Curve
February 2004
Vol. 14, No. 1; Pg. 9; ISSN: 1087-867X

LENGTH: 352 words

Letters

Michigan mishigas.

I am deeply disappointed in CURVE after reading this month's Hey! Baby (Vol. 13, #7). The information presented by Gina DeVries and Jess Snodgrass is full of half-truths and misinformation.

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is being blamed for trans exclusion at domestic-violence shelters and rape-crisis centers? Please. A petition of 1,000 women to stop trans exclusion? Can we compare that to over 8,000 sold tickets to the festival? What really concerns me is that Emi Koyama [who runs www.eminism.org] is apparently now the voice box for Jill Sobule and Melissa Ferrick as well as bands who supposedly won't play with Bitch and Animal and/or the Butchies. Did anyone bother to validate this information? How about the reasons the Butchies and Le Tigre did not play fest last summer? Do you call this journalism? I call it rumor mongering. 

I find it interesting that Snodgrass expresses concern about women being intimidated and harassed when that is exactly what happens when one tries to enter into dialogue with her on her Web site or on www.strap-on.org.

This issue does need some attention, but you have done nothing to fuel productive discussion. In fact, you have not only desecrated the most sacred rules of reporting I believe you have set conversations around this topic back significantly.

--Bobbi, Minnesota

Editor responds:

An interview is only one person's perspective, and of course all views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor. Nonetheless, we did verify the facts asserted by Snodgrass in her recent interview and confirmed that the Butchies and Le Tigre did not play at the festival last summer. As the interview did not specify their reasons, we let Snodgrass' statement stand. Also, to clarify, Snodgrass did not say that trans exclusion at Michigan is to blame for trans exclusion at domestic-violence shelters and rape-crisis centers. But she does argue that Michigan is held up as an example of women-only space, and that the festival's policy sets a standard for other spaces.