Letters

Wesley's World and Welcome to It
In reading Michael Batty's criticism of the "Wesley Willis Art Joyride" ("Mediocre Sickness," Music, Dec. 4), I find it curious that Batty did not speak with Willis or his many fans in attendance. Perhaps Mr. Rock Critic lacked the necessary courage to speak with someone larger, louder, and more successful than himself? Additionally, his attitude toward mentally handicapped people is reprehensible.

In closing I would like to say two things: Wesley Willis will rock. Wesley Willis will roll. With or without the approval of holier-than-thou, fogeyistic, sour grapes, tight-ass, girly-boy rock critics.

Michael Batty can suck a horse's pee hole.
Steve Timble
Visitacion Valley

Just Plain Cross
I just finished reading "Chick's in the Male" by Tom McNichol (Bay View, Dec. 4), and I found it to be a very insensitive piece altogether, as well as misleading about the costs of genital surgeries.

Roberta Dunne (served to the reader as a typical transsexual) spent an amount of money far above the average -- McNichol admits this, but makes no attempt to give the reader a more realistic idea of the costs involved. A vaginaplasty done by the finest such surgeons in the country costs in the $10,000 to $12,000 range, not "from $10,000 to $50,000 and more" as asserted by McNichol. Labiaplasty, a second operation that generally marks the completion of sex-reassignment surgery, costs on the order of $2,000.

From the title of the article and the dark, unflattering portrait of Dunne, through sophomoric turns of phrase such as "gender-bender got tender for surgical render" and "preop 'welfare queens,' " McNichol treats transsexuals as people who can be disparaged without consequence.

At the very least, the presence of quotes from hostile sources demands balancing rebuttals from sympathetic ones. Where are the quotes from Transsexual Menace, or the many gender therapists in the Bay Area?

Thankfully, the piece stopped short of open ridicule, but it was frankly unfair to transsexuals. I expected better.

Ellen Bottas
Lower Haight

Buy Now, Pay Now
Leave it to SF Weekly, that errand boy for big business, to mouth off about true subversion ("Don't Buy It," Unspun, Dec. 4). True subversion is not shopping for $1,500 Armani T-shirts or apologizing that greed is good for the economy. I find it absurd that the Macy's worker needing a job is used to prop up an attack on Adbusters. Let's glance at the excesses of the capitalist CEO economy with the maxim of jobs abroad and profits for conspicuous consumption. A bit brutal, eh? Ted Turner said much the same thing just the other day when he stated that the rich are too busy worrying about their status and position on the Forbes list to give a damn about anything else. Or is this sort of moralizing a bit too sanctimonious for you?

Charles B. Stegiel
Mission

Jail Reporting
Great "Unspun" by Susan Rasky on "the prisons beat" ("The Press Behind Bars," Nov. 27). I'm passing copies on to journalist friends, who should take her advice and pay attention to that world.

Mike Mosher
Mountain View

Correction
In "Night Crawler" (Dec. 4), the local singer/songwriter who dedicated his set at the Werepad to Mark Lenard was Mark Robinson.