Fashion and Wardrobe

Readers Respond to Heidi Schnakenberg

Heidi Schnakenberg"s May 24 commentary, "Female Pundits Could Use Help With Hate Mail," provoked many powerful responses from our readership. Women"s eNews decided to share them. We hope that the discussion continues. Note from Women"s eNews editors. We have considered for a long time how best to have a blog on our site. As journalists, we liked the idea of presenting only reported and edited pieces. As an international news organization, we were uncomfortable providing space to only one topic or one point of view, no matter how brilliant and well-informed. As a nonprofit organization, we were concerned about legal liability for a post that had not been edited. However, when Heidi Schnakenberg"s essay provoked an unprecedented reader response, we quickly came to the conclusion that a blog on the Women"s eNews site should be reserved for such strong reader reactions to the news, essays and cartoons we publish and that we should create one right away. Below is a selection of letters we selected and the writers agreed to publish. We are extremely pleased to present them to you and hope you enjoy reading them. The Editors P.S. All comments should be sent to: editors@womensenews.orgJune 1 Hi- I just noticed you have started a blog in response to the commentary by Heidi Schnakenberg. I have two comments. To Heidi: The fastest route to self-esteem is to stand up for what you believe. Wish I"d said it first because it has become my mantra, but I actually learned it from a futurist named Watts Wacker who spent his Saturdays protecting women from anti-choice protestors at their local reproductive health center. To Women"s e-News: Blog on! Don"t be so apologetic about it either. As journalists, you believe in free speech for goodness sakes. This should be a regular feature. Democracy can"t survive until we all learn to embrace controversy and use it as a teacher rather than a reason to withdraw from the fray.All the best, Gloria Feldt May 31 Hello, I am a male reporter for the St. Augustine Record, a 20,000 circulation paper in Florida. I do the occasional column now, but for five years (2000 to 2005) I wrote a weekly column that poked the usual sacred cows: religion, drug laws, etc. Your column on the flak women columnists receive was on the mark. I got a lot of mail -- more than for any other story or column in the paper. But nothing like those direct attacks. Part of the reason may be that I am a Vietnam veteran, so I am perceived by the radical right wingnuts as a dissenting voice, perhaps. But not a traitor to their side. I"ve written one letter to a female columnist, Kathleen Parker at the Orlando Sentinel. It was complimentary, because I love her spunky voice. To those women columnists who get the hate mail, I"d advise: keep writing. Write about the hate mail. The nuts hate exposure. Things that can be said in the silence of a living room look pretty stupid when the whole community sees what a jerk you are. As my old editor, Mike Archer at the Leesburg Commercial, used to say: "Sometimes you just have to hold your nose and dive in." Peter Guinta St. Augustine Record May 31 Dear Editor, The Left often plays the victim card when they are mistreated by those who disagree with them as Heidi Schnakenberg did in her recent column. I am not an opinion writer but received death threats from leftists against myself and MY CHILDREN for supporting State legislation the Left opposed. Wackos inspired by illusions of moral/social superiority and hatred for the "enemy" are a dime a dozen in politics. If Ms. Schnakenberg is surprised by that, it only shows she has little experience in the real world of politics. Heidi"s "liberal" indoctrination into race baiting/white guilt and all its stereotypes and scapegoating invites racial reaction. Her indoctrination into feminism and all it"s superiority over men, invites a reaction of sexism. But what is true is that it does not matter if a woman is promoting the liberal line or not when it comes to a reaction of hatred and even death threats for daring to have a public opinion. When liberals named their opposition opinions "hate" and used their power to shut down debate on college campuses and for a time, in politics, that was a big mistake unless liberals like being treated with the same disrespect and intolerance they show to those who disagree with them. I despise the mean spiritedness of politics today, however, if one side is to claim the moral high ground and shout down the other side, I guess it is necessary that everyone climb that mountain of ego and shout down in equality. That is what we have today and I don"t see any solution to it as we will not permit ourselves to live with one another with respect for social and moral disagreement anymore. Sincerely, Jo Thompson Boston May 31 Hi, I believe if you"re an opinion journalist, you are going to get strong reactions if people don"t agree with you, whether you"re male or female. Maybe newspapers