Helpful Score: 1
Informative, humorous, and accessible look at the way mass media has shaped ideas of womanhood and femininity.
Kathy S. (kswift) reviewed Where the Girls Are : Growing Up Female with the Mass Media on + 57 more book reviews
interesting--lots of facts--didn't read the entire book
Victoria T. (justicepirate) reviewed Where the Girls Are : Growing Up Female with the Mass Media on + 350 more book reviews
I was actually quite bored out of my mind while reading this (but I pushed through since a friend of mine sent it to me). I think the problem was that in the beginning of this book, most of what I was reading wasn't new to me at all and were things that even I grew up around, except for the fact that I was born in the early 1980s (but my mom is the same generation as this author, so I saw all the shows mentioned and heard all the music mentioned and knew a lot of the strife and joys of that time period, such as the fact that I have seen all the Gidget episodes and movies, etc.).
As the book continued, I just found a lot of hostility that the author had towards her mom. It was kinda odd to me that she kept ridiculing her when she raised her. Then there was a load of stuff about feminism during the late 60s and upward through the early 90s when this was written, I suppose. She just wrote what she saw on T.V. and read in articles and how it encouraged or discouraged her life. That part was okay to see what influence it had on a girl growing up when feminism was more of a new thing.
Susan Douglas goes into talking about the wonderful 1980s and the sickness that women had for being narcissistic and trying to look pleasurable to a man compared to how a decade earlier, more girls were "burning their bras". She was right. I thought this was quite true because you can see the emphasis there was on the body, especially the thighs and legs in loads of 80s movies. Sadly she wrote this book back before the emphasis went into implants on a more widespread way, but the gist of advertising that she touched up on was the same.
The end of this book showed more into her own life as a mom, and I liked reading more about her personal experiences than what she watched growing up and what influenced her. It gave more insight into her world. It was good she didn't dis motherhood and didn't dis working. . she was a side of feminism that I haven't seen (as I know many women who claim they are who don't believe in the family at all and hate the idea of being "tied down to a man and kids"). Although some of my points of views are a bit different from hers, I just felt she went on and on and on and on until this part of the book when I began to enjoy reading it (but it was the last 12 pages only)!
As the book continued, I just found a lot of hostility that the author had towards her mom. It was kinda odd to me that she kept ridiculing her when she raised her. Then there was a load of stuff about feminism during the late 60s and upward through the early 90s when this was written, I suppose. She just wrote what she saw on T.V. and read in articles and how it encouraged or discouraged her life. That part was okay to see what influence it had on a girl growing up when feminism was more of a new thing.
Susan Douglas goes into talking about the wonderful 1980s and the sickness that women had for being narcissistic and trying to look pleasurable to a man compared to how a decade earlier, more girls were "burning their bras". She was right. I thought this was quite true because you can see the emphasis there was on the body, especially the thighs and legs in loads of 80s movies. Sadly she wrote this book back before the emphasis went into implants on a more widespread way, but the gist of advertising that she touched up on was the same.
The end of this book showed more into her own life as a mom, and I liked reading more about her personal experiences than what she watched growing up and what influenced her. It gave more insight into her world. It was good she didn't dis motherhood and didn't dis working. . she was a side of feminism that I haven't seen (as I know many women who claim they are who don't believe in the family at all and hate the idea of being "tied down to a man and kids"). Although some of my points of views are a bit different from hers, I just felt she went on and on and on and on until this part of the book when I began to enjoy reading it (but it was the last 12 pages only)!
