A few questions after reading the recent My Turn disparaging Valley feminists [“Why are feminists silent about Oct. 7?” Recorder, Jan. 4]. First to the writer of that particular piece: Were you hoping to contribute anything useful to the conversation with your My Turn? Did you mean to instruct women about how to address the issue of violence against women, and to do it as you see fit? Are we supposed to be grateful that you have now woken up to violence against women as a tool of war, are upset about it, and wonder why we are not reacting as you want us to? Women have been aware, horrified, and enraged about this since the dawn of time. Now you see it and wonder why we don’t react as you think we should? You know who needs to stop violence against women? Men. And trashing feminists doesn’t count as helping to stop violence against women.

And on a related issue, this question is to the editorial board of the Recorder: Ever notice a particular demographic to your regular My Turn contributors? I am a fan of intelligent, liberal-leaning, middle-aged white men, but even my husband (a member of that demographic) has noticed a pattern of pedagogical arrogance in these columns. A sort of let me explain this to you in a way you can understand. But I can assure you, those of us paying attention to what is going on in the world, get it. We don’t need further explanation nor the wisdom of a singular viewpoint (most especially when that entails disparaging others). If you know so much about it, by all means, do something to help fix it.

Perhaps the Recorder might want to seek out some different voices for My Turn columns. How about people who are actually doing something to help? And shake up the demographic of your contributors a bit. Stop publishing columns that simply throw gasoline on the fire. And please, no more “mansplaining.” We’ve had more than enough of both.

Eve Brown-Waite

Gill