and magazines are different. I totally agree they should have more women journalists. But I"ve visited many "opinion" sites and blogs on the Web, and I"ve seen no gender gap whatsoever when it comes to hate mail. I can name three sites, all created by men, that have gotten tons of hate mail. They are bushflash.com, oreilly-sucks.com, and savagestupidity.com. On bushflash.com, its creator made two animations about the hate mail he"s gotten. On oreillysucks.com, there are two Web pages and one forum section devoted to hate mail. Steve Senti, who created this site, said these e-mails were only 10% of all the hate e-mails he"s gotten. He said he could fill a whole website with them. I have also seen sites created by women that get hate mail: bigbadchinesemama.com and advicegoddess.com. These ladies have a ball with the hate mails they get. Several people also sent me hate mails after I e-mailed a fur manufacturers" website protesting animal abuse in fur farms. These people called me a bitch and a terrorist. One person said I had been reported as one. I did wonder if this person had actually done this reporting (thus resulting in a lawsuit on my hands), since I had also included my snail mail address in my e-mail to the fur manufacturers" site, and there have been cases of the FBI arresting animal rights activists as "terrorists" based on flimsy charges. But this put me much more on edge than any of these hate mails, which sounded so out to lunch I laughed reading them. Which brings me to say that I think Heidi Schnakenberg and Maureen Dowd should have a similar attitude towards their hate-mail. I"ve never read these messages, but I wouldn"t be surprised if most of them sound no less childish or demented than many other hate e-mails I"ve seen. Including my own. Hope this helps, Rosalind Lord San Francisco www.seaserpent.com May 30 Hi, I just received a copy of your comments on female writers and the abuse they take for their opinions. (Forwarded to me from my husband.) I want to say it is so true. I just happen to be a 72-year-old frustrated liberal--or progressive as we now try to shed our old shrouds in shame--unfortunately, who has taken too damn much from male readers of my occasional Letter to the Editor of our small town weekly paper. I have received phone calls from too many idiot males who donтЂ™t even have the guts to say their names while they proceed to call me names, i.e., traitor, hateful, meanest person, etc. etc., because I dare to disagree with this administration. The men also write ad hominem attacks on me in response letters, which are published no matter how mean and nasty they are. The latest attack on my character came via messages left on my answering machine. One man left his name even as he called me a person тЂњdripping in hateтЂќ because I challenged a candidate for U.S.representative who called the horrendous war in Iraq тЂњfantasticтЂќ! A second and third man followed up with their comments as to my being a traitor . . . why didnтЂ™t I move to Cuba or China . . . I am the meanest person he ever heard . . . and . . . every one in (our little city) knew it. When I was able to transcribe their messages from the tape and send a letter to the identified caller repeating their words, I received a second call (this time not left on tape). I could tell he was intimidated by the fact that I had a taped copy of his nastiness.This man just happens to be the leader of a bible study group in his little mountain village. So yes, we are viciously attacked, called names, ridiculed, etc., just because we have the guts to speak out on current affairs with ideas and opinions that may run contrary to the local тЂњcracker barrelтЂќ mentality. IтЂ™ve taken a lot, but it only gives me grist for more letters. I have learned, however, via these mean-spirited barbs, to scrupulously avoid ad hominem attacks on others simply because they can be so hurtful and ineffective. Thanks again for your insights. Shirley Doll-Delehanty May 26 Dear Ms. Schnakenberg and the folks at editors@womensenews.org, If any father has ever resorted to undeserved personal attacks on a female journalist, I apologize. About 80 percent of single fathers are ordered to live apart from their children because of gender bias. Such noncustodial parents are referred to as "Deadbeat Dads" in the media very frequently. Please do your part to eradicate name-calling and I will do the same. Don Mathis, editor The Fourteen Percenter, A Newsletter for Noncustodial Parents Cheers to Heidi Schnakenberg for her commentary about female opinion writers, which was posted on a recent National Conference of Editorial Writers forum. I would like to also add that it"s not just female writers who understandably fall gun shy. Far too often editors--and we all know they"re mostly male--won"t bother dealing with female opinion writers because for a very vocal part of the population being told something by a woman just triggers a

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