How To Write A Critical Book Report On Where The Girls Are Douglass

Critical Book Report: Where the Girls Are
WS 203 – Dr. Vander Hoef

In Where the Girls Are Douglas takes you through the life of a typical girl growing up during a feminist revolution from childhood to adulthood. She gives an in depth look at what was going on in the world and how it affected a young girl turning into a woman. Starting in Fractured Fairytales Douglas explores how from the very start young girls are bombarded with images of how women should be and how they should not. Little girls grow up with the mentality that they must emulate the perfect women in fairy tales and grow up to be the fairest of them all. “We learned, though these fairy tales, and certainly later through advertising, that we had to scrutinize ourselves all the time, identify our imperfections, and learn to eliminate or disguise them, otherwise no one would ever love us”(Douglas 31). Disney had created a standard for girls and women that was nearly impossible to achieve. Looking, acting, dressing and appearing perfect all while being selfless and suffering in silence was what was expected of women and young girls. If young girls chose not to live up to the ‘Cinderella standard’ they were left with only one alternative role to fill, “… older, vindictive, murderous stepmothers or queens wearing too much eyeliner and eye shadow”(Douglas 29). They were women in power and Disney
The media then turned feminism into a bad word and associated it with any women who went against the ‘norm’. I agree with Susan J Douglas’s argument as she allows us to explore the history of how media gained control and turned us into loyal followers, allowing media to dictate who we are and what we will become and asks us to not only question it, but stand up against