As a local artist and male, I found the article on Dimitri very disturbing (“He’s an asshole. Duh,” Editorial Digest, April 10 and “Tough talkin’ love,” Cover, April 3). To propagate and give a guy like this a two-page spread while many real and talented local artists in Toronto go consistently unnoticed by your publication is a shame! This is not a story of a pickup artist as you claim, but of scary creep with severe problems, and this is what your magazine chooses to market to its loyal readers. I’m not sure what made you decide to do this piece, but it is a sad day for Toronto artists, feminists and readers alike! BRETT BUTLER

It is easy to see that Dimitri the Lover is an asshole. His words say that plainly. What is also plain is EYE WEEKLY’s official opinion of him: all one has to do is look at the hideous caricature on the front page of the April 3 issue to see the level of contempt with which Dimitri is viewed. I’m sure that most of your readers understood EYE WEEKLY’s official stance, and that the angry letter campaign was sent by a very small and excitable minority.

One small point I would like to make is this: if you truly believe Dimitri, (and others like him) to be “a ridiculous, woman-hating idiot deserving of scorn and mockery,” perhaps you could set an example for other free weekly papers, and stop running 10 pages of ads for hookers in the back of every issue. Ads that objectify women, and that such a “horned up” idiot would most likely respond to. Just a thought. MICHAEL JOHNSON

So you’ve been “subjected” to an email letter campaign objecting to your “promotion” of Dimitri. Your editorial on the subject was condescending and insulting to your readers. The space you’ve given him in your paper and the time spent with him by your reporter is in fact a form of support. Any reasonable person would agree. Do you mean to tell your readers that there was nothing else to write about that week? There were no bands, writers, actors or plays that could have used your support via a front cover? There were no humanitarian causes, animal rights campaigns or community events to help promote? Hogwash. You are playing your usual game of controversy for the sake of controversy. Everybody’s over it and you owe your readers more. DUH.
NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

Damn, what an awful way to end such an entertaining journalistic experience. Why did you have to succumb to defending your writing against people who clearly lack the intellectual foresight to understand the motives for publishing such a piece? Or even to comprehend the nature of the article?
One writer demands for you to “explain yourselves and the article,” and even goes on to slander your writers by calling them “idiots.”

This is completely ludicrous. Who told these clowns to pick up the newspaper? Who forced them to read the article?

As a man, do I pick up Cosmo every month and write to the editors, complaining about the negative stereotypes they perpetuate about men? (Being sex-crazed, sex-obsessed robots, etc.)
It’s rare that you read such refreshing journalism; hopefully you can keep this going and expose some more interesting people, events, and topics that go on in our city. EMMANUEL SAMOGLOU

Send letters to letters@eyeweekly.com or 625 Church St, 6th fl, Toronto, M4Y 2G1. Names withheld on request, but name, address and daytime phone number must be included. All letters become property of Eye Weekly for purposes of publication in print, online or in any other form.