I’ve never heard of most of the musicians who performed at the woman-fronted Lilith Fair, and I’m sure I’d hate their bland pop-folk tunes if I was forced to listen to them. Still, I was disgusted by Jason Cherkis’ article on the festival (“Girly Town,” 8/8) and the women who performed at and attended it. The entire article is merely an excuse for Cherkis to write disparagingly about his ex-girlfriend and his continuing resentment of her; all reference to women at the festival is laced with a similar hatred. Cherkis is completely dismissive of all women involved in the festival, and full of contempt for what he judges as manifestations of pseudo-feminism and faux-lesbianism among them. He refuses to believe that the young women who attended the festival might actually be able to make their own decisions about feminism, sexualityeven music.
It’s odd that this article was even placed under the heading “Music.” I found very little reference to actual music in the piece, mired as it was in the masturbatory details of Cherkis’ failed love life. What’s up with all these articles about your writers’ various personal problems, anyway? Washington City Paper should be promoting critical insight about this city, not such contemptuous, self-obsessed ranting.
Mount Pleasant
via the Internet