Reply All | Letters: The 12.9.12 Issue

If only the powers-that-be in Hollywood and elsewhere would take to heart the main thrust of A. O. Scott's article: that women can play many roles, coming to the forefront as protagonists, whether as a superhero or a kid or a mother or a regular person who finds herself thrust into a high-stakes situation. Any of these roles can be interesting, valuable, artistically desirable and box-office viable. While I'm glad Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Lisbeth Salander and others in their mold exist, inclusiveness of the full range of the female human experience is what should be striven for in film, right alongside our male counterparts. TONYA JARRETT, San Diego, posted on nytimes.com

To truly understand why the big screen is so lacking in women, you need only to follow the money. Hollywood is just another version of virtually every boardroom in corporate America. Movies made by men are greenlighted to provide entertainment for men (you hear endlessly that movie-audience demographics skew toward young men). Occasionally they will finance a project with a female protagonist who is even better at being a man than a man. CAROL MCCANN, New York, posted on nytimes.com

What about movies for children? I have three young daughters. Aside from the pink ghetto, kids' media — whether PBS or Disney — put male characters front and center. Female characters are sidelined or not there at all — just look at the posters for children's movies (with the exception of "Brave"). There is no reason for the imaginary world to be sexist. MARGOT MAGOWAN, San Francisco, posted on nytimes.com

To me, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" — which stars one of your "heroines," Quvenzhané Wallis — does not celebrate a heroine. Hushpuppy is spunky and determined, to be sure, but also ignorant and powerless. She resorts to setting a destructive fire to get her way. She clings to a prostitute for affection. She's cute, but all she has going for her might be extinguished before reaching adulthood. The little schooling she receives will not equip her for the real world. The film plays into the myth of the noble savage, of the capacity for joy even among the destitute, but that joy seems to be fueled in the adults around Hushpuppy by alcohol and other ways of numbing the pain of existence. If Hushpuppy is any sort of heroine, she's a tragic one. ELIZABETH FULLER, Peterborough, N.H., posted on nytimes.com

NYT did an actual mermaid Rebel Wilson photo shoot! What have I done to deserve such greatness? @goddesspharo, via Twitter

FILM CULTURE ISN'T DEAD AFTER ALL

Every time you're ready to declare a new movie a "masterwork," go back and take another look at "Sunrise" or "The Rules of the Game" and ask yourself whether that appellation is in fact justified. The thing about great movies (or great paintings or great novels) is that they're so few and far between that their accidental discovery makes the whole process of moviegoing eminently worthwhile. And I use the word "accidental" advisedly: not even all of Murnau's work was great, nor all of Renoir's. And certainly not all of Spielberg's. STU FREEMAN, Brooklyn, posted on nytimes.com

Most people these days are not interested in much beyond their little hand-held blue screens. Going to a movie has become unenjoyable — I am distracted everywhere by those little rectangular fireflies. I have started to retreat to my private world in which I can enjoy film as I remember it from my youth: dark, quiet and solitary. I can marvel at the last scene in "Throne of Blood" knowing that those arrows were not propelled by any C.G.I. team or that Burt Lancaster did all of his own stunts in "The Train." Harrison Ford still has what it takes to be an action star as Indiana Jones. Who needs therapy when I have "A Day at the Races" or "The Music Box"? DONALD WAITS, New Orleans, posted on nytimes.com

THE 'MAD MEN' ECONOMIC MIRACLE

Cable is already obsolete. Rather than paying exorbitant fees for a service that many don't fully utilize, it makes more sense to view the programs à la carte over the Internet. Young people know this, even if not all of us oldsters do. The real danger is that the Internet monopolies, which are the same as the cable monopolies, will try to recapture their profits and maintain their monopolies through bandwidth caps. They have already positioned themselves to do this by imposing caps so high that few customers are affected; now all they need to do is tighten the limits. It is urgently important that the government treat these companies as regulated monopolies and ban them from placing limits on bandwidth. Content providers should offer good shows for a reasonable fee — and people will pay for these. But if the monopolists keep the price too high, the black market in pirated shows will thrive. JOSHUA P. HILL, New London, Conn., posted on nytimes.com

I used to be one of those 20-somethings who scoured the Internet for free torrents. But the pain of downloading viruses, dummy files and the annoying pop-ups has made me gladly go to Amazon and pay $1.99 an episode. I wish Showtime and other networks would give you an option to pay or subscribe directly to episodes through their Web sites. I imagine the bandwidth/server costs will be expensive at first, but folks like me are game. I don't want to commit to paying for cable. But for instant self-selected gratification, I'm willing to pay by the episode and season directly to the networks. SHARENCARE, Boston, posted on nytimes.com

UNDOCUMENTED DINER

Chuck Klosterman claims that knowingly patronizing a business that employs illegal immigrants is not unethical. Although Klosterman admits illegal immigrants may take jobs from American workers, he asks, "Who is to say citizenship is a moral justification for employment?" He seems not to realize that businesses exploiting illegal immigrants can outcompete law-abiding businesses. The weight of all that should be sufficient to make knowingly patronizing such businesses unethical. DAVID C. HOLZMAN, Lexington, Mass.

If you examined the ethics (and morals) of every business you patronized, I think you'd find almost all of them do something or believe in something that you object to. Why does Chick-fil-A's stance on gay marriage matter in terms of whether we should eat their chicken? I'm not sure, but to some it most certainly does matter. BOBBY CALISE, New York, posted on nytimes.com

DINESH D'SOUZA

At the end of Andrew Goldman's interview, Dinesh D'Souza says, "Imprudent is not the same thing as wrong." Oh, that may be so true! But in this case, it's surely the same thing as knuckleheaded. NANCY DONNELLY, Washington, D.C.

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