Sex R Us: The Rise of Enlightened Sexism
Susan J.
Douglas’s new book illuminates the proliferation of apparently strong feminist icons who, in reality, are holding back the
feminist movement.
January 8, 2011
From the book:
Despite the controversy surrounding the Klein campaigns, they were a harbinger of two trends that gained considerable steam in the late-1990s: the rampant return to the often degrading sexual objectification
of women, and the increasing sexualization of children, especially girls.
Books with titles like Striptease Culture, Pornified, So Sexy So Soon, and The Lolita Effect have documented the mainstreaming of pornography
and its lopsided negative effects on females.
Here’s what our increasingly pornified media have been telling girls and women: dress like a streetwalker but just say no—or dress like Carrie Bradshaw (what were some of those outfits?!) and just say yes. Old-fashioned American prudery has always been an important component of keeping women in their place.
So has pornography. A culture that is prudish and pornographic—how’s that for a contradiction to navigat