In Kluge’s defense
J. Tobias Beard reports on Patricia Kluge’s failed wine business in the story “Patricia Kluge: Her fruitless bid for wine royalty” [May 24]. As one proceeds to read the story, however, one realizes that it is not about Patricia Kluge’s failed business venture at all; it is all about the contempt the writer feels for Kluge.
Tobias Beard refers to Kluge as someone that was looking to “rid her of her reputation as nothing but a strumpet-turned-gold digger extraordinaire.” What is a strumpet anyway? I had to look that one up. And, so, what he is saying is that Kluge is nothing but a prostitute and then continues to harness just about every sexist stereotype to annihilate and to strip Kluge of her humanity. He finds her so vile that one wonders what it is that triggers his irrational rage. Does he personally know her and does he have an axe to grind? Or is he just enraged by this Uppity Woman? What is her crime? It is so over the top, you’d think she was a mass murderer. As far as I can gather, her crime was to try to bring prestige to Virginia wines.
There is a timeline included with the article and Kluge’s honorable initiatives such as starting the Virginia Film Festival, helping to save the Paramount from demolition and establishing the Kluge’s Children’s Rehabilitation Center are not included. In fact, nothing sympathetic to Kluge is mentioned. The writer does, however, alert us to the fact that Kluge wore white when she married her late second husband (How dare she wear white when she is not a virgin!).
Why would the writer, who so hates Kluge, want to write about her? Which brings me to the bigger question: Why do the editors at C-VILLE think publishing an unbalanced hate-filled diatribe have any value whatsoever? Furthermore, you must be aware that sexist stereotypes, like racist stereotypes, are destructive and dangerous in our society. So, please be more vigilant and refrain from publishing these types of unjust and discriminatory narratives.
Anneke Bastiaan
Charlottesville
You had your say on c-ville.com:
From “Blood money,” a June 7 story about a new Charlottesville health center
Science Over Politics: “Only in the insane partisan world of C-Ville could Paul Ryan get blamed for preterm births in Fifeville. What Brendan Fitzgerald is hoping you are ignorant of is that the $600,000 cut in Community Health Centers happened at the same time that Planned parenthood got another $336,000 of our tax money despite being a “non profit” that profits about $75 million a year. They can then funnel that money back into political campaigns, you see. Community health Centers perform mammograms. Planned Parenthood does not. Cecille Richards lied about that. Planned parenthood CAUSES preterm birth and low birth weight every day – by performing infant mortality on their older brothers and sisters. African Americans have far higher abortion rates than other groups in the USA. Thus, they have far higher rates of preterm birth and low birth weight and birth defects. This is the science that C-Ville weekly will never tell you. They don’t care about children. they don’t care about black children. They don’t care about anything but their cruel and selfish political agenda. That’s why they continuously write garbage like this.”