How Much Is Too Much Private Information?

I read with amusement Patti Davis’ diatribe against “tell all” male politicians (“Ah, the Good Ol’ Days of Repression,” May 29). She decries the new openness on the part of male politicians regarding their medical conditions and private lives, using Rudy Giuliani and Bob Dole as examples of particularly egregious lapses in public taste. Giuliani’s sin was talking about the effects of chemotherapy for his prostate cancer, and Dole’s was admitting to erectile dysfunction.

Men in public life are now merely acting the way women have for decades in this country. Men have learned from women that talking about the most personal aspects of your life to a television or newspaper reporter is not gauche or exhibitionist; on the contrary, it is a sign of sensitivity and openness. I notice, for example, that Davis does not take Giuliani’s wife to task for participating in a performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” a play that is nothing if not a public discussion of women’s private parts and how they feel about them. How is this different from what she is condemning Dole and Giuliani for?

Women can write books and devote entire talk shows to menopause, frigidity and the multi-orgasmic woman, but apparently men are forbidden the same. They are supposed to clam up about these things, so that they can then be taken to task for not being sensitive enough.

If Giuliani were a female politician suffering from breast cancer, no one would dare breathe a word of complaint if she chose to discuss the effects of chemotherapy. Davis’ double-standard in this regard is not just hypocritical, but actively cruel. And that is the real sin against public decency.

NIALL LYNCH

Santa Monica

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What can we expect next from Ms. Davis, an article using snide comments about breast cancer or ovarian cancer, suggesting it is inappropriate to discuss such intimate details of “viruses” that pose difficulties for women . . . many of whom are well-known in politics and entertainment?

Perhaps the very inconsiderate Ms. Davis should refrain from such insensitivity. Humorous she is not. Mean-spirited comes to mind.

SHIRLEY PORTER

Sunland

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Finally, a sensible commentary on the omnipresent public details of our “leaders” bodily functions!

Every man, woman, and child in this country must be sick to death of hearing about Bob Dole’s erectile dysfunction. Good grief, the man was already a millionaire, and there he was raking in more millions explaining to us five and six times per hour why Liddy Dole has that great big smile on her face.

The guy who had it right was Bill Clinton, who thought his sex life should be private. Bill was right. Bob and Rudy are wrong. But they tried to impeach Bill, Bob is a millionaire many times over and Rudy needs to chat with Bob, not the courts of New York, and certainly not the press.

Right on, Patti.

NANCY MILES

Camarillo