Two steps forward...
... and a very large one back. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, of course. Those of us involved in the social revolutions of the `60's thought "history" would move in a very straight line forward, all the injustices would be remedied, and marijuana would be legalized in Iowa, no later than 1976 (per an article in Scanlan's Magazine [now long defunct] in 1971). The last election underlined that "we" did better on civil rights than some of the other "causes," though Iowa did just legalize same-sex marriages. We sure didn't learn anything from Vietnam, repeating it all over again in Southwest Asia. And Ms. Faludi documents in excruciating, and painful to read details that large step back, and the forces that made it so, the "backlash." No question that she is angry; there is a lot to be angry about. She is occasionally vitriolic, and yes, perhaps some stats are "cherry-picked" to support her arguments, and occasionally she even verves a little too clause to Andrea Dworkin for my comfort.
It is the layer upon layer of real anecdotes that is a major strength of this book. Consider: "Joel Steinberg's attorney claimed that the notorious batterer and child beater had been destroyed by `hysterical feminists.' And even errant Colonel Oliver North blamed his legal troubles in the Iran-Contra affair on "an arrogant army of ultramilitant feminists." One of the intellectual architects of the backlash is a philosophy professor, Michael Levin, and in his book, said: "...I would no more pander to the reader by straining to praise rape crisis centers than I would strain to praise the punctuality of trains under Mussolini were I discussing fascism." Faludi commands a solid historical perspective throughout the book, noting that in 1948, when the United Nations issued a statement supporting equal rights for women, the United States government was the only one of 22 American nations that wouldn't sign it. (So much for that machismo culture south of the border!) And on page 202, she notes that "...the late Victorian beauty press had warned women that their quest for higher education and employment was causing `a general lapse of attractiveness' and `spoiling complexions.'" Plus ca change... the Kinsey Institute reported that American women have more negative feeling about their body than in other culture surveyed.
I decided to read the "nerves that were hit," all 17 (to date) 1-star reviews, and not a single one chooses a single quote, and any stated fact, and says that Faludi was wrong. No, by in large, they prefer to review through innuendo.
Faludi divides her polemic (and cri de Coeur!) into four major parts. I found the middle two, concerning the backlash in the popular culture, and the one of the origins of the backlash the most fascinating. I still remember how the "statistic" that a "a 35-year old, college educated unmarried woman" had a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than of getting married." Widely repeated, wildly incorrect, and rarely challenged, particularly the motives of those that spread such anecdotes,(who are promoting two "backlashes" at once). Faludi, rightly in my opinion, reserves her real vitriol for those movers and shakers, like the Heritage Foundation.
She wrote this book almost 20 years ago, and unfortunately it remains overwhelmingly valid today. I'd love to have her update on how the popular presses' "concern" for the fate of women in the Muslim world continues to serve as an immense distraction for the question of why we cannot pass the Equal Rights Amendment in this country. Perhaps I'll find out when I read her "The Terror Dream." "Backlash" remains an excellent, painful read.
Buy Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi At The Lowest Price!
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