Susan Faludi: Feminist of the Day?

Susan FaludiWriter, 1991 Pulitzer Prize Winner, feminist "My goal is to be accused of being strident."

I read large parts of Backlash on an overnight bus trip down the North Island. It is simply a descriptive account of sexism and misogyny in America in the late 1980s, but it is spectacularly thorough. Ideology, popular culture, and the effect this had on real live women, are all covered in a very well written, very thick, book.

What stands out for me, what kept me reading through the night (apart from the fact that I can't sleep on buses) are her portraits of anti-feminists. Again and again she shows how their personal lives disprove the arguments they are making, whether it is anti-feminist women, whose speaking tours enable for them to live a life outside their own home, or anti-feminist men, whose issues become more and more apparent, she is the expert at getting people to a place where all they have to do is take a little step - and there conclusions are. Her analysis is still the first thing I think of if anyone mentions 'Fatal Attraction' or Moonlighting to me.

I really enjoyed Stiffed as well. It was a solid (if probably a little overlong), analysis of masculinity, and the role it played in our culture.

Conclusion: Not only is she a feminist, but that is the most kick-ass quote of any feminist of the day ever - I now have a goal.