Letters to the Editor

Mismatched

An unnatural roommate selection

The new roommate-matching policy that the UW plans on implementing next year seems intuitively like a step in the right direction. However, I question the effectiveness of such a system. The surprise of living with a total stranger is something like a rite of passage in the college life. When I first moved into McMahon Hall four years ago, I had a terrible roommate, and it was he who inspired me to live independently. I understand the appeal of the new system, but is this sort of matchmaking service really necessary?

David Greenspan

alumnus 2003

IMA renovations?

New rock wall, same old leaky ceiling

I was dismayed to read the list of renovations to be completed did not include repairs to the women's locker room at the IMA in "New IMA opens to students" (Sept. 29). Surely the construction plans are not going to overlook the peeling paint on the walls and the continual need for paint buckets to catch ceiling leaks?

Florence Sheehan, M.D.

research professor of medicine

Dawg Daze

Reel Big Fish deserves respect

Reel Big Fish's humor is not "frat-boy" humor. Reel Big Fish a) has a sense of humor and b) is oftentimes self-deprecating.

Brendan Sweeney

senior, physics

Romancing the campus

Rebuke from a romance writer

As a romance writer, one grows a strong hide and generally shrugs off the usual slurs and insults from the press. But to be attacked by a paper I used to write for is too much ("Seduction on campus," Sept. 30). Romance novels are not smut. Yes, they often contain descriptions of sexual activities, some in more depth than others. That is not smut (obscene language or matter). Find me the writers who "cranked out" four or five books a month -- a year, maybe, if they were lucky. "Bodice rippers" is a derogatory term that is not used by fans and writers of romance. It was coined to describe the sexy covers that were put on historical romances to attract the attention of the predominantly male wholesale book buyers. (If your target customers are women, does it make a lot of sense to put a generously breasted female on the cover of the book? Hence the arrival of hunky male cover models in the mid '90s.)

And while I agree with Jane Krentz that it is the "happy-ending" scenario of most romance novels that earns scorn from the literary snobs, I still think there is an even bigger reason why romance "gets no respect." It is a genre written primarily by women, for women. And like so many other female-dominated activities, it is looked down upon for that sole reason.

Melinda McRae

program coordinator, School of Nursing

author, The Defiant Miss Foster