sweetbriarpoet
Flower Fortune- Sweetbriar: Poetry and fragrance.
Sixty-Eigth Entry : PLEASE READ
Today I read an article from a right-wing conservative religious paper. A student had submitted an article which stated that high suicide rates in America were the fault of women going into the work place, and the promiscuity of women in our generation. He claimed that because women are not "well-bred", "mannerly", and "feminine" anymore, they are causing children not to have a support system, thereby contributing directly to high teenage suicide rates. He also claimed that women should not be having sex before marriage (notice this whole article has no role of men). He says that we cannot blame the high suicide rates on any economic, social, or political events and he never explains why. In fact, by the end of the article he has forgotten that he was talking about suicide in the first place, because he is too busy bashing women and un-Christian values.
Obviously, I was angry.
Here was my response letter to him:
As a woman who has experienced suicide among her friends, I was appalled by your take on such a touchy issue. Your sexist and religiously biased article questioned all that humanity has worked towards in the last 200 years. Though I am not usually one to side with feminists on many issues, I do feel that you are blatantly blaming women for high suicide rates. Such overt disgust at a culture that has risen above what you deem "manners" and being "well-bred" and what I deem as being "prejudice" and "ignorant," overshadows what should be the most important aspect of your article: reducing teenage suicide rates.
I feel, also, that, as a journalist, you should have realized how ignorantly you assessed your article. There are hardly any facts in your article, and the only reasons you give for high suicide rates come from your own narrow opinion. You never even addressed generational stress only used the term "nuclear war" to pass over what might the most important cause of suicide: a growing world with more pressures and a focus on materialism.
Your input on sex, too, comes from the mouth of a virgin. When one has never experienced pleasure and purpose in sex, it must be impossible to write about the importance of it being safe and free, all without the price of institution.
I commend you for writing from the heart, for writing at all, but next time you want to express your opinion in an article, I suggest you open your eyes and see what is really going on in the world. Realize that the broadening of acceptance and the enrichment of life do not depend on the entrapment of a gender or a unifying religion. Remember that suicide is not about a nuclear family being the only "right" familial structure, or about a culture respecting feminism (which I suggest you start doing or else you'll never take care of that problem suggested in paragraph three); it is about a deep, personal struggle that can be caused not only by PROVEN genetic defects, but also by other cultural pressures that would have been prudent and insightful to mention.
Was I wrong in sending it?
Obviously, I was angry.
Here was my response letter to him:
As a woman who has experienced suicide among her friends, I was appalled by your take on such a touchy issue. Your sexist and religiously biased article questioned all that humanity has worked towards in the last 200 years. Though I am not usually one to side with feminists on many issues, I do feel that you are blatantly blaming women for high suicide rates. Such overt disgust at a culture that has risen above what you deem "manners" and being "well-bred" and what I deem as being "prejudice" and "ignorant," overshadows what should be the most important aspect of your article: reducing teenage suicide rates.
I feel, also, that, as a journalist, you should have realized how ignorantly you assessed your article. There are hardly any facts in your article, and the only reasons you give for high suicide rates come from your own narrow opinion. You never even addressed generational stress only used the term "nuclear war" to pass over what might the most important cause of suicide: a growing world with more pressures and a focus on materialism.
Your input on sex, too, comes from the mouth of a virgin. When one has never experienced pleasure and purpose in sex, it must be impossible to write about the importance of it being safe and free, all without the price of institution.
I commend you for writing from the heart, for writing at all, but next time you want to express your opinion in an article, I suggest you open your eyes and see what is really going on in the world. Realize that the broadening of acceptance and the enrichment of life do not depend on the entrapment of a gender or a unifying religion. Remember that suicide is not about a nuclear family being the only "right" familial structure, or about a culture respecting feminism (which I suggest you start doing or else you'll never take care of that problem suggested in paragraph three); it is about a deep, personal struggle that can be caused not only by PROVEN genetic defects, but also by other cultural pressures that would have been prudent and insightful to mention.
Was I wrong in sending it?
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