Publisher's Synopsis
With examples from the communications media, film, literature, popular culture, art, and art criticism, this book explores how feminism has changed American society and culture over the last 50 years and how it has shaped our notions of "feminine" and "masculine".;Beginning in the 1940s with Hollywood's image of the American woman, Cassandra Langer goes on to discuss images of home, family and domesticity in the 1950s, and the impact of Betty Friedan's "The Feminist Mystique" on the 1960s generation. The dilemmas of feminism in the 1970s, the so-called golden age of American feminism, are examined, including sexual politics and reactionary rhetoric about lesbians and women who did not follow the party line. Langer also tackles women's rights in response to anti-feminist cultural discourses, discussing Susan Faludi's "Backlash", the abortion debate, and other political, social and cultural issues. Finally, the book assesses the highly charged sexual politics of the 1990s, using the writings of Camille Paglia, Naomi Wolf and Sophie Rophe to analyze the different facets of post-feminism.
