Curious. All during the presidential campaign we heard about how liberal Hollywood was. Now after the Oscars, we are hearing about how the tribute to women was superficially pc, and how it goes against the "dominant ideology" of Hollywood. It strikes me that both positions are rather simplistic, and that Hollywood (both Hollywood people and Hollywood films) embraces quite a range of ideological positions and always has. What's remarkable about the tribute to women is not that it isn't cutting edge progressivism (what do expect?) but that feminism found such a forum for popular expression. Of course, we can see this in several ways. It might just be a bit of ideological innoculation--a bit of modest dissent that ensures the maintenance of the dominant ideology by demonstrating how open and free it is. Or, we can see it as an example of an ascendent ideological viewpoint. In the post-Reagan/Bush period, I expect that such popular expressions of feminism (among other things) will be more common. So, I don't expect Oscar's tribute to women to be any more historically accurate than your average Hollywood historical epic. If you want history, read books. But as a sign of the times, it seems to me that the tribute to women is a favorable omen. ___________________________________________________________ James Peterson University of Notre Dame [log in to unmask] (219)631-7160