Texas mayor defends women-only screening of ‘Wonder Woman’ from man who lambasted ‘second rate’ gender

An American mayor has fired back at a man who wrote a scathing letter about the controversial all-female viewing of “Wonder Woman” in a private establishment. Mayor of Austin in Texas Steve Adler offered facts to straighten the letter-writer’s false notion about women.

Last month, the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin announced that it would be hosting a female-only screening of the highly anticipated film. The invitation is for women and people who identify as women. While its decision was lauded, some people, mostly men, felt it was a sexist attack against the male population.

One of those complaining was Richard A Ameduri, who wrote a scathing letter to Adler about it. Ameduri was angry at Adler for allowing the establishment to hold such event.

His letter said that the theatre was promoting sexism, and women were encouraging it because it benefits them this time. He also wrote that women only pretend to be greater than they really were. Although he claimed that he does not hate women, he called them “second rate gender.” He even challenged Adler to name something invented by a woman.

“I hope every man will boycott Austin and do what he can to diminish Austin and to cause damage to the city’s image,” Ameduri began his letter. “The theatre that pandered to the sexism typical of women will, I hope, regret its decision.”

The angry letter got the mayor’s attention. Although Ameduri specifically said that he wasn’t expecting the mayor to respond because “I am sure your cowardice will generate nothing worth reading,” Adler still responded. He posted the writer’s letter as well as his rather sarcastic reply on his website.

“I am writing to alert you that your email account has been hacked by an unfortunate and unusually hostile individual. Please remedy your account’s security right away, lest this person’s uninformed and sexist rantings give you a bad name. After all, we men have to look out for each other!” the Democratic politician wrote with false concern.

He then proceeded to serve the writer with some fairly known facts, such as the existence of women serving in the US military. He also enumerated a few inventions by women, saying that Ameduri would be embarrassed if people thought he did not know those things.

“Can you imagine if someone thought that you didn’t know women could serve in our combat units now without exclusion? What if someone thought you didn’t know that women invented medical syringes, life rafts, fire escapes, central and solar heating, a war-time communications system for radio-controlling torpedoes that laid the technological foundations for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS, and beer? I hesitate to imagine how embarrassed you’d be if someone thought you were upset that a private business was realising a business opportunity by reserving one screening this weekend for women to see a superhero movie.”

Adler ended his letter by asking Ameduri again to secure his account for his own protection. “And in the future, should your travels take you to Austin, please know that everyone is welcome here, even people like those who wrote that email whose views are an embarrassment to modernity, decency and common sense.”

Adler’s tongue-in-cheek reply earned praises from social media, with people hailing him for the hilarious but on-point reply.

“Wonder Woman,” which was released Friday in the US and Thursday in Australia, opened to positive reviews. The film stars Gal Gadot in the title role.