Minnie Pearl in which Hank says, "For two cents I'd just haul off and kiss ya," to which Pearl replies, "Anybody got change for a nickel?" Apparently, Vowell would've preferred something like, "That sure is a goddamn ugly hat yuh got there, Minnie. Yuh know, I've lost my will to live. This next song..." Then there was the odd implication that Hank had somehow duped all the folks in "crummy little backwater churches" who sang his song, "I Saw the Light" (cuz Hank was too much of a drunk to see the light). You're right, Sarah. Hank sucks. He ain't keepin' it real. And this whole time I thought the music was the thing. Thanks for setting me straight. Can I borrow your Hanson records? They seem like happy people, just like their songs. Clay SparksManhattan--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Engendering Oppression Amy Taubin's review of The Brandon Teena Story ["Splitting Image," September 29] was interesting and informative, giving a clear picture of Teena's situation and its cinematic representation. I was surprised, however, that Taubin used the feminine pronoun "her" to refer to Teena, who was born with a female body but identified as a man. Taubin says, "They raped her because they were enraged and threatened by her sexuality ('Brandon's gender was a real problem,' one of them opines) and they murdered her to keep her from fingering them as rapists." While Teena's gender-queerness certainly worked against him, he was raped and killed because he was transgendered--because his outward gender expression did not match his genitals. To represent the situation as misogyny and homophobia is to ignore the reality of trans-oppression and to perpetuate it again. Jessica SteinBrooklyn...
