Letters

"This show makes me sick!" Readers respond to "Who Wants to be Married by America" by Sheerly Avni.

Published March 6, 2003 7:19PM (EST)

[Read the story.]

This just makes me sick! You want to know how offensive this show is to me personally?

These people on "Married by America" don't even know each other. They're going to be married as part of a ratings stunt by Fox (whose parent company also subsidizes the "independent" but truly neofascist conservative Fox News Channel) and when those two people get married, they're going to automatically become related, automatically qualify for joint health insurance coverage, automatically have the right to visit each other in the hospital, and automatically have the ability to make medical decisions on behalf of the other.

My male partner and I have been together for four years, know each other inside and out, could walk all over these people in the "Newlywed Game," and we don't get ANY of those rights because the same neofascist conservatives that watch and control Fox somehow see our relationship and its legal acknowledgement as an "attack on the American family."

But somehow reducing the connection and relationship between two people to a game show contest is acceptable. Shame on them and shame on those who watch this show and then criticize homosexuals' right to marry.

(Obviously that's not Salon.com -- love you guys/gals!)

-- Gary Lancaster

I just wanted to let you all know that this article was one of the most well-written I've read in ages. The turns of phrase were stunning -- "an orgy of vanilla heterophilia" and the description of the dumbo-eared guy was fabulous!! Please keep up the great work. This kind of writing makes me proud of my new status as a premium subscriber.

-- Mari Irwin

Sheerly Avni's piece on "Married by America" was pretty much on the mark, except for the comment "on the surface, there's nothing terribly scandalous or cynical about "Married by America." Nothing scandalous, eh? How about taking the whole notion of courtship, love and marriage and crapping on it? That's exactly what Fox is doing with "Married by America." Just when you thought television couldn't lower the bar any further along comes Fox to do just that. Oh, and how amusing that in order to get my day pass to read this story I had to sit through an ad for ... "Married by America." Hmmmmm.

-- Greg Houle

Sheerly Avni wants to send "Married by America" back to the '60s with "Star Trek." Only problem is, "Star Trek" was way ahead of such "reality" tripe -- by showing the first interracial kiss on network TV. If "Married by America" is the present, I'll take the historical future any day.

-- Matt Caywood


By Salon Staff

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