America Gives a Shit
I agree with everything Jeff Jarvis says in “America Gives a Shit” (October). Therefore I was quite surprised to read the circumlocution “f-words.” Surely a magazine committed to free minds and free markets can print the word fuck.
A taboo, in a certain sense, is a form of respect. A word can be so feared that it can’t even be mentioned. But why should we be afraid of a term that, unlike “damnation,” does not refer to a great evil or to something we are warned to fear?
This is your moment, Reason. Print this letter and end a silly taboo.
George Jochnowitz
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
College of Staten Island, CUNY
New York, NY
The Real Mommy Wars
Shannon Chamberlain’s commentary on the “mommy wars” fascinated me (“The Real Mommy Wars,” October). The mommy wars are fought solely by women who feel guilty about the choices they’ve made. Caitlin Flanagan and Carrie Lukas must overlook people like myself, the underachievers of our generations. I graduated in the middle of my class from high school in 1994, though I was (if I do say so myself) one of the brighter kids in school. I never had much ambition but to get married and raise a family and then hang out with my husband while we grow old.
I’m not lazy by any means; I work hard maintaining our household, while my husband works hard providing the means for me to do so. Our house isn’t perfectly clean and orderly, and there are plenty of wrinkles in our lives. But we are a functioning, affectionate family with the choice of having a parent home full-time. My self-worth isn’t dependent on a to-do list, a contact sheet, or a paycheck. Someday I might have a “career,” but for now I am truly pleased to be a “stay-at-home mom” driving a minivan back and forth to ballet and Cub Scouts. I’ll be thrilled if my son and daughters make the same choices.
Dusti Worley Chuang
Birmingham, AL
CleanFlicks v. Kate Winslet’s Breasts
Maybe Hollywood is stupid, as Nick Gillespie says in “CleanFlicks v. Kate Winslet’s Breasts” (October), to underserve the religious market for wholesome family entertainment. But a company that creates a secondary revenue stream on modified source material is still stealing.
It’s true that each consumer “edits” artistic content through a personal filter that includes life experience, beliefs, preferences, etc. It’s also true that copying cassettes, burning CDs, and skipping over commercials and dumb sitcom jokes constitute personalization of the consumer experience. But there’s no money exchanged, and the “filterer” does not occupy the same plane as the “visionary creator,” without whom there would be nothing to filter.
I’m sure the producers and creators would be fine with the old-fashioned method: With ears plugged and eyes closed, viewers can shout “la la la” until the scary parts are over. But if CleanFlicks wants to make commercial edits to a Hollywood blockbuster, it should create and finance one of its own.
Julie Welke
Ferndale, MI
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