Better war coverage
Re: Scorn for the USA, Mar. 22
The Varsity’s depiction of the March 20th anti-war protest was misleading and disappointing. Your photo on the cover of the Thursday (Mar. 22) issue represents the kind of sensationalism that student newspapers should be able to rise above. For your information, there was a student march before the city-wide rally that drew hundreds of students from across the city together in opposition to the year-long occupation of Iraq.
It would have been nice to have The Varsity cover this event, since it is a student newspaper. Students for Peace in Iraq, the U of T coalition that has been organizing this student march for months, placed an ad in The Varsity that should have reminded you that the march was taking place. Do you read your own paper?
It also would have been nice if there were an actual article about the city-wide demonstration of 8,000 people in the pouring rain. You might have been able to interview U.S. soldier Jeremy Hinzman who is a conscientious objector. Jeremy showed his “true colours” by voicing his moral opposition to the deaths of 10,000 Iraqi Civilians and nearly 400 U.S. soldiers since the war on Iraq began. Perhaps The Varsity could do its job at the next anti-war demo and actually write an article.
Kelly Holloway
Chasing balance?
Re: Misogynist, or genius? Mar. 25
Before I begin, I should note that I am not one of Smith’s rabid fans whose “images of women have been formed by images of blockbuster films and Vampirella.”
Sarah Barmak seems to have an intimate knowledge of Kevin Smith’s body of work, yet she somehow forgets to acknowledge the material that might refute her argument.
Presumably, she has seen An Evening with Kevin Smith, and she would know that his motives for making Chasing Amy stem from the fact that his brother came out of the closet and was annoyed that Hollywood movies portrayed straight relationships exclusively.
She probably would have also noted that he said he can’t make a movie that is exclusively preaching a dogma, and so tempers it by throwing in the random “dick joke.”
Her “damaged goods” argument seems to miss the point of Chasing Amy itself. In the movie, Silent Bob tells the story of “Chasing Amy,” and of how the he let the love of his life go because he couldn’t reconcile her past. He tells Holden not to make the same mistake.
It’s also why Holden gets annoyed with Silent Bob for giving him bad advice in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
Going past the plot itself, he also defends the movie in the Chasing Amy commentary, where he says that the point of the movie wasn’t that “all a lesbian needs is a good dicking,” as many of his detractors claim.
The fact that she can invoke little known material, like the Clerks comic books and Chasing Dogma, yet ignore the movies themselves, and Smith’s actual comments, smacks of a lack of journalistic integrity and a blatant disregard for the facts.
Either that, or this is a case of wilful ignorance, which is worse.
Allen Kwan
