Stubborn on the Issue of Wearing Mules

I find Times staff writer Al Martinez’s discussion of women’s footwear particularly offensive. I tried not to react to Martinez’s stereotyping of women as “gum-chewing Valley girls” and “radical feminists” whose “body acids pollute their logic mechanisms.”

I could not, however, control my own “sudden outpouring of vitriol” against a writer who reports that forsaking a particular shoe style is the result of women’s “hormonal” problems.

I was further perturbed by Martinez’s conclusion that “As long as (women) get the house vacuumed and dinner on time, what they do with their feet doesn’t matter at all.”

Currently, there’s an unfortunate notion that racism, homophobia, sexism or insensitivity toward the physically and mentally handicapped is excusable when it’s wrapped in humor.

Yet I do not believe that those who suffer from these practices find that humor justifies intolerance.

TEDI BISH

La Jolla