Thanks for the hate mail, sir!

In the event of Titanic's 100th anniversary, I wrote a number of articles, one of them entitled "Titanic tales: Women's voices missing from history of disaster", although it was also on other websites under the title "Where were the voices of the women?"


Although I hate to direct traffic to this anonymous person's blog, here's some hate mail I received in response to my article. It's not really a traditional method to give feedback, but sometimes you can't expect much from certain readers. 


I tried my best to clarify this gentleman's issues. This is the email I sent him: 

Dear anonymous,

Thank you kindly for your feedback. The way you approached the situation says a lot about you,  so I'll be sure to explain myself carefully to ensure your understanding.

First off, let me clarify something that you obviously don't understand. My job, like many other journalists (with the exception of columnists), is to organize information based on fact and/or expert opinion. It's also my job to find the most appropriate person or expert to give their opinion — in this case, Deborah Welch, a PhD professor with a current research focus on societal reaction to widows throughout American history. There is no trace of my opinion in the article, and I don't remember discussing the topic with you, so maybe you disagree with Dr. Welch's opinion, but not mine. 

Next, you brought up the number of deaths in women and men, saying that my information was inaccurate (note: children were not included). Although the numbers fluctuate slightly from various sources, they are all with 25 or so, making my statement of "virtually the same number of men and women" correct. Your link to the Globe and Mail article confirms that. 

Why didn't I compare the survival rate of women and children? Because that's not what my article was about. There are endless stories to be written about Titanic, which makes it important for each and every one to have a strong focus to keep  the attention of the reader — another fact of journalism that you overlooked. 

Although I didn't choose the title "Where were the voices of the women?", I think it's appropriate. Yes, you're right, men often spoke for women and their daughters. The article was not written to conclude that or otherwise, it was to put that in perspective. Dr. Welch said Titanic was "almost exclusively the playground of men," and it's true. It's fact.

That answers everything important that you brought up, the rest is childish name-calling and irrelevant accusations — ironic, considering you signed as "Dad" and your blog promotes fairness for fathers.

Hopefully you will make the best of this. 

Best,

Kyle