Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
by Susan Faludi
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Book Summary Information
Author: Susan FaludiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-15
ISBN: 0307345424
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Book Review: Witty and Aggressive! But still a few things to criticize.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read this book over five times, and absolutely love it for its wit, humor and incredible investigative sharpness. There are things about the book I love, and things about the book I disagree with, but overall, Faludi has written a book that has kept people talking for almost twenty years.
For all its faults, this book is remarkably well written, and, at times, quite humorous and witty. I love the sections in which she visits someone's home or office, and then shows them as the hypocrites that they are. For example, when she goes to the concerned women for america office, and speaks with the director, who says (from behind her rolodex and huge mahogany desk) that work is bad for women. And then faludi interviews all the other women in the office, who say that they love to work and would never want to leave their positions! Its amazing. Or when she goes to Michael Levin's house, who states in his book that girls are genetically bad at math, and boys genetically hate to cook and clean, and discovers that Michael's wife is a Math professor and that Michael cooks and cleans a lot. You just cant help but laugh and say "You go girl." Because, let's face it, some of these people really need to be shown for the hypocrites that they are.
I also really enjoy the beginning of the book, where she debunks the 80's myths of man shortages, and day care abuse. It is a wonderful section for a journalism student to read, because she does a remarkable job of showing how low the standards are right now... For example, for the Harvard-Yale man shortage study, it was disturbing to find out that such a widely quoted study was actually unpublished, and had found its way into the paper through a newly hired, local paper reporter, who actually was quoted as saying "if it's a study from a good school, we just put it in the paper." In other words, no one bothered to question its validity, which Faludi proves is suspect.
Faludi does fall short, however, in the media section. She really speaks in generalities here, and reads into things way too much, criticizing tv shows and movies that really aren't anti-women. For example, she says the golden girls was not an asset to women because the women are normally filmed in their home. This, to anyone who has watched the show, is a ridiculous assertion. Furthermore, she falls briefly into the trap of so many "women's studies" writers by stating interpretations without backing them up with facts. This section really stands out as mediocre, in comparison to the rest of the book which is so well researched.
Finally, Faludi clearly has an agenda, and she interprets and chooses her statistics based on what will help prove her thesis. It is something that is done all the time, but one cant help but wonder if there are numbers out there being left out in order to enhance her argument.
And in the end, despite the brilliant research and incredible writing, she can't say that she speaks for all women. The feminist movement of late (although it is finally changing) has been obsessed with "men are the bad guys, women all want to work, etc.." and it jsut isnt appealing to everybody. No matter how strong the research is, she still, in the end, suggests that men in a back room are creating all of these problems for women, which is clearly absured.
Of all the feminist texts (of which there are a ton of badly written/researched ones) this is by far the best. It is interesting, well done, and worth your time.
Summary of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Skillfully Probing the Attack on Women's Rights"Opting-out," "security moms," "desperate housewives," "the new baby fever"-the trend stories of 2006 leave no doubt that American women are still being barraged by the same backlash messages that Susan Faludi brilliantly exposed in her 1991 bestselling book of revelations. Now, the book that reignited the feminist movement is back in a fifteenth anniversary edition, with a new preface by the author that brings backlash consciousness up to date.
When it was first published, Backlash made headlines for puncturing such favorite media myths as the "infertility epidemic" and the "man shortage," myths that defied statistical realities. These willfully fictitious media campaigns added up to an antifeminist backlash. Whatever progress feminism has recently made, Faludi's words today seem prophetic. The media still love stories about stay-at-home moms and the "dangers" of women's career ambitions; the glass ceiling is still low; women are still punished for wanting to succeed; basic reproductive rights are still hanging by a thread. The backlash clearly exists.
With passion and precision, Faludi shows in her new preface how the creators of commercial culture distort feminist concepts to sell products while selling women downstream, how the feminist ethic of economic independence is twisted into the consumer ethic of buying power, and how the feminist quest for self-determination is warped into a self-centered quest for self-improvement. Backlash is a classic of feminism, an alarm bell for women of every generation, reminding us of the dangers that we still face.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Faludi lays out a two-fold thesis in this aggressive work: First, despite the opinions of pop-psychologists and the mainstream media, career-minded women are generally not husband-starved loners on the verge of nervous breakdowns. Secondly, such beliefs are nothing more than anti-feminist propaganda pumped out by conservative research organizations with clear-cut ulterior motives. This backlash against the women's movement, she writes, "stands the truth boldly on its head and proclaims that the very steps that have elevated women's positions have actually led to their downfall." Meticulously researched, Faludi's contribution to this tumultuous debate is monumental and it earned the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction.
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