Where the Girls Are
Mass Media and Women
Introduction:
Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media is an autobiography written by Susan J. Douglas that outlines the impact mass media had on the second women’s movement in the United States. She presents the information in a very witty and entertaining way and does a very good job at getting straight to the point without sugar coating anything. She starts off the book by emphasizing the effects that TV and Walt Disney in particular had on our culture at the time. Walt Disney, she says, exaggerated the assumptions about women that were seen at the time. At the time, mass media impacted the perception of women drastically. Using in depth details about her life and her experiences she outlines the impact media had on the transformation of women’s role in society. A lot of her ideas were based around the experiences with her own mother. Female baby boomers of this time were struggling to find themselves and their role in a world that typically revolved around men.
Historical Context:
After the Civil War, the struggle for women’s rights began by way of the second women’s movement. This movement in the 1960s sparked a lot of strong feelings by many women especially one by the name of Betty Friedan. She was one of the very first people to speak out against the mistreatment of women. She wrote a book title The Feminine Mystique. In this book she said, “Our culture does not permit women to accept or gratify their basic need to grow and fulfill their potentialities as human beings.” This book intensified feelings among many women and even the President at the time, John F. Kennedy. He appointed a group to help outlaw discrimination called The Commission on the Status of Women, and also introduced the 1963 Equal Pay Act. Women of this time were thought of as nothing more than housewives and homemakers. “Casey Haden, a veteran of SDS and SNCC, told her name comrades that the “assumptions of male superiority are as
Introduction:
Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media is an autobiography written by Susan J. Douglas that outlines the impact mass media had on the second women’s movement in the United States. She presents the information in a very witty and entertaining way and does a very good job at getting straight to the point without sugar coating anything. She starts off the book by emphasizing the effects that TV and Walt Disney in particular had on our culture at the time. Walt Disney, she says, exaggerated the assumptions about women that were seen at the time. At the time, mass media impacted the perception of women drastically. Using in depth details about her life and her experiences she outlines the impact media had on the transformation of women’s role in society. A lot of her ideas were based around the experiences with her own mother. Female baby boomers of this time were struggling to find themselves and their role in a world that typically revolved around men.
Historical Context:
After the Civil War, the struggle for women’s rights began by way of the second women’s movement. This movement in the 1960s sparked a lot of strong feelings by many women especially one by the name of Betty Friedan. She was one of the very first people to speak out against the mistreatment of women. She wrote a book title The Feminine Mystique. In this book she said, “Our culture does not permit women to accept or gratify their basic need to grow and fulfill their potentialities as human beings.” This book intensified feelings among many women and even the President at the time, John F. Kennedy. He appointed a group to help outlaw discrimination called The Commission on the Status of Women, and also introduced the 1963 Equal Pay Act. Women of this time were thought of as nothing more than housewives and homemakers. “Casey Haden, a veteran of SDS and SNCC, told her name comrades that the “assumptions of male superiority are as