Surprise! Slate’s Advice Column is Full of Fake Letters
(Link): Surprise! Slate’s Advice Column is Full of Fake Letters
by J. Sexton
Slate has an advice column called “Dear Prudence” which has been written by a number of people over the years.
The usual letter is some semi-plausible domestic situation which is always anonymous of course since no one would want their real name associated with these problems in public.
But it turns out that kind of anonymity and the desire for a certain brand of unbelievable, yet morally fashionable, dilemma created another problem.
It left the column open to fakes.
Today, the revived Gawker has a piece written by a young adult novelist who admits he made up a bunch of letters which have been published by Slate over the past year.
In my anonymous, fabricated letters to Prudence, I could follow the most demented threads of my imagination without having to anticipate the omnivalent flavors of opprobrium that might rain down on me from YA’s brigade of cultural revolutionaries…
…It was ironic, then, that the letter that received the most attention was also my final one.
The evening after “Help! My Husband Won’t Remove His Mask, Even For Sex!” ran, I was on my first margarita at a Mexican restaurant when a colleague texted me that it was getting traction on Twitter.
I was on my second when another friend alerted me to the fact that the letter had been picked up by Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
I’m pretty sure I actually read that last one when it was published in May. It did make it into our headlines. I guess that’s a good way to go out if you’re going to stop writing fakes, with something that really generates attention.
The author concludes by noting he’s certain there are others out there writing similar fake letters.
Reading over a few of the ones that Slate has published recently, it’s not hard to believe that most of them are fakes. For instance, “Help! My Family Is Mad I’d Rather Build My Life Around My Cats Than Them.” …
These days, I don’t see the point to columns like this. Anyone could post these stories on Twitter or Instagram or wherever anonymously and get plenty of blunt, honest reactions.
They could also just observe how other people talk about these issues online without saying anything. It’s not hard to get outside the family bubble in 2021.
Related:
(Link): My Husband Won’t Take His Mask Off – Not Even For Sex by T. Bosch
(Link): Ask Amy: Wife Says She Is Turned Off By Husband’s Fat Body and Muffin Top
(Link): Dear Abby: As Boyfriend Loses Hair, I Lose Interest
(Link): Weirdo Dude Arrested for Having Sex with Raft and Pumpkin
(Link): Dear Advice Lady: My Boyfriend is a Fattie and I Feel Like His Mom
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