Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women

by Caryl Rivers

A strange duality affects the news media today. The more that women advance in the worlds of business, academia, medicine, and law, the gloomier news about women and their achievements becomes. As statistics report the rise in the number of women obtaining college and advanced degrees, the media increasingly tells them that this is a terrible mistake and that only by returning to traditional roles of wife and mother can women find true happiness. The message is that if women do achieve, they will make themselves and their families miserable. This message, often based on specious "scientific" studies and reports, gets played over and over again in televised newscasts, print newspapers, the internet, and other media outlets purporting to be objective.

Rivers, a journalist who has written extensively in the behavioral sciences, exposes the many ways news media distort stories about women. According to Rivers, these stories "sell" because they play to the fears of affluent women, one of the most desirable consumer markets. Rivers's topics, literally "pulled from the headlines," include negative representations of working mothers and "latch-key" kids, stories that exaggerate the perils of childcare and divorce, media treatment of powerful political figures like Elizabeth Dole, Teresa Heinz, and Hillary Clinton, and news as "poli-porn" (sex and death-obsessed tales of pretty, white girls and women like Jon-Benet Ramsay, Chandra Levy, and Natalee Holloway). Rivers also revisits ongoing debates about male and female brainpower and the claim that the attention paid to girls in schools is ruining boys' chances for achievement and success. She examines how the media has collaborated with George W. Bush and the political right to wage war on birth control and abortion. Her conclusion suggests what can and must be done to halt the news media's assault on women.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism

168 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2007

About the author

Caryl Rivers has been called “one of the brightest voices in contemporary fiction.” Her novel VIRGINS was an international critical success, published in the US, UK, Sweden, Germany and Japan. It was on many best seller lists and in paperback (Pocket Books) sold more than a million copies. Her novels deal with American women trying to find a foothold in a rapidly changing world.

She is a nationally known author, journalist, media critic and professor of Journalism at Boston University. In 2007 She was awarded the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for distinguished journalism. She is the author of four novels and four works of non-fiction, all critically acclaimed. Her books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Troll Book club. With her late husband, Boston Globe columnist Alan Lupo, she penned a funny account of modern parenting, “For Better, For Worse.”

“Reading this book is like multiplying Woody Allen by two. Marriage isn’t supposed to be this funny.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer, on “For Better, For Worse”

Her articles have appeared in the New York Times magazine, Daily Beast, Huffington post, Salon, The Nation, Saturday Review, Ms., Mother Jones, Dissent, McCalls, Glamour, Redbook, Rolling Stone, Ladies Home Journal and many others. She writes frequent commentary for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Womensenews. Of Her book “Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women” Gloria Steinem says it “will save the sanity of media watchers enraged or bewildered by the distance between image and reality.”

She has co-authored four books with Dr. Rosalind Barnett, senior scientist at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis—the latest (2011) being “The Truth About Girls and Boys: Confronting Toxic Stereotypes About Our Children.” Articles based on the book won a Casey medal for distinguished journalism about children and families and a special citation from the National Education Writers association. The Editorial Board of the Boston Globe voted their book “Same Difference” one of the best books of the year in 2004. The New York Times called their book “She Works, He Works” a bold new framing of the story of the American family, and praised its lucid prose. The Sloan Foundation cited their book “Lifeprints” as a “classic book” from the work-family canon that has made “a significant contribution and stood the test of time.”

Caryl Rivers also wrote THE CHEATS, an ABC afterschool special about the lives of high school seniors embroiled in a cheating scandal. It won the AFTRA American scene award for its treatment of minority characters. She also wrote A MATTER OF PRINCIPAL, syndicated by Hearst television, a drama about an urban school principal starring Loretta Swit. The drama won the prestigious GABRIEL award in l990 as the best locally produced television program in the U.S. Ms. Rivers was creative consultant for JENNY’S SONG, the first made for television drama to be syndicated nationally by Westinghouse television, starring Ben Vereen and Jessica Walter.

Reviews

[ShaunaCook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written over a decade ago so id love a new version, tracking current news. Ironically i have noticed many more stories about "women leaving work for their children" because of the coronavirus, framing it as a choice, rather than a huge issue of how administration is handling schools and health concerns. Classic.

[Katie Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for class so it gets 3 stars simply because it’s not my genre of book. But other than that, it was a good and highly informative read.

[Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a frustrating book because it had such potential and I think it just really fell short. She sets up a lot of research only to attack it with her own anecdotes. Disappointingly weak arguments. I would be curious to hear what someone had to say about the book if they have never read anything about the topic; maybe they would have a more positive take? I just felt like she presented a lot of interesting topics (the media's image of a working mother, the effects of that on children, divorce, and stay at home moms, the lack of women within media...) that could have been more rigorously explored.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main beef with this book is what it was repetitive. She used the same words and the same anecdotes numerous times. Maybe it wasn't meant to be read in so few sittings? Otherwise, I think it was fairly good, basic intro to feminism and some of its battles.

The positives of this book are that there's some important information in there statistics-wise and story-wise. Towards the end, when she delved into the Bush administration's war on birth control, I was particularly interested because I was just too young during the Bush administration to remember much of anything.

It's got my eye attuned to look for these sensational articles now, though, when I read news in the media.

[Heath · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to sit down and read this book. The title and the description I read online made the book hold promise. I got about half way through the entire book before I realized I didn't have to read any further because it was going to be more and more, chapter after chapter, of the River's solipsistic, anecdotal accounts of anxiety in the media. Rivers does have a point about a significant number of media stories targeting women who aim to achieve, but is this really something I didn't know?

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rivers does a good job of showing how the media hype stories that focus on disasters for women--Will daycare make your child a bully? Are working moms too selfish? If you put off marrying, will you fail to ever find a mate? She explores the weak journalism and incompetent use of statistics that characterize these stories, and shows that accurate readings of the facts tends to get shelved in favor of claims that uphold these "scare" narratives.

[Lundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is the opt out myth just that a myth? Are single women more likely to be the victim of a terrorist attack than find love? Caryl Rivers takes an in-depth look at how the media covers women and exposes some myths and stereotypes. As a former reporter, I found this book fascinating. I definitely look at "women's news" with a more critical eye now.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great starting point to a larger discussion about women and the media. A little repetitive at times, but it easily dismantles common misconceptions about women's place in the world, and bring the evidence to prove it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, so true. I didn't give it five stars only because I thought the ending was a bit cheesy and there could have been a better call to action. But it could serve as a great wake-up call to many.

[Susan]

for class

[Olivia Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the media!