In response to:

Hard to Swallow from the January 25, 1973 issue

NEW YORK REVIEW

LETTERSDEPT

250 WEST 57 ST

MANHATTAN NY 10019

ELLEN WILLIS’S RECENT REVIEW OF “DEEP THROAT” [NYR, January 25] IS TYPICALLY FEMININE AND TYPICALLY STUPID. I AM NOT A MEMBER OF THE “HIP SUBCULTURE” AS SHE MAINTAINS, BUT A ONE-TIME HEARST PHOTOGRAPHER AND INSURANCE SALESMAN.

PLEASE MUZZLE YOUR FEMINISTS.

AL GOLDSTEIN

[Screw Magazine]

Ellen Willis replies:

I didn’t say Goldstein was a “member” (chuckle) of the hip subculture but that it had “spawned” him, meaning his editorial persona. The underground newspaper, with its sexual explicitness and celebration of porn as revolutionary, clearly paved the way both legally and socially for publications like Screw.

As for our relative intelligence, I’ll let my review and Goldstein’s reply speak for themselves.

This Issue

March 8, 1973