Stephanie Zacharek: "Feminism doesn't have to be the enemy of kindness, but sometimes -- alarmingly often -- it is."

Several of the commenters here on Salon are prime examples.

(I want to spell her name Ana Farris...)

She's great. Any actress who can be put through the things she had to do in "Scary Movie," which included being shot up to the ceiling on a geyser of semen, and still emerge with her dignity intact, has serious talent.

Please explain. (And that movie wasn't very funny.)

Tis true

It takes more than cuteness

For you to feel cool about you.

Unbearable cuteness usually ends a conversation between me and a beautiful women quicker than it takes the A train to arrive at "I'm outta here!"

Girls with gravitas, not hooked on looks, are alway the best and most sought after, in most men's books.

A brain is a big plus.

A Playmate moves into a sorority house, its a comedy... AND THERE'S NO GRATUITOUS NUDITY!!!!

This is what "The Girls Next Door" has wrought: The non-nude Playmate genre. Apparently, 80% of the GND demo is female...

My wife tunes in to feel superior to hot blonde women.

I've been seeing the ads for this movie and wasn't too sure about it, but I do love Anna Faris.

She's great in My Super Ex-Girlfriend too.

Well, I don't think it's Legally Blonde re-dux, but explores a similar theme. That it's best to not just get by on your looks, that's it's better to be a well rounded woman, because well, you will get judged by your looks.

I don't see anything wrong with that as other film writers and makers tend to explore similar themes in many films.

Plus I think it's important to expose how it's not okay to be cruel to women based on her apperance, either because she's blonde, young with a fabulous figure or un-stylish, geeky and shy.

As for not finding Legally Blonde funny, well that's just a matter of taste and relateability, I found it very funny. I know tons of guys who think Caddyshack is hilarious, while I just find it amusing.

But "Southern Belles" was an entertaining comedy. The first 20 minutes or so had me rolling with its spot on satire of modern small town culture down south.

I love Anna Faris, she's been good in everything she's been in. I plan on seeing this movie, but not in the theatres. This a film that you can wait for the video. I bet it will do more in video rental and sales, then in box office.

I fell hard for Anna Faris when I first saw her in "May" (shame on your Stephanie for failing to mention that movie), and to me she is one of those actors who brings a movie alive everytime she's onscreen, even if the rest of the movie is dull.

She's very cute, but the sexiest thing about Anna Faris is her obvious intelligence. She's also got a great way of speaking.

I thought that "Legally Blond" was clever at times but mostly predictable; then again, it had that dud Reese Witherspoon and not the great Anna Faris. I"m looking forward to this movie, assuming I can convince Mrs. Durian Joe that it's not a T&A fest.

Is that when they take a very good looking actress, mess up her hair, and put her in thick glasses?

That's Tina Fey.

Stephanie Zacharek: "Feminism doesn't have to be the enemy of kindness, but sometimes -- alarmingly often -- it is."

Feminism is never the enemy of kindness, except in the male supremacist mindset that presumes that anything that precludes male privilege anywhere is an enemy. It's merely the assertion of women's right to equality. That's like saying that civil rights is the enemy of kindness, or gay rights, or gray rights.

Just because Camille Paglia or Ann Coulter or Anita Bryant exist does not make feminism unkind, any more than Kobe Bryant makes civil rights unkind, or Jesse Helms made gray rights unkind. Let's not even get into Ray Kohn, J. Edgar Hoover, or Richard Blackwell for gay rights....

Please, Stephanie, get a grip. Feminism made your column possible. Please don't use it to parrot the subversive patriarchal bullshit that pervades the media and breeds contempt for the movement that STILL struggles for your rights, whether it's health care, workplace equality, reproductive rights, etc. ad infinitum.

So, imho, I think what you're saying is that when unkindness does occur in the name of feminism, either (a) that's not true feminism or (b) the unkindness is justified by the role or actions of the victim. (Or have I missed the point entirely - I'm happy to be corrected if that's the case.)

Both arguments seem slippery to me:

If unkindness in the name of feminism is dismissed as somehow not reflecting on feminism, then presumably unkindness (or worse) in the name of religion, for example, can likewise be excused. (That is, religion can wash its hands of it.)

And suggesting that mistreating people is OK if they occupy certain roles is completely fraught in a postmodern world where there are so many roles and perspectives.

Or perhaps your point is that no woman anywhere has ever been unkind to another and justified it as a feminist act? That one just needs an empirical test.

one thing has been bugging me as I watch the ads. I think this movie is probably closer to "Revenge of the Nerds" than to "Legally Blonde." A bunch of so-called losers remake themselves and win in the end.

But the Nerds win by embracing their nerdiness. They actually get more nerdy, not less. They make the world come to them on their terms.

So is this another movie about women succeeding by shedding their ugly selves and finding acceptance only after they have made themselves more acceptable to the world at large? Because that's how women are supposed to succeed?

I sure hope not.

Thank you for your letter. Yes, you missed my point, but that could have been because I didn't make my point very well. My aim was to separate the practitioners from the practice. Feminism is simple: It's the audacious principle that women and men are equal. Feminism challenges the presumption that male is the standard against which all people are to be measured.

Critics of feminism will often use ad hominem [sic] arguments to trash feminism, then generalize about feminist principles; i.e., this woman looks like a bulldyke, ergo all feminists are lesbians. That feminist wishes to stay at home and raise her children, ergo feminism is hypocritical. Another feminist is a bitch, ergo feminism is unkind.

Yes, many of us have been and will be unkind, but that's irrelevant. To borrow your excellent example, the behaviour of a few hundred priests does not mean that religion is all about pedophilia (nor should it ever excuse them). Feminists can be cruel; after all, we are equal. Parents can be cruel to their children; spouses can be cruel to each other. Neither example makes parenthood or marriage inherently evil systems, all jokes aside: we are able to separate the practice from the practitioners.

A little long-winded and way off the mark for a movie review, but I appreciate your having taken the time to write.