• Jonathan Rosenbaum @jroseSOTL is clearly not a feminist text. “Like all other slasher movies…this one “works” insofar as it plays on the desire to see victims, preferably women, get torn to pieces.”
  
  Unknown 1 Feb 1991
  
  
• Rita Kempley @rkemp @jrose I disagree. “The story manages a feminist perspective without turning Clarice into some phallic Nancy Drew.”
  
  Unknown 14 Feb 1991
  
  
• Jonathan Rosenbaum @jrose @rkemp How so? Don't forget BuffaloBill, who is a sicko woman killer!
  
  Unknown 1 Feb 1991
  
  
• Rita Kempley @rkemp@jrose Sure, there’s gore, but Starling is a heroine “that’s neither boyish nor overtly sexual, and she solves her crimes very much as a cerebral young woman would, with brainpower.”
  
  Unknown 14 Feb 1991
  
  
• Roger Ebert @ThumbsUp @rkemp I agree. Especially because Starling doesn’t wither amid sexism. “Rarely in a movie have I been made more aware of the subtle sexual pressures men put upon women with their eyes.”
  
  Unknown 14 Feb 1991
  
  
• Rita Kempley @rkemp@ThumbsUp Maybe that makes it worse. Starling must let down all her defenses in order to get Lecter’s help. And there aren’t really any consequences for Starling’s co-workers!
  
  Unknown 14 Feb 1991
  
  
• Roger Ebert @ThumbsUp @rkemp But the viewer sees it, and recognizes the male gaze as negative.
  
  Unknown 14 Feb 1991
  
  
• Jonathan Rosenbaum @jrose @ThumbsUp @rkemp are you really suggesting that SOTL takes jabs at patriarchy? “This is mainly wishful thinking” if you ask me.
  
  Unknown 1 Feb 1991