Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women | Susan Faludi

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women | Susan Faludi | What's all the fuss about?

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Backlash: The Unde...

	Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women Susan Faludi Three Rivers Press, 2006 - 592 pages average customer review:based on 81 reviews view larger image
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Great Reporting, Great Analysis

Susan Faludi set out to show how the media distorts news about women, and she succeeds. According to the press, working women are miserable and exhausted, single women wish they'd married their first boyfriend, childless women are shredded by babylust (but moms NEVER regret having kids). In other words: the old ways are best. Feminism just makes you unhappy. Faludi shows how little these stories are based on, and gives a much more believable picture of contemporary women as ..well, feminists (whether or not they use the word)-- enjoying new opportunities and wanting more, not less of them. No wonder the press went after her! Faludi is also one of the few popular writers on feminism to talk about working class experience: her chapter on the factory workers who were forced by fetal-protection policies to be sterilized to keep their jobs (Judge Bork approved) is in the great tradition of Upton Sinclair.

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What's all the fuss about?

Faludi is a fine writer, and I was entertained from time to time. However, as long as she picks easy targets and uses ridicule rather than arguments that are to the point, no one should take her seriously. She loves scoring cheap points.

An eye-opener and myth-buster

Faludi clearly has an agenda, but she's up-front about it, and I felt she marshalled the facts convincingly. I don't agree with her in all respects -- for instance, I don't think the anti-abortion movement was founded ONLY to erode women's rights; there are more complicated moral issues involved. But her analyses of the deceptive use of statistics, as well as flat-out falsehoods, to "prove" the failure of feminism are perceptive and enlightening, and her scholarship is impressive. (Anyone who claims that this book is merely a piece of left-wing propaganda obviously hasn't read the footnotes!)

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WORTH READING

This book is fabulous. It is not only factually interesting but Faludi also presents her material in a humorous way. This book changed the way I filter media reports. Thought provoking book, everyone should read it.

reviews: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, page 16, 17

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