at in a wide range of fields: Male professors are paid more than comparable female professors at the same universities. Male lawyers are paid more than female lawyers at the same firms, again controlling for hours worked, years of experience, education, you name it. It is also true in traditionally female jobs such as nursing and elementary school teaching where women are still paid less than comparable men.
Low expectations is not the only problem, and individuals changing their personal outlooks are not going to change the pay-gap status quo.
– Shazia R. Miller
Alpha male epsilon
BY ANDY DEHNART
(02/23/00)
I must have dozed off between working out and reading my Abercrombie & Fitch catalog! When did it become good journalism to separate, label, and attack a segment of American society? Is the next article going to expose the evils of those “sneaky gays,” “whiny career women” or “sorority snobs?”
However, since you’ve expressed an interest in printing this kind of thing, I’m attaching an article I wrote titled “Beta male blamethrowers: B-grade journalists who never quite got over the fact that they didn’t get into a fraternity and always got picked last in sports.”
– N. Root
Having spent the last three and a half years editing my fraternity’s quarterly magazine, and the last six months producing a comprehensive feature on the topic of frat guy images in the media, I share Andy Dehnart’s fascination with how pop culture has adopted the frat guy as both its prince and its jester; as I read his essay, however, I felt like I was reading yesterday’s news. Yes, lots of people assume frat guys are rich and snobby and smirky (and I’ve met some that are), and yes, lots of media creatives depend on the “frat guy” moniker to sound disapprovingly in touch with the current culture. But that’s not really a revelation.
Had Dehnart completed the essay’s most interesting thought — “It doesn’t really matter whether a frat boy has ever pledged a fraternity or even considered it” — the piece would have been incredibly refreshing (no matter what it found). But Dehnart bails out, opting predictably for the condescension of those who have written before him.
– Stephen Schenkenberg
Editor, The Magazine of Sigma Chi
The frat boy obsession is nothing new at all. I think it is ancient, and a phenomenon we share with many other species. Certainly wolf packs do not have frat boys, but the term “alpha male,” borrowed from animal behaviorism, invokes ideas of instinctual and primitive attraction to a leader that is common to most social, mammalian species. This leadership position is a social role that is evolutionarily selected for.
We select our alpha males using many instinctual cues — good looks, height and physical well being are all key characteristics. In other words, we are instinctually attracted to those members of the species that are strong, in good health and have the genetic health that good looks imply.
Frat boys are a self-selected group that just so happens to have membership criteria that are almost identical to society’s selection criteria for our alpha males.
– Josh VanderBerg
Frat boys represent to me much of what is wrong with politics and this country in general.
These are the people we went to college to get away from, and there they are, cruising through school. We think they’ll go away after college, but lo and behold — there they are as schmoozing account managers, playing golf with their customers, goofing around at work, ogling the secretaries and droning on and on about the latest sports event.
These are the politicians who invented the non-apology and the non-answer. Why should they apologize for anything? They never have before. And for that matter, why should they have to answer questions from the nerds in the press — everyone hates nerds, right?
I hope that the American people can see this arrogant sense of entitlement for what it is.
– David Isbister
Hissy fit now
BY LAURA DENHAM
(02/22/00)
Laura Denham’s article about Zoetrope’s site is in most parts a very accurate representation of what has taken place there. However, it is extremely biased towards the site that some of disgruntled members created, Author, Author. Some members did follow them to the new site, but found that the bickering, the free-for-all, and the ego flame wars continued and very little writing was being discussed. Neither site is perfect, some people will like one over the other. But don’t think that all the ailments of Zoetrope were solve with the creation of Author, Author.
– Luis Nunez
Sadly, Zoetrope sounds very much like any newsgroup out there. Writers seem to be an egotistical lot, little more than the absence of an emoticon able to start a major flame war. Heaven forbid you find yourself the new person to the group. You have to meet the approval of the Head Queen Mistress of the Clique Cabal before anyone will respond to your posts or treat you with more than disdain.
When do any of these people have time to write when they are so prolific in smacking the heck out of a list member who dared to disagree with them?
– Alita Fortune
Laura Denham has presented a very interesting one-sided view of Zoetrope. Although most of the banned members Denham has quoted sound quite sane, that was not the case when they were still present on the Zoetrope boards insulting whoever they pleased for whatever reason they desired. The actual number of members banned from Zoetrope surely falls below 10. This on a site with 10,000 members. The discussion boards that Denham had so many problems with have since been eliminated but even at their most active rarely had more than 100 or so people post at any time. The great majority of Zoetrope members use the site to submit and review stories only. The problem was the seduction of the discussion and Denham was absolutely right about that, they were seductive. And except for the few people who saw fit to use the boards as a place to insult, swear and threaten, the boards were a wonderful source of inspiration and creativity.
Many of us did not come to the boards for a discussion of writing. We were there to interact with other writers and to spark our creativity. That doesn’t always happen in a scholarly discussion about the use of adverbs. But the point is moot now, as is Denham’s article since the public boards no longer exist.
I would hate to see an article saying Zoetrope was perfect. It’s not. But Zoetrope has connected me with talented writers from all over the world. By submitting and reviewing I have learned in two years what might have taken me 10 years to learn on my own. When I threw down my pen and said “I’ll never write again” I got a letter from Zoetrope: All-Story Extra offering to buy a story which is currently in the February issue. The encouragement from fellow writers is priceless. Without Zoetrope, I would not be writing.
– Felicia White
Don’t call me Mrs.
BY DONNA CORNACHIO
(02/23/00)
Donna Cornachio converted from Catholic to Episcopalian because of one secretary’s remark and an administrative error (made by the same secretary)? I’m Catholic, my parish has several couples with mixed names, and none of them have converted. We have a better secretary, so our faith hasn’t been so severely challenged, if you’ll pardon the sarcasm. Legitimate doctrinal differences I can respect as reasons, but not a tart secretary.
– Steve Coffman
It doesn’t matter what the parish secretary in a Westchester, NY village says, the Catholic Church does not require any member to abandon her surname and to call herself Mrs. To say this is simply not true. The Catholic Church has no position, official or unofficial, on the use of surnames after marriage.
– John M. Boland
I live in the Southeast — not a place known for bucking tradition. Both of the Catholic churches in my small town of Athens, Georgia, have no problem with the fact that I have a different last name than my husband, or that my husband isn’t even religious.
The most trouble I’ve had with getting things properly addressed to separate names (outside of my husband’s side of the family) has been through organizations like Mother Jones, Public Citizen, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, NOW, and all those other organizations who have bought my name from some sort of “liberal” mailing list. I understand it is just computer-generated, but if the local Catholic churches can figure out how to address our mail, you’d think the DNC and Planned Parenthood would figure out Mr. Theresa Flynn is a mistake.
It’s everywhere, and if you always take it personally, your life will be very busy with nothing much ever accomplished.
– Theresa M. Flynn
Lindbergh family bashes biographer
BY CRAIG OFFMAN
(02/07/00)
I would like to address some of the charges that appeared in the article written by Craig Offman of Salon.com on February 7, 2000, based on his interviews with me and with Reeve Lindbergh concerning my new book, “Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life.”
First of all, I clearly informed the Lindbergh family at the beginning that my intent was to write a biography of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Mrs. Lindbergh told me directly that she had ambivalent feelings about my project, yet she continued to invite me, again and again, to her homes in Connecticut and Switzerland and permitted me to record and tape her thoughts and memories. Her daughter Reeve was equally aware of my intent and in fact encouraged her mother to meet with me. My letter of January 12, 1990 to Mrs. Lindbergh, after I had conducted several interviews, well illustrates that we both understood the nature of my project. As I wrote then: “My intent in writing this biography is simple: to trace the genesis of a female writer through an examination of your life and work.”
[ ... ] I find it a bit disingenuous on the part of the Lindberghs to say that I wasnt writing a biography of Anne. Who else, under any circumstances, would have been the centerpiece of my study? Who else would deserve the place of honor? It is my belief that both Reeve and Mrs. Lindbergh encouraged my work because they believed I was an honest and serious scholar. I believe I have fulfilled my bargain.
[ ... ] It is difficult to know what the Lindberghs motives were in denying me the right to quote from the published diaries, given that A. Scott Berg was granted access to all Charles and Anne Lindberghs private papers, and had already, at least in their minds and his, revealed both intimate and potentially embarrassing personal relationships and facts. Perhaps they truly sought to protect their mothers supposed wishes that a biography not be published in her lifetime. It is likewise possible that they found my interpretations of their parents political views offensive. Based on meticulous research and documentation, I gave a direct, hard-nosed account of their involvement with the German Reich and their activities and speeches for America First. Unlike Bergs biography of Charles, my book defined Anne Lindberghs views and her role during this pre-war period, confirming both her support and participation in his work. Furthermore, Berg had omitted Charles six-year extramarital relationship with another woman which I was able to verify, describe and substantiate.
– Susan Hertog
Bush’s missed opportunity
BY ROBERT A. GEORGE
(02/22/00)
George Bush lauds his little brother for marrying “a girl from Mexico in my own family.” Regardless of where the woman is from, I’m not sure George should be proud that his brother married a relative. If George is evidence of the genetic evolution of his family, you’d think the Bushes would want to avoid further inbreeding.
– Kevin Tudish
Liberti, Egaliti, 36C
BY DEBRA OLLIVIER
(02/19/00)
What a grand thing the French have done in voting for Laetitia Casta to symbolize Marianne. I’m almost 60 and have always been reluctant to be seen paging through the Victoria’s Secret catalog. Now I can do so freely without the risk of someone thinking I’m a cross-dresser.
— Loren Harmon
Don’t believe everything you hear. France’s Marianne is about as important and representative as your Miss America.
Having cleared that up, at least the French panel of judges chose a natural beauty, not the big-hair, fake-breast, plastic-face variety that wins in the United States.
— Gentry Lane
(another Paris-based Salon contributor)
The obvious title — “Liberti, Igaliti, Dicolleti!” — must have escaped you.
— Nick Wade
Does Debra Ollivier live in Paris, France or Paris, Texas? I hate to sound like an apologist for the French — they don’t really need me as they’re excellent at arguing for themselves, but, unlike Ollivier, as an American living in France I’ve never had to have government approval to get my heater fixed. Also, the implication was that the vote for Marianne was by the French people themselves — actually it was by the mayors of France.
Political correctness of the American variety hasn’t come to France yet — hence the lack of shame at running such a beauty contest. That’s all it was, and the prettiest woman won.
— James Brister
So what’s wrong with great breasts? I have great breasts, and if Texas (for example) decided me make me their national symbol, then terrific! Think of all that a slick P.R. campaign could do for breast-cancer research, women’s health, body issues and so on!
If you find yourself in the public eye (in Victoria’s Secret or otherwise), then for God’s sake use it for something worthwhile!
— C. Simmons
Airheads
BY JOYCE MILLMAN
(02/22/00)
I share Joyce Millman’s irritation with the schizoid and incomprehensibly waffling nature of messages aimed at women through the media. A split second after the shrill, “You go, girl! Love that fat!” it can be “My GAWD, I look like a cow in this swimsuit” and the like. The only clear transmission made in this static is that women should love themselves publicly, so as to appear attractively well-adjusted; yet hate themselves privately and perpetually shop or self-mutilate in the fulfillment of this dissatisfaction.
My greatest pique about the so-called women’s genres of television, magazines or books (the spooky “Bridget Jones” and Elizabeth Wurtzel, for example) is that they celebrate the inability to make choices and stick to them: “I want to eat donuts but I hate myself; I want to be accepted unconditionally but deride others for their lack of fashion sense or some other superficial concern; I want the prestige and money of an executive career but I want to stay home and pump out babies,” etc. If these Svengalis of crap culture work their magic, our daughters will spend their adulthoods as willfully arrested adolescents with really big credit-card balances.
