Sex and the Critic: Can Venerable Male Reviewers Judge this Movie?

Roger Ebert

Critics face this problem all the time: We all carry around with us certain likes, dislikes, prejudices and personal baggage. That means we may not always be well suited to review everything that comes our way. Yet we do it anyway, usually without revealing our conflicts-of-disinterest. One wonders, for example, how critic Roger Kimball, a champion of "classical realism," will be able to credibly review the work of certain major art movements after categorically dismissing, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, "pop, op, minimalism, and neo-Dada performance art that have infested the art world like a gigantic flea market."

Full disclosure from me: I rarely watch television and I have never had the patience to view an episode of "Sex and the City" from beginning to end (even though I was a great Baryshnikov fan in his heyday). But I have close (single) friends who are passionate fans and would never accept a phone call from me at the show's appointed hour.