Letters
Transgressional Therapy
I was devastated by Jon Krakauer's story about the tragic death of 16-year-old Aaron Bacon in a "wilderness therapy" school ("Loving Them to Death," October). The Bacons' well-intentioned decision to place their son in the North Star Expeditions program is understandable. But the cruelty inflicted on Aaron by the program's staff is incomprehensible, unforgivable, and criminal. I can't begin to know the grief suffered by Aaron's parents; I do know that my sadness is profound at this loss of someone I'd never heard of six months ago.

Joseph Wyche
Burgaw, North Carolina

Thank you for publishing Krakauer's powerful article. However, the piece bothered me so much that I cannot sleep tonight. The image of Aaron, bewildered and helpless, suffering from starvation and losing blood daily from a peptic ulcer, disturbs me very deeply. From a physician's perspective, his symptoms were so stridently clear that I am completely overwhelmed by the thought that no one would help this boy. Also, the idea that someone could corrupt the beauty of wilderness into an instrument of the most inhuman form of torture makes me furious. Krakauer has done an excellent job of exposing a grave injustice.

Myrto Contogouris, M.D.
San Francisco Child Abuse Council
San Francisco, California

The haunted face and frightened voice of Aaron Bacon compelled me to write. No one should be made to suffer in the way he did--convicted felon or wayward teen. As the mother of a 16-year-old, I know that raising a young adult is not always simple and often a struggle. As a professional nurse I find it unbelievable that an EMT was unable to recognize the clear signs in Aaron of shock and impending death. As a mother I am grieved, as a medical professional I am horrified, and as a human being I am outraged.

Lizabeth O. Southworth
Boston, Massachusetts

Correction: In Krakauer's article, it was incorrectly reported that a 12-year-old boy died while enrolled in an Idaho State University wilderness camp. In fact, the program in which the boy died was run by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and was in no way affiliated with Idaho State University. We regret the error.

Überreactions
To my horror, I found in my mailbox a half-naked, emaciated bimbo on your October cover, ("The Übergirl Cometh"). As personified by Gabrielle Reece, the "New Female Ideal" you tout is the same old exploitative image of femininity that's entirely inaccessible unless you're a genetic freak. This gaunt supermodel crap is exactly what inspires third-grade girls to starve themselves. Shame on you for feeding women such destructive garbage.

Joan Westlake
Tempe, Arizona

If volleyball star Gabrielle Reece is even half as bright, savvy, articulate, and aware of culture and gender issues as the woman portrayed in Karen Karbo's October profile, "The Übergirl Cometh," then you've done her a great disservice by referring to her as a girl. The 25-year-old Reece is certainly a woman.

Larry Gaffin
Seattle, Washington

My entire athletic career, I've run, cycled, and swum with women--and even cheered them on as they've breezed past me to finish first. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to compete with some exceptional female athletes and also to call them my friends. Thanks to Karbo for respecting them for what they are: athletes.

Todd Salvati
Reading, Pennsylvania

The editors reply: We're sorry that readers such as Westlake misunderstood our presentation of Reece. As Gaffin and Salvati recognized, our story in fact celebrated the six-foot-three, 172-pound volleyball star--hardly emaciated by any standards--as a strong role model, an alternative to precisely the unhealthy, impossible supermodel image that Westlake describes. Young girls should find inspiration, not insecurity, in Reece's lead. As our article makes clear, the fact that she's recognized for both her athletic achievement and her beauty is an inevitable and systemic aspect of marketing a sports heroine in this country. As to why we dubbed Reece the Übergirl and not the Überwoman--respectfully, ask any riot grrrl.

All's Fair
Your October issue delivers a superior mix of story topics, entertaining and informative writing, and spectacular photographs. The quality I appreciate most, however, is the fine editorial balance. The politics of polarization, which would divide the world into simple heroes and villains, is regrettably common in the worlds of publishing and the outdoors. How many magazines, having published Scott Anderson's debunking of the Leonard Peltier myth, would give space generously to Peter Matthiessen's rebuttal? The report on wilderness camps could easily have written off all outdoor education programs based on a few bad characters, yet it was scrupulously unprejudiced. In an era when symbols seem more important than substance in public debate, I thank Outside for being an island of fairness.

J. Kim Apel
San Clemente, California