Abuse of Female Reporters - NYTimes.com Re "Life as a Female Journalist: Hot or Not?" (Op-Ed, Jan. 20): Amy Wallace is right to point out that demeaning, sexualized attacks on female reporters may have the effect of silencing them, but they also have another significant deleterious effect on public discourse. While there should be room for emotion and critical forms of humor in the public sphere, these sexist attacks are ad hominem - literally (and ironically), a logical fallacy in which the "man" rather than the argument is attacked. More precisely, they are attacks on women's sexuality and physicality rather than on the argument being advanced. As such, these sexualized attacks short-circuit the reader's ability to focus on and reason about the real issues at hand. So even if reporters are hardy enough to persevere, the damage to public discourse is still done. The writer coaches debate and teaches gender studies at SUNY Rockland.