Gender and Age

“Faces for the Nineties” (Jan. 7) appears to be designed to acquaint readers with those artists who are considered by The Los Angeles Times to be trend-setting and important, in case we are unable to make that determination for ourselves.

Without addressing the validity of such an exercise (to my mind, questionable), I would like to point out that this article reflects a staggering bias in favor of young males.

Most of the men featured are in their late 20s or early 30s, which prompts the question: Are there really so few artists over 40 (or even, gasp, 50) who are influential members of their profession?

I am further appalled that, in a selection of 11 artists, only one is female. While it is certainly true that some fields in the performing arts remain bastions of male domination (conducting comes to mind), I find it difficult to believe that your writers could not find more than one woman who is an important figure in the arts. I wonder how hard they looked.

JENNA WARD-STEINMAN

La Mesa