I was stunned by the Dec. 1 article [“Alleviate Post-Election Anxiety at ‘An Evening for Women’ with Pamela Lape”] about the safe space that was offered to women to alleviate post–election anxiety. It is embarrassing to think that women are suffering from “fear, anxiety, doubt, and unconscious terror” because of an election. Women have come too far to wallow in this kind of hysteria.

I wonder if the therapist from Chester who is the author of the “safe place” event for women offered a similar space for women after the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama. There were millions of women, many of whom voted for Obama in 2008, who were very disappointed to learn that the country had to endure four more years of odious Obama policies. Disappointment, however, did not descend into primal fear and terror. The women that I know are too strong, too resilient, and too independent to require a safe place to massage their anxiety over an election that did not go their way. The whole concept is beyond my ken.

As a woman who saw the real oppression of women in the ’50s and ’60s, I am humiliated by this expression of self-pity. I think the time would have been better spent visiting our heroes suffering from horrendous war wounds (both psychologically and physically) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other VA hospitals. Another idea that might shine a light on the narcissism of this pathetic pity party would be to visit a Shriners hospital (there is one in Springfield, Massachusetts) or St. Jude Research Hospital for children. It is all about perspective.

Alison Nichols

Essex