"Wahhh!!! My name's Roddy Van Mechelen, my mommy didn't love me and show me enough affection so now I have to hate all the women in the world. Wahhh!"
Editor: You're very kind. Thank you. Next, one sports fan offered the following compliments:
"Hi, my name is Jim, and I read the article in the Times tonight, and I think I'm a normal guy ... I like football, I'm a big guy and I like to go see the Sonics and Sea Hawks and stuff, but I just gotta tell ya, that you're scary and the stuff you're writing about is scary, and the kind of violent imagery and the kind of rape stuff, I mean, I think that you're contributing to rape culture and I think the blood's on your hands."
Editor: That's nice of you to say so, but I'm afraid I don't follow football - - it combines the worst elements of American culture -- violence and committee meetings. Thanks, anyway. Now, here's a fellow who's got us confused with Hustler:
"Hey Backlash!, I've seen yer publication and it's nothin' but a Nazi rag. I've seen articles in there that openly call for the murder of womin, for the rape of womin, right in yer newspaper, and this kind of magazine is nothin' but oppression, an' terror against womin. Fifty womin have been killed by a Green River killer right here in King County and nothin' wuz done about it. Womin live in poverty, oppression and fear and I'm sure there's a lot of mothers and rapists and murderers of womin out there that are joinin' yer movement!"
Editor: No reason to get nasty, my friend. True, sometimes we have a little fun in The Backlash!, but that's no cause to call it a "naughty rag." I mean, we do have our standards. The next woman offered some nice travel tips:
"Rot in Hell, motherfucker!"
Editor: Been there, done that. Thanks anyway. Now, here's a woman who believes men and women are becoming more alike:
"I'm just calling after having read the article in The Seattle Times this evening regarding your magazine, The Backlash! And I just wanted to communicate to you .. um, I wanta hear Mr. um ... Van Mechelen? ... that if women are becoming angry at men, I swear you men are becoming a bunch of whiny womin! Thank you very much."
Editor: You're very welcome.
Another fellow called to say "you're such a total geek ... I just wanted to let you know what a total loser you are." Well, I do make a nice batch of blackberry wine every year, but that hardly makes me a boozer, and while I sometimes wonder if I missed out by not joining a fraternity in college, the truth is I'm not a greek and never have been.
Then there was the woman who made a rude comment about my housekeeping abilities: "I don't mean to be vindictive, ... but you all are pretty disgusting to me." All right, so my place is a typical bachelor pad. Like Andrea Dworkin, I'm a writer who has to clean his own toilet. And I do, too. At least twice a month. Otherwise, the cockroaches complain.
We also received hundreds of calls from women and men asking for subscription information, and I thank you all. But one caller who sounds a lot like one of our most esteemed leaders of the Seattle chapter of N.O.W. left this enlightened thought:
"If you condone rape over the smell of a woman's perfume, then I condone chopping off your fucking dick because you forgot to put on goddamned body deodorant."
Editor: Guess I'm safe, then.
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