I look back at my life, at the way it has slowly assumed shape and color, at the places I've seen and the flickers of people I've met, and wonder, Why? Why Me? Why, when the lists were made and the heads counted, was I always chosen?

—  Jodie Foster, in a 1982 article she wrote for Esquire called "Why Me?"

Ooh, ooh, pick me! Pick me! I know!

It's hardly a mystery as to why Jodie Foster is the "chosen" one for so many. She's extremely talented and intelligent. She's also attractive, articulate and graceful. And although not having grown up with VH1 and the benefit of Charm School's "First Commandment" ("Check thyself before thou wreck thyself"), Foster has achieved a level of uncompromised respect through self-respect.

In the face of the parade of child stars checking in to rehab, jail or Celebrity Fit Club, Jodie's dignity and sustaining power suggest that she's not of this piggishly self-centered and unrestrained world, but rather a gift from another, more decent one — one free of Paris Hilton's entitlement issues and one where Marcia Brady remains Marcia Brady, a girl with a swollen nose, not a shell of a woman exploited by Dr. Phil.

When Jodie Foster asked "Why me?" 25 years ago, it wasn't an inquiry into her own popularity. That's not Jodie's style. It was rather in answer to the unwelcome attention she received during and immediately following the now infamous John Hinckley affair. Hinckley, remember, was the obsessed fan who contacted Foster many times before attempting to assassinate President Reagan in 1981 in a final effort to impress her.

That's all I'll say about that. Can't go there. Too dark; too weird. And if Jodie has gotten past that unfortunate part of her life, I certainly can.

But given the recent discussion on this site about Foster's upcoming movie, The Brave One, in which she plays a vigilante avenging the murder of her fiancé, and given the evidence pointing to this being an unprecedented season of lists at AfterEllen.com, I've come up with a list of my own regarding the appeal of Jodie.

I won't even try to pass my list off as "our" list, because we each have our own reasons for why we love Jodie, and some are very personal. Besides, it's my list and you can't have it.

But what I can't deny is that in addition to all the obvious reasons, my admiration for Jodie likely mirrors yours in the sense that it's not just the result of a run-of-the-mill appreciation for a talented actress. I, perhaps like you, feel a link to Jodie, a gravitational pull that I don't feel toward Meryl Streep, for example, another actress I highly respect. But the allure of Jodie is so strong that I'm drawn not only to her, but also toward women who look like her. And that brings me to reason No. 1 why I like Jodie Foster:

1. I see Jodie in every blond woman I've slept with.

Even the straight girls. OK, so file this one under wishful thinking, but it's true. In some women, it was just the hair; in others it was their eyes; in still others it was their confidence and strength of conviction, but make no mistake about it — Jodie lurked within them all like a pleasant little virus or an undiscovered pheromone.

Their Jodieness couldn't have been coincidental, because it felt so, well, biological. It's as if over her long career Jodie managed to infect scores of light-haired lesbians with a little bug that there's no cure for. What's worse is that my gaydar — pumped to the power of Jodie through airwaves — honed in on those pretty little hosts and … BAM! I was hooked.

2. Jodie is crack for lesbians.

This I'm sure of — not only because of reason No. 1, but because of the emails I get from readers like you. You want me to give Jodie a message (as if!). You want her phone number. You want her email address. You want her. You don't care how you get her.

You lose sleep and spend hours online looking for her, for little snippets of text, patches of video, pixels of images. Jodie in a dress. Jodie in a baseball cap. Jodie with a gun. Jodie at 9, 12, 22, 36, 40 … today. You want Jodie. Not Cydney. Not the kids. Just Jodie. Jodie's the real thing, not some over-the-counter junk.

True, and a bit unsettling. But I sort of get it. Jodie love runs deep.

3. Jodie was my first Hollywood crush.

I first saw Jodie on The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969–72), one of the first sitcoms to break the traditional TV-family mold. Eddie's father, a widower played by Bill Bixby, always got the beautiful girls, but young Eddie (Brandon Cruz, who later became the lead vocalist for the Dead Kennedys), got to befriend Joey Kelly (Jodie Foster) in a few episodes, and I was completely jealous.

There were plenty of "Eddies" in my neighborhood, but I was the only "Joey," if you get my drift. A little like-minded company would have been nice. Plus, my mother would have let Joey sleep over, once she realized Joey was a girl.