SF Weekly Letters

No Room for Debate
Those darn kids: I was surprised by the description of the roommate collective in Cole Valley ["Room with a Few," Ashley Harrell, Feature, 8/20]. Not at the physical conditions, but at the shallowness of the people.

I well remember such collective living arrangements from the 1960s and '70s. The people usually worked together on some political or cultural project such as organizing demonstrations, producing plays, or putting out journals and newspapers. At the very least, they had lively, ongoing debates about the arts, politics, and philosophy. But this crew seems mostly devoted to getting stoned, telling crude jokes, and discussing characters on TV shows. What happened?

Arthur Evans

San Francisco

Weight a Minute ...
Remedial women's studies: Wow. Having their weight publicized is "every woman's nightmare"? This is not a cute way to end a story; it's blatantly sexist ["Trash Talk," Will Harper, Sucka Free City, 8/20].

Whatever the other issues here, it is undignified for SF Weekly to use cracks like this. It equates the publication of a woman's home address (a potential danger to her safety) with revealing personal information that, it's implied, is humiliating because of vanity. This has the effect, whether it is intended, of asserting that women are more frivolous than men and their privacy is not to be taken seriously. This is classic Fem 1 stuff. I'm very disappointed to see such a "joke" in the Weekly.

Also, to my knowledge, removed posts on Boing Boing were about Violet Blue, not "her postings from their Web site" as stated here.

Thomas Roche

Oakland

Correction: The letter writer is essentially correct. Blue herself never posted anything to Boing Boing. The removed posts were made by Boing Boing writers referencing Blue or linking to her work. In one case ("The Top 10 Sex Memes of 2006"), Blue has said she made a "guest post" to Boing Boing, a characterization disputed by one of the site's editors, Xeni Jardin. — Ed.

Cult It Out
So, John Travolta is wrong?: Great article ["Scientology's Antagonists," Lauren Smiley, Feature, 8/13]. It's always good when the "Church" is given the chance to tell its side of the story, and it's obvious to everybody that what they say is just more of the usual PR lies. Out-of-court settlements seem to be one of their favored tactics — see the case of the death of Lisa McPherson. They just want all this stuff to go away. Unfortunately for them, it's not going away. People aren't scared of them anymore.

andy d

Web comment

Not Bi-ing It
With apologies to Arizona: I was fairly surprised by [Aug. 6's] Dan Savage column [Savage Love]. He cites thoroughly discredited research to claim that bisexual men do not exist. That probably plays in Arizona, but in San Francisco, where nearly everyone knows a bi man, it comes across as the slightly lunatic ravings of a tired, old, out-of-touch hack.

There are dozens of competent sex writers in and around S.F. Why not give someone who is entertaining, up-to-date, and knowledgeable a shot at that space?

Joe Holt

San Francisco