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Conference turris::womannotes-v1

Title:ARCHIVE-- Topics of Interest to Women, Volume 1 --ARCHIVE
Notice:V1 is closed. TURRIS::WOMANNOTES-V5 is open.
Moderator:REGENT::BROOMHEAD
Created:Thu Jan 30 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 30 1995
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:873
Total number of notes:22329

734.0. "People actually listen!" by AITG::SHUBIN (Life's too short to eat boring food.) Mon Feb 22 1988 20:55

    I write letters to complain all the time, and hardly ever get replies.
    One of my favorite topics to write about is sexist stories or ads. I
    just came home, checked the mail and found a reply from my last letter.
    It works! They read the stuff! Here's the story:

    There was an editorial cartoon in the Sunday NY Times awhile ago. The
    picture was of about 2 dozen people fighting with fists and guns. There
    are a bunch of computer monitors and desks in the scene, people flying
    through the air and papers flying all around. The caption is "What? Let
    the government regulate the stock market and spoil the adventure of
    investing?"
    
    It's actually pretty funny, but I wrote to ask why this cartoonist saw
    the world as being made up of middle-aged white men. I looked hard, and
    didn't find any other people represented. Never mind the fact that they
    all carry guns to work.

    He sent a reply, which says "There are not only woman [sic] in the
    world but also in the market place -- my daughter is a vice president
    of the Bank of Boston -- and yes there are blacks, asiatics etc. So
    accept my apology and the next time I draw a riot scene I might even
    throw in an eskimo."  He also sent a blow up of the drawing with a
    woman's face drawn at the top.

    Well, I don't know how I'd feel if I were an eskimo, but I was pretty
    pleased that he responded and didn't argue that there wasn't a problem.

    Needless to say, when I picked up the envelope, I couldn't wait to see
    what he'd written back, so I wound up tearing the letter and drawing.
    Anyway, it's good to know that writing isn't a waste of time, and that
    there's some hope of making changes. 

    					-- hs
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
734.1MEWVAX::AUGUSTINEMon Feb 22 1988 21:375
    good for you, hal!
    anyone else who writes letters should feel free to let us know what
    they've written and what the response has been.
    
    liz
734.2CIRCUS::KOLLINGKaren, Sweetie, Holly; in Calif.Tue Feb 23 1988 15:198
    Years ago when I worked in DEC field support, someone higher up
    sent out a memo that went on about some new policies "The men should
    do this with their company cars" and so on.  I sent in a note along
    the lines of:  "I received your memo, but I am somewhat puzzled.
    Does it apply to the female employees of the company?"  and I got
    back a really nice and funny note of apology.  Sometimes folks just
    don't think.  I've forgotten the name of the higher up, unfortunately.
734.313D::CHABOTRooms 253, '5, '7, and '9Tue Feb 23 1988 15:3015
    I have a 1.00 average: I wrote one letter and got responses.
    There was a bathing suit ad for a compiler in an IEEE bingo card
    packet.  IEEE wrote back immediately, expressed concern about possible
    offensiveness; the company's marketing manager wrote back, apologized,
    but justified her choice as being a cheap alternative to expensive
    color ads, and indicated that sometimes we just must sacrifice our
    feminist leanings in the interests of business.
    
    I was annoyed, so I e-posted it everywhere I could think of.
    Never saw another bingo card from that company.
    I did get some snide comments from mitvax!oaf.
    
    It was a really dumb ad, and no one I showed the card to casually
    and then asked them to describe, without looking again, what the
    product was, could do it.
734.4Huh?DINER::SHUBINLife's too short to eat boring food.Wed Feb 24 1988 09:423
>    I did get some snide comments from mitvax!oaf.

    Sorry for my ignorance, Lisa, but who's that?
734.5LIONEL::SAISIOpining awayThu Feb 25 1988 09:1911
    	  I have written to TV networks and gotten personal responses
    	that were quite good.  A couple of times I have written to
    	Mass. politicians and the replies were frustrating.  "Thank
    	you for writing to express your opinion on <x>." and then
    	just restates that persons position.  Form letters.
    	  What approaches do people take?  I try to be positive if 
    	possible, but dissappointed.  "This is not what I expect from 
    	you, please get back on track."
    	  I wrote one critical letter to Reagan, and was hesitant to
    	mail it, not wanting to end up in an FBI or CIA file.
    	  Linda
734.6CADSE::GLIDEWELLPeel me a grape, TarzanMon Feb 29 1988 19:4617
  A few years ago, Cheryl Teigs popped up daily on TV hawking a 35 mm 
camera with her script being roughly ...

  "I'm really dumb and even I can operate this one!"

  The 50th replay irritated me so much that I photocopied my owner's registry 
card and sent the company a note saying "Look! I am your market and this ad 
irritates me. For one thing, an idiot cannot operate your camera and will 
not buy it. For another thing, Cheryl Teigs is brilliant. Anyone who knows 
anything about modeling knows how she engineered her modeling career to move 
from $35 an hour to $10,000 a day."

  The ad vanished a few weeks later. I'll bet it was my letter -- along 
with a few hundred or thousand others.  (The network TV people assume that 
one letter equals 10,000 viewers.)

Meigs