I am disheartened that the Reader chose to run an article that described the cruel prank pulled by Julia Rickert and her roommate Derek Erdman in 2001 [“My Muff Has Tusks!” August 19]. The snarky tone of the article, posted under the heading High Jinks, is clearly meant to entice us to find their stunt clever and amusing; instead I am thoroughly disgusted. It does not seem that the men who responded to the chat room invite were looking to commit statutory rape or a crime of any kind. Rather it seems that they were just men with a mild kink looking for some clean fun with a consenting adult. The Reader, after it has made a fortune in advertising revenue from phone sex and other adult-themed services, now sees fit to mock the people who patronize these services.
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I have always felt like the Reader existed in a slightly utopian space, where if we were just a little more tolerant of other people’s quirks the world would be a better place. To find the Reader glorifying the wanton humiliation of mild deviants and rewarding one of the perpetrators with a job is a dispiriting sign of the times.
