If you think the title sounds pretentious, you should read Rebecca's article.

I wonder, does she have a quota of gender studies and pro-feminist articles she has to submit each week. It's the freakin' X-files. And it's also ironic that she mentions all the summer superhero movies in a derogatory tone, when the X-files movie will be decidedly the worst of the bunch. It was a mediocre TV show while it was on the air, and the repeats don't play all that well ten years later.

It was nothing if not an exercise in jerking the audience around each week. From the alien colonist conspiracy, to the government cover-up conspiracy to Mulder's sister's disappearance it was nothing if not a naked attempt at keeping the audience coming back for more, but ultimately went nowhere, much like Mulder.

Frankly, it would have been more informative and newsworthy if Ms. Traister had written about what women go through in the real FBI, considering its newly found prominence in counter-terrorism and surveillance of U.S. Americans, not about some one dimensional TV character. I'd be very interested in her reaction to the pro/anti feminist views of gun-totting female FBI agents.

I mean think about it for a second: an attractive, intelligent woman such as Scully--she was also a doctor--living in a gentrified urban area was really going to stay single that whole time waiting for loopy Mulder? Considering her praise for Scully, the writer never mentions that her part was written by a man, Chris Carter. The Scully character reflects his perspective about "establishment" types, namely overly serious and academic but ultimately swayed by The Truth--UFOs, government conspiracies, and Monsters?!?. Wouldn't the opposite be the case, the gullible, credulous believer accepting that an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence.

These are among the reasons why this long ago X-files fan will not be going to see the new X-files movie.

So let me get this straight, Kate Harding. You've got your panties in a bunch, not because children are being exploited for years so that their countries can win gold at the Olympics--which will leave them scarred for life--but because you consider gender testing invasive and they only require (fake) passports for age verification.

The outrage!!! I'm glad to see post-modern neo-classical gender theory feminism has it's priorities straight.

If and when we topple the Iranian Mullahs by bombing them, this will no longer be a probelm. With all the bad things that have gone done in Iraq, the one thing you can't say is that women are being stoned to death by religious zealots there.

You're welcome.

I bet all politicians wish they had that problem :-)

"Anyone who telegraphs their so-called weirdness so outlandishly is not actually weird, they're merely quirky enough to be vaguely interesting without having their own thing going on."

Look at who's espousing stereotypes now. This quote has got to describe everyone who works at gawker and at least hundreds of kids living in and around Williamsburg, BK.

Because that's all they do. They call themselves artists, because, essentially, they want to believe that Garden State is their real life, and Mommy and Daddy pay for it.

So in a sense this isn't a cliche at all but the "real" lives of actual human beings walking and talking in major metropolitan areas in the US.

And frankly, who could resist the charm and beauty of an ex-goth chick now punk chick and art-school drop-out, with those colorful shoulder tattoos, back tattoos and hot piercings; with shoulder-length hair dyed to a raven black, even though her natural hair color would look so much better; with milky pale-white skin and piercing blue eyes.

It doesn't describe a cliche as much as it describes every other white girl getting on the subway at Bedford Ave.

Seriously. This must have been the best summer for Hollywood "blockbuster" movies in at least 10 years. In the same season you have Iron Man, The Dark Night, and WALL-E, in addition to Hell Boy 2.

On the surface, to a reactionary contrarian, such as Ms. Zacharek, these are typical teen-boy Hollywood fare with art and humanity subverted to the soul sucking commercialism of the modern movie industry. If you believe this then you haven't been paying attention. Ms Zacharek should turn in her critic credentials post-haste.

I am more than certain that Guillermo del Toro didn't make Hellboy 2 strictly for the money. You don't craft a world like this if you didn't have vision and were just after a paycheck.

The animators at PIXAR, with their gourmet lunches and trips to Paris as part of their typical workday aren't Hollywood dilettantes trying to cash-in. They are artists.

But they are all monetarily successful artists and that's where I feel the resentment comes in. Whereas Ms. Zacharek sees them as agents of a corrupt system feeding crap to the masses of Middle America, I see them as intermediaries between the "high-art" aesthetic and the multiplex where most Americans seek out culture.

For Ms. Zacharek, if a film is seen by more than three people, it's somehow suspect. But maybe that just means it's worth watching.

"...illustration of how women's bodies are treated as objects for male viewing. "

The reverse is totally false, of course! His Calvin Kline ad is practically pornographic, yet I've never seen broadsheet mention it.

Seriously Kate, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're so against sexual portraits of the female body because you have issues with your own. If you're not happy with your body go to the gym, get a trainer and tone up a little bit.

Lighten up pussycat!