The Genre of Open Letter

                                                       The Genre of Open Letter

Post on the genre of the open letter

  Open letters are letters addressed to an individual but intended for a broad audience. They are usually provided to the public through different forms of media such as newspapers, blogs or websites. Letters of this kind can also be addressed directly to a group instead of an individual.

             An open letter as a form of letter writing is useful in that it gets more publicity than personal statements. Open letters can also be used to involve people who for one reason or the other are may be unwilling to make individual comments on a regular basis. They are also used to state the author's position on a particular subject and attempt to start or end dialogue on an issue. Open letters prompt their recipients to some action by focusing widespread attention to them. This genre of letter writing can also be used as means for asking the public to judge its recipient or other people involved, in a particular light. It also allows for humor value and can be used as a means of making public a conversation that must take place as a form of a letter due to reasons of formality.

       A significant feature of open letters is that they should be widely distributed so as to reach a wide. Open letters are supposed to focus specifically on the message they are putting across, and they should be based on facts. The author of an open letter finishes it by signing his/her name and the position he/she occupies. The author of an open letter must include his/her opinion in the letter.

Critical summary on West's open letter to white male comedians

     Lindy West has written this letter as a fun of comedy, a comedian and most importantly a woman. In her letter, she highlights the challenges women face in the society as a whole but has paid particular emphasis on the comedic society. She begins her letter by pointing out that the recipient of the letter might be mad at women like her, who criticize comedians' execution on certain matters. She states that she doesn't believe that rape jokes should be completely unregulated.

      She points out to the gender problem that exists within the comedic circles and how comedy clubs are extremely hostile places for women. Lindy writes about how the men in this comedy clubs are territorial and desperate to defend their authority over what they think is funny. The writer of this letter highlights how jokes on gender violence and rape are treated as an inevitable instead of choice by the men in this clubs. Lindy also goes on to talk about how complaints by women on such types of jokes are met with dismissal and condescension. She also speaks of how women comedians are not taken seriously within the comedic circles.

     The writer of this letter goes on to list why most male comedians think performing gender violence and rape jokes is okay and she counters with a reason it isn't. Her first point is that male comedians think because other women comedians use certain types of jokes it’s okay for them to use those kinds of jokes too. She counters this by pointing out that it is not the same when a woman makes the same jokes compared to when a man makes them. Same male comedians think women are overreacting, and it's just a joke. She goes on to counter this by saying its ceases to be a joke when you are talking about gender sensitive issues. She finishes her letter by stating she is not trying to silence male comedians as some of them might think, but she is just making them aware of how women feel.