Letters
Fatal fame
Re: Is media sexism endemic? (Issue 406)
l was glad to find an article
highlighting that The List had been hit
by the ’tits and ass' cover trend. I was a bit annoyed at this ’Kate Hudson: A Star Is Born' cover story (issue 405) as I just thought it was irrelevant: The List being in some way the ’victim' of the opportunity to interview some Hollywood babe in a big UK premiere. And, oddly enough, it’s the article about Kate Hudson that turns the reader off as it emphasises the 'sold
and packaged’ aspect of Hudson’s rise 5
to fame (gosh, what a scoop!). The story could be summed up like this: ’I popped up in London to meet Kate Hudson, it was very shallow and sol made a cover story of it’ . . . that’s a bit of a contradiction to me. Nathanael Corre
via e-mail
More sex please Re: the sex issue (issue 406)
The List’s sex issue was the best List I’ve read yet. Thank goodness for St Valentine's Day or we might not have got it. But why does one ever need an excuse for sex? Since most of us have it more times than we go to the cinema, why isn't The List bulging with sex in every issue?
In Scotland, what gay commentators, journalists and, yes, editors exist are a pretty closeted or self-loathing bunch. While morally conservative commentators flood the Scottish media, every moral issue has to be filled with outrage from a string of religionists.
The List has had its moments. No, it doesn't ask the Catholic Church or the Kirk’s Board of Social Responsibility what it thinks of a new production, but a previous editor once insisted to me that gay clubs/events didn't need their own section because gay staff felt it singled out gays for special treatment. It was suggested to me this attitude was all quite liberating really. Like The Daily Record appears to think it quite liberating to say how OK it is to be lesbian, show a picture of a couple of them curled up together, have Old Mother Burnie sort out their angst, then ban them from ever advertising for partners in its personal columns.
Hide gay sexuality and you hide all our sexualities. Sexuality is that diverse. Show it all. Celebrate it. Give us a bit more than a ‘wee special' when we've behaved ourselves. I want The Li‘st’s Valentine’s special every fortnight! I want sex treated with respect. The venues. The news. The politics. The commentary. Where? When? How? Who? Give it to me. And give it to me now.
Garry Otton
Editor of Scottish Media Monitor ScotsGay Magazine
PO Box 666
Edinburgh
EH7 SYW
i
Write to:
React, The List, 14 Hi h Street, Edinburgh EH1 "E or React, The List, McLe Ian Galleries, 270 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow 62 3EH or e-mail react@list.co.uk
Enough already
Re: the sex issue (issue 406)
lust sp/ashed out on The List as I thought it was time I found out what was gomg on out there. And I have to say, what the hell is gomg on? All this sex busmess???
I am not a prude - I am qune a big fan of sex actually - but I do get sick of the way sex is everywhere and feel a tad disappointed that the last bastion of good clean journalism has become full of dildos suddenly.
No, there’s just no way I can write that last sentence Without sounding like Mrs Offended of Weybridge is there? It's more a case of context, really. If I want porn, I just read my sister’s old c0pies of Cosmo.
Name and address supplied
List in the fast lane
Re: Motorway job claim questioned (issue 406)
Rachel Richardson’s excellent article about the extension of the M74 really says it all. It speaks volumes that we can no longer expect this sort of questioning, critical but socially compassionate reporting from either of our two ’quality' newspapers. David McVey
Milton of Campsie
Roadrage
Re: Motorway job claim questioned (issue 406)
The local communities’ considerations have been swept aside by the roads lobby in their drive to appease the business sector. Great swathes of land have been left derelict in the path of where the motorway is planned because, on some map somewhere, a blue line has been drawn and planning permission withheld for any other project apart from the M74. This is the unseen cost to the communities involved.
’Motorway madness' has inflicted our leaders in South Lanarkshire Council for a number of years now. They have been sold a sink without a plug, down which they are willing to pour millions of pounds of tax-payers' money instead of directing the flow of cash towards re-generating towns like Rutherglen which hardly even get a mention. Instead, they give us glitzy policy statements and glossy brochures which offer utopia in the form of thousands of new jobs. Exactly what these jobs might be is never identified but one must suspect that they involve retail parks and distribution centres, which offer only more nails in the coffins of local shops and businesses.
The most pressing physical problem for Rutherglen is the traffic on Main Street. The councillors maintain that traffic congestion will ease with the building of the motorway, but even Sarah Boyack MSP admits that the £2 50m project will not solve this problem but may in fact make it worse by increasing the number of
vehicles on the roads. Our c0unCillors in their misgwded Wisdom have campaigned Vigoroust to have a junction built at Rutherglen/Cambuslang, thus all traffic heading for the motorway Will have to converge on this area It is staggering in its naivety to believe that Rutherglen’s traffic problems Will be solved by such measures. InCidentally, isn't it a strange comodence that the figure of £250 million ’costs’ for the motorway prOject is exactly matched by the £250 million ’saVings’ from privatismg the maintenance of trunk roads? If this is the source of the motorway money, then it won't just be locals, Greenies and enVironmentalists Who Will be shouting, it Will be the 3500 road workers Whose jobs are on the line because of it. Rather than create jobs this motorway is set to destroy them. Susan Martin Scioncroft Avenue
Rutherglen
Length matters
King Adora at The Venue
Maybe I have high expectations from a critically acclaimed 'neW band’ such as King AdOra currently touring the UK, including Edinburgh, The Venue, 29 January.
However, when they walk off stage after only 22 minutes With no encore, it disappoints me and I’m sure many others who, like me, have spent their hard-earned cash and valuable time to go and see them.
Perhaps they don’t have much material?
While the quality was there, the quantity was not. Perhaps they should be supporting and not headlining their own tour.
Leave it to the big boys, King Adora. Doreen Young via e-mail
Poetry corner
Re: I Saw You (issue 406)
Here is a poem of longing and hope, culled entirely of first lines from the I Saw You entries for E'burgh for 1—1 5 February:
I saw you
I saw you my baldheaded cuddlemonster
I saw you being petite, but perfect I saw you Nutmeg, good
I saw you early but not late because Nikolai had the nut allergy
I saw you belly dancing with
I saw you sometime grumpy fucker
I saw you angel
I saw you you pool shark
I saw you shaking your
I saw you tall, long legged and out of this world
I saw you in my dreams
I saw you
Rhona Dornan via e-mail
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©2001 The List Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden Without the written permiSSion of the publishers. The List does not accept responSibility for unsoliCited material. Printed by Scottish C0unty Press, Sherwood Industrial Estate, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian.
IS Feb—l Mar 2001 THE LIST 127