The Alamo Drafthouse made headlines when they announced a women-only screening of Wonder Woman at their Austin, Texas movie theater. In keeping with the spirit of the female-led-and-directed film, both the audience and the theater staff will be female or identify as female.
As might be expected, some men were offended they weren’t allowed to attend the women-only screening — and took to the Internet to express their dissent.
One particularly outraged man Richard Ameduri went so far as to write a particularly ill-advised letter to the mayor’s office in Austin, declaring that he hoped “every man will boycott Austin and do what he can to diminish Austin and to cause damage to the city’s image” because of the women-only screening.
Ameduri also proceeded to write that “achievements by the second rate gender pale in comparison to virtually everything great in human history was accomplished by men, not women” and questioned whether or not women had invented anything worthwhile, closing his letter to the mayor with the adage, “don’t bother to respond because I am sure your cowardice will generate nothing worth reading.”
However Mayor Steve Adler ignored Ameduri’s advice and responded with a letter of his own that not only defended the business’s right to hold the women-only screening but skillfully skewered the blatant sexism of Ameduri’s letter adding that everyone is welcome in Austin, “even people like those who wrote that email whose views are an embarrassment to modernity, decency, and common sense.”
Read the Steve Adler’s full response below.
Dear Mr. Ameduri,
I am writing to alert you that your email account has been hacked by an unfortunate and unusually hostile individual. Please remedy your account’s security right away, lest this person’s uninformed and sexist rantings give you a bad name. After all, we men have to look out for each other!
Can you imagine if someone thought that you didn’t know women could serve in our combat units now without exclusion? What if someone thought you didn’t know that women invented medical syringes, life rafts, fire escapes, central and solar heating, a war-time communications system for radio-controlling torpedoes that laid the technological foundations for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS, and beer? And I hesitate to imagine how embarrassed you’d be if someone thought you were upset that a private business was realizing a business opportunity by reserving one screening this weekend for women to see a superhero movie.
You and I are serious men of substance with little time for the delicate sensitivities displayed by the pitiful creature who maligned your good name and sterling character by writing that abysmal email. I trust the news that your email account has been hacked does not cause you undue alarm and wish you well in securing your account. And in the future, should your travels take you to Austin, please know that everyone is welcome here, even people like those who wrote that email whose views are an embarrassment to modernity, decency, and common sense.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Adler
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com