beth’s Reviews > Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women > Status Update

‘They had to work and they wanted to work; yet no one else wanted them to, neither the employers they had to deal with nor the male workers they had to work beside nor the men whose beds they shared. If they kept working, they were humiliated at the office, assailed in the shower stalls, and beaten at home; if they tried to obey the social signals and go home, they would starve.’

All psychology and psychiatry students should have to read chapter twelve of this book about how their profession was used against women in the ‘80s…

Hoping to finish this in the next few days.

Discusses how many female New Right activists were not models of feminine passivity themselves. I’ve often thought their reliance on feminists and increased opportunities for women was a revealing paradox.

Really interesting part about how the New Right saw the importance in trying to control language as a means of managing debate/succeeding over their enemies (feminists). Trying to control the accepted definition of words such as ‘equality’ and ‘opportunity’ were important to them.

Really good parts in here on the cosmetics industry, but especially about how a focus on quasi-medicinal skincare products were just as corrosive to women’s self-image.

I suppose the Fatal Attraction phenomenon was the Gone Girl of its time, in that a fictional story was used to try and smear 'real' (made-up) women in the press.

'But this homage to feminine passivity was cleverly packaged in activist language, a strategy that simultaneously acknowledged women's desire for autonomy and co-opted it. The New Traditionalist, the ads said, was an independent thinker who "made her own choices" and "started a revolution."' You still see this a lot today -- it reminds me of shaving ads.

Crazy how often the press spread lies about women's supposed behaviour that then actually led to the behaviour happening... eg concocting that 'women who chose business careers found they weren't able to prioritise family' (imagined women) and then the number of women applying to business schools the next year would suddenly lessen after a decade of growth... awful.