Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work Is Done [Hardcover]

"Englightened Sexism" is an excoriating repudiation of the view that feminism's work is done and that women have now achieved gender equity with men, so there is no further need for women to continue to fight for things like equal pay for equal work. By dissecting pop culture, Douglas makes a very convincing argument that sexism is, indeed, alive and well, though it has taken on something of a new facade: the titular "enlightened" sexism. Douglas argues that women have been fed the line that they now have equality and that this new era of "girl power" is proof. Pop culture would have us believe that women can dress however they want, be successful, and enjoy a life free of obstacles, but Douglas shows how this portrayal of women actually reveals the sexist mechanisms embedded within that are meant to keep women in their place.

What I found particularly convincing about Douglas's argument was the idea that there is a divide and conquer strategy at work that helps distract women from real issues. By focