Eminem

* Re “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Man Devalued--and Women Pay the Price,” Commentary, Jan 10: Womankind has made great progress in society since the first woman invented agriculture 10,000 years ago: In only 9,900 years, women got the vote. Sometime between Aeschylus and Eminem, they earned the right to join their husbands at the dinner table. On the negative side, as Robert McElvaine points out, the modern American woman is now frequently exposed to the repetitious profane chanting that passes for lyrics. Her ancient Greek sister was probably untroubled by choruses from passing chariots as she walked to the agora.

Still, all this hand-wringing is unnecessary. The proper treatment for “misogny-rap” is to turn off the Grammys and the American Music Awards and to negotiate heavy traffic with your windows shut. This, too, shall pass.

LISALEE ANNE WELLS

Long Beach

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* McElvaine has some valid points as to the mistreatment of women in media and literature throughout the ages. However, he errs in his depiction of the Bible succumbing to this problem. In the example he provides of a situation when a man rapes a virgin, he claims that “because she is considered mere property,” the woman “is required to marry her rapist.” Anyone who has studied the biblical commentaries or biblical law knows this to be a fallacy. The woman is not required to marry her rapist. In fact the opposite is true: If she desires to marry him, then he is obligated to marry her, “because he had afflicted her; he cannot divorce her all his life” (Deuteronomy 22:29)--unless she desires divorce.

BENJAMIN SIMON

Los Angeles