Noah Berlatsky

To understand this debate, it's important to consider historical context.

Action movies don't usually bother much with romance. The trailer for The Transporter: Refueled certainly doesn't. The hero is cool — sexy women, plural, throw themselves at him, or at least stand near him and things blow up; there are fights and revenge and high production values. Romance is, at best, a secondary concern.

Female masturbation is sexy in part because it flirts with lesbianism. For male masturbation, it's a different story.

According to an Academy Awards voter, the right sort of people, with the right sort of education and connections, can't be racist.

With the death of Leonard Nimoy, it's a good moment to pay tribute to (and question) his most famous character.

Can a popular author also be celebrated for literary quality? Not if that author is a woman like Austen.

Bus ads comparing Muslims to Hitler have been replaced with images of a superhero. And not just any superhero.

The rom-com's worshipping of power and wealth comes with a gender twist.

So, if there are so many ways to sing this song, and if it's meant different things at different points, why complain about Beyoncé's version?

If you want America to relearn how to hate white Jews, the quickest way to do that is to associate them with black people.