These letters are in reference to the article, ‘An open letter to Halloween Skanks:‘
Dear Bailey,
We’ve been friends for a long time. So I was pretty surprised by some of the things you said last week in your letter to “skanks,” as you call them.
How is it, Bailey, that you can tell women to dress modestly, but then you yourself wear outfits of a most immodest fashion? You wear skirts and high heels all the time, so how can you advise others to dress more conservatively than you? It just doesn’t make sense.
I feel like I know you pretty well. So I was horrified to see you refer to women as “skanks.” It’s such a hateful word, a word one uses when he or she wishes to make him or herself feel superior to another. Why would you malign an entire gender?
It’s bad enough that anyone uses such a hostile word, but you need to know that when women use words like that to describe one another, they give the okay for men to use the same words. That’s what perpetuates hate. That’s what oppresses us.
Another important thing to note is that no woman no matter what her offense, (though dressing in any particular fashion is not an offense against women, mind you), can ruin feminism for the rest of us. Feminism is a vast set of principles and ideologies, not even cohesive enough to be damaged by a single blow. Feminism is in no danger, Bailey. Don’t worry about that.
In the past, I’ve heard a lot of women express their distaste for provocative Halloween costumes, but no one has been quite so scathing. Of all people, I’m really surprised to see this come from you.
There are a lot of things I thought you and I agreed on. I thought we agreed that women should be able to wear whatever they please without being ridiculed or devalued. I thought we agreed that there are more important things in life than impressing men and finding husbands. Now I feel like I don’t even know you.
I’m worried that this is going to ruin our friendship, and it makes me sad, because we’re so tight. I wish I could understand why you wrote what you did. I wish you had said just the opposite of what you did say, because that’s the Bailey I know.
The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that what you wrote is indeed a complete inversion of what you really think. I still don’t understand what you were trying to prove by doing that (if that was what you meant to do), but it gives me hope that maybe you’re not such a terrible person, after all.
Take care,
Bailey White