Ironically, however, the women we continue to admire the most are the ones who do make the tough calls — the grownups who choose paths and make harrowing sacrifices in so acting. I wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt would even have endured five minutes of Oxygen programming. Odds are, she’d have had better things to do with her time, and so do we.
— Gaby Kaplan
Thank you, thank you, thank you for blowing the whistle on Oxygen’s specious brand of “woman power.” My friends and I have been annoyed for months by the billboards and bus shelter ads all over New York City. I look forward to seeing that well-funded collection of big shots go through some very public birth pangs and I hope — for their sake, anyway — they don’t go belly-up before creating some intelligent, inclusive programming. It seems these days the only market that’s “underserved,” as Disney/ABC Cable president Geraldine Laybourne would have it, is a demographic with intelligence, compassion and intellectual and emotional curiosity. Thanks for a great piece.
— Stuart Cohn
The elephant in the room
BY MICHAEL MASSING
(02/22/00)
Massing has made an error in logic. He assumes the goal of the war on drugs is to eliminate the use of illegal drugs. This is pork. Success would be the worst thing that could happen to law enforcement. Well, the second worst. The first worst would be legalization. Some folks are raking in an awful lot of money, through both funding allocations and asset seizure.
Nobody on Capitol Hill wants to kill this fat golden pig. Like most enterprises, for enlightenment just follow the money.
— Shellie Taylor
Michael Massing asks what the alternative to the current regime of drug prohibition is. The answer is medicalization and regulation. Voting for people who want to put you in jail for exercising individual choice is truly an exercise in futility. If you want a change in drug policy, vote Libertarian.
— Paul Garrison
Greybull, Wyo.
Don’t forget one of the more menacing side effects of the war on (some) drugs: mandatory pre-employment drug screenings. The police aren’t allowed to search you without probable cause — it’s a violation of the Bill of Rights. Yet businesses expect their potential hires to barter away constitutional rights for the privilege of employment?
— Keith Ammann
Evanston, Ill.
Michael Massing’s take on the failure of the war on drugs deserves high praise. Not only did Prohibition create the Mafia, but also made alcohol all the more alluring, especially to kids, because it was illegal. I believe heroin and marijuana should be decriminalized and treated as the serious health problems they are.
— George Gilbert
We should go further than just simply increasing treatment. The government should make drugs like heroin and cocaine available to addicts at the lowest price possible, perhaps even free. The drugs so provided should be pure, and prepackaged in safe and consistent doses. In return, the addicts must agree to register.
If the government steals all of a pusher’s customers away with a lower-cost, safer, purer product, what profit is there in being a drug dealer? This, in turn, starves the cartels. Providing drugs in consistent, clean, prepackaged doses will reduce both overdoses and needle sharing, both good things.
Concurrently, we should also provide aid to former drug farmers in South and Central America, and we should in some way decriminalize marijuana.
— David Chase
Belmont, Mass.
Readers’ choice at the New Yorker
BY LAURA MILLER
(02/16/00)
Not to pick nits, but there is one long-standing literary award that is selected by readers: The Hugo Award for science fiction is decided by a ballot at the annual World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon to those who attend). Writers such as Isaac Asimov, Ursula Le Guin and Orson Scott Card have all been honored with Hugos. I don’t read a lot of science fiction myself, but I have friends who read nothing else, and if you want a book that’s very highly recommended by lots of other readers, the Hugo award is the thing to look for. I’ve never read a Hugo winner that I didn’t enjoy, and most deserve a wider audience than the category attracts.
— Judith Martin Straw
Turning out the lights on the old New Yorker
BY GAVIN MCNETT
(02/17/00)
The New Yorker piece is excellent, and I should know — I worked there for 26 years. Brisk, entertaining, surprisingly accurate. Congratulations.
— Daniel Menaker
