More Significant than politics, weather, or the economy:
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yourselves and go to youthandgendermediaproject.org to read and watch video clips about the real lives of gender non-conforming youth and their families. Let’s be allies, not assholes. — Katharine Sprecher Weaverville
What’s so edgy about statistics? It’s not that the “The 7 Billionth Person on Earth” was an offensive, controversial or even inaccurate article, it was just plain superfluous [“Edgy Mama,” Nov. 9 Xpress]. Couldn’t something have been communicated in a half-page more than just a slew of inanimate statistics that we all know? If you ask me, statistics are about the most lifelessly conventional way of communicating information. So we have 7 billion people, and Edgy Mama, you “selfishly” hope that your kids procreate, but on a “humanistic level” you are terrified of more people and do not consider the birth of the 7 billionth a cause for celebration. Do you enjoy indulging the emotion of guilt? We have another rambling and undirected mishmash of how we consume a crap-load in this country — and? What are you offering? What are you trying to say? I don’t think you know. To me, if you’ve got a true sense of self, then selfishness and humanitarianism are inextricable. It would have been a lot more edgy if you had written something contrasting the popular mindset that we are a disease upon the Earth. This is no way to see oneself. If our future is as grim as the picture you paint, then it will be because of the “hopelessly doomed” psychology that articles such as yours feed. The natural emotion of ushering in new life is empowerment, not regret for having brought calamity. It is our responsibility as parents to always hold the birth of a child as holy, and to inspire within our children their natural imagination so that they pursue the future with hunger rather than shun it with dread, feel beautiful rather than ugly and nurture their own will to create, transform, have a purpose and find solutions. — Jordan Foltz Asheville
A big yuck to the Mountain Xpress
A big yuck to the Mountain Xpress for printing the photo of a woman’s leg shackled to a dancing pole in an ad for a local nightspot. Hooray for healthy sexuality consensually expressed, but would Xpress have run the ad if the leg had been a shade darker? I think (thankfully) not. Yes, editing is a form or censorship, but please choose not to run ads that portray violence to women as entertainment. — Sherrill Osborne Knight Asheville Xpress responds: Thanks for your letter, which raises good points. We restrict the number and content of adult ads that run in Xpress in deference to the range of values held by our readers and to ensure that Xpress continues to promote community dialogue among those readers. The Advertising and Production departments created this ad with our stock-image library, using, at the client’s request, an image of a woman with a pole. When the ad was created and approved by the client, we didn’t think through all of the image’s connotations and implied contexts. The ad ran for one week. We have replaced it this week to reflect something more positive.
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NOVEMBER 23 - NOVEMBER 29, 2011 • mountainx.com