Letters: Sep. 20, 1982

New Beauty

To the Editors:

Your story “The New Ideal of Beauty” [Aug. 30] was marvelous! It echoed my own experience about the joys of a physically fit body. Thank you for presenting this aspect of today’s woman in such a positive way.

Ellen J. Miles Birmingham

As a 3 8-year-old single mother on the go 16 hours a day, I build my body for strength, endurance and energy to work and play. I love the way it looks and feels. The “fitness craze” is not a fad but progress for a pioneering generation of women.

Rosemary Osborne Incline Village, Nev.

Men have been bodybuilding for centuries with general public approval and for no other purpose than self-improvement and gratification. Now women want a piece of that action too.

Amy S. Barr Glenview, Ill.

As a good girl who ruined her feet with high heels and her internal organs with diuretics and girdles, and who was brainwashed into believing that suffering was the necessary price for beauty, I am ecstatic about standards of beauty that reflect health and strength.

Jackie Chandler New York City

It is unlikely that TIME would present a cover story on the latest trend in male physiques as it did with women in “The New Ideal of Beauty.” By printing such an article TIME perpetuates society’s ideal that a woman’s appearance has a lot to do with her worth as a human being.

Ann Kelly Manlius, N. Y.

The new standard for beauty goes back at least to the Shulamite maiden in Song of Solomon, and has included peasant and farm girls in every age. What is new is the emphasis on feminine strength for competition rather than service.

David E. Patterson Mount Vernon, Ohio

The ladies depicted and described in your article have all the sex appeal of railroad ties: strong, tough, resilient and looking the same from front or behind.

Frank S. Dessayer Glendale, Calif.

If that awkward, gangly girl with unkempt hair and a belligerent expression represents the new ideal, I say phooey!

Kathryn Springsteed Glen Head, N. Y.

Soon we men will only be able to reminisce about lovely, soft, warm, rounded and voluptuous females. How sad!

Walter F. Wiesbauer Palos Verdes, Calif.

Sportswriter John McGrath says he “has a hard time being attracted to anyone who can beat me up.” So do I.

Cathy Fiore Boston

Jane Fonda is not “raising her two daughters,” because she has only one, Vanessa, by Roger Vadim. Her other child is Tom Hayden’s son Troy.

Lynn A. Barnhill Albuquerque

Taxing Times

That hoopla about “Scoring on a Reverse” had to do with one lone touchdown, not the final score in the game against federal deficits [Aug. 30]. Switching courses slightly does not remove the impact of the third tax cut or the military’s insatiable appetite for tax dollars. Don’t forget that when Ronald Reagan, playing the legendary halfback George Gipp, asked that a Notre Dame team win “one for the Gipper,” he was a goner.

Roland A. White Champaign, Ill.

It is disgusting that the tax bill was passed by making deals with Congressmen. While budgets are cut, bootstraps are pulled up, and the needy’s safety net disintegrates, our legislators sell their votes for political futures and in the process waste money on unnecessary armaments.

Lee Schulz Ithaca, N. Y.

Computer Romance

I found the story about “Computer Widows” quite amusing [Aug. 30]. Especially since I read it at 1 a.m., waiting for my husband to come home from his job as a freelance computer-systems consultant.

Deanna R. Longroy Ann Arbor, Mich.

I am outraged at your sexist coverage of the computer’s impact on family life. Couldn’t you find one instance in which the woman, not the man, is involved with the machine? I not only understand 256K bytes of memory, but can also explain it to my attorney husband, who doesn’t know a circuit board from a chessboard.

Cherie Cone, Vice President Bitstream Inc. Cambridge, Mass.

Cutting to Size

A carefully produced film is a work of art and should be treated as such [Aug. 30]. Watching a geometrically butchered picture on a television screen is no more acceptable than listening to a recording of a Beethoven symphony with several minutes missing from the beginning and end, or being able to view only the middle third of Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

George Joblove Los Angeles

Public Interest

I must take exception to the comment made by Bruce Selfon of the federal Property Review Board that the proposed sale of public land “doesn’t hurt anyone” [Aug. 23]. Public land plays an important role in the economy and life-style of Idaho. Any change in its disposition will have a significant effect on our state and our nation. The Property Review Board needs to consult with state and local officials prior to making judgments about the wisdom of the proposed sales. It may be that the disposal of scattered parcels would be in our nation’s best interest, but it should not be done without hearing the views of the users of that public land as well as those who live adjacent to it.

John V. Evans, Governor Boise, Idaho

If James Watt has one great ability, it is to create an uproar on one issue and get everybody looking in that direction while he quietly gives away the store. The Reagan Administration’s plan is to transfer as much publicly owned property and resources to private hands as possible. But it is doing so through the leasing process of energy and minerals, not the land sales program. By focusing only on land sales, TIME missed the opportunity to explore the main issue at the Department of the Interior. As long as Watt has us looking in leftfield, rightfield is wide open.

L. Geoffrey Webb Friends of the Earth Washington, D.C.