Readers' reviews: Rihanna's S&M video, TT3D and Donovan

Readers' reviewsRihannaThe best of your comments on the latest film and music

The raunch culture is corrosive and damaging to women," asserted dorothyherself beneath last week's piece by Charlotte Richardson Andrews about Rihanna's S&M video, and the pernicious effects of oversexualisation. "It presents women as objects to be fucked, which is also how most porn presents women. Sex, on the other hand, is lovely."

Dorothy was objecting to those who argued that the pop industry presents men in just as overtly sexualised a way as women. Like Mendoza, who wrote: "Fiddy got snapped by Rolling Stone in his vest. I wonder what the focal point was there? So trying to claim that it's mainly women who get objectified is obv plain daft when you consider the absolute mountain of good-looking, bod-baring boybands out there." Or elfojo84, who said: "I think complete denial of sexuality of any sort is damaging to kids, just as oversexualisation is damaging. Yes, I think in this specific context the balance is too far towards too much sex, but not to the 'Oh my God, think of the children, broken Britain' extent the author seems to imply."

Bringing it back home was Smith14, expressing what must be many parents' fear: "I have a young son who I don't really want growing up seeing girls being portrayed like this. Rihanna puts across this aggressive sexuality, singing chiefly about all the things she wants to do in the sack. This is perfectly acceptable, and I would never argue for anyone's desires to be repressed. However, you'd be forgiven for thinking that that was the sum total of her life's ambition."

We don't often get film-makers contributing their thoughts after publication – well, apart from the time Francis Ford Coppola emailed about an inaccuracy in a piece mentioning Apocalypse Now (he wanted to point out that no buffaloes were slaughtered for the film) – but that happened after Barney Ronay's sports documentaries cover story last week. James Erskine, director of the cricket film From the Ashes, had suggested in the piece that TT3D, about the Isle of Man motorcycle race, wasn't really a documentary, because it's not "about the choices we make". Galactus was outraged: "Surely TT3D is all about the choices we make? About the determination to keep pushing, despite the possibility of death waiting quite literally around the next ill-judged corner? Far more about the choices we make than in a football match or even within my beloved cricket."

Enter Erskine. "Nothing in my observation on TT3D was intended to denigrate the film or its makers, and it certainly wasn't intended to come out this way. If I think the film will hit with a teen audience, well, great – then that is a fantastic thing. I'm all for films finding success. I was commenting on the marketing/promos of the film, which I admittedly haven't seen in its entirety (so there's a lesson for me you would have thought I'd have learned by now), as opposed to Senna and other films that perhaps take a wider canvas or look at sport on a national or indeed international scale."

Even Donovan, a man still living by hippy ideals, managed to provoke conflict on the threads. "He tends to overstate his influence on the world, and is an inveterate name dropper with an unreliable Donovancentric memory. All this added to his occasionally suffocating tweeness can make his lack of modesty hard to take," naezlig said. Oh no, countered PeterNW1: "Donovan has every right to namedrop or stress his own contribution to 1960s music. He was right there in the middle of it." Ollygee just split the difference: "I was around in the 60s and Donovan was a great self-publicist then, too. I remember him being interviewed and he said his mate Gypsy Dave Mills had told him he had seen a guy called Dylan on the TV who was wearing the same cap and denims as Donovan had pioneered!"

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaJulocG2vsRoaWlpYWS6osWOanBoqpWWsaa%2B0mapnq6ZmsS0edGin5qmnpZ6tcCSnWSdp56kw6K6