New bucks - Letters

Washington Monthly, Nov, 2001 by Dave Sloan

While I'm tentatively partial to Stephanie Mencimer's discarded "pat male-fantasy" theory ("Violent Femmes," September 2001), I flat-out disagree with her contention that "studs on steroids" are passe. We need only turn to a slightly different medium and observe the gape-mouthed 18-35 demographic permanently tuned into "Smack-down," "Raw is War," "Monday Nitro," and the rest of the professional wrestling genre on network and cable television seven nights a week.

These muscle-rests feature oversized brutes accompanied by their busty, buff, and scantily-clad sidekicks, allowing viewers to have their (beef/cheese) cake and eat it too. And the growing number of Vince McMahon's minions' cinematic appearances bodes poorly for Ms. Mencimer's argument. The newest generation of moviegoers has been raised on this tripe, and we underestimate its effect on our cultural perception of gender at our folly.

DAVE SLOAN
Washington, D.C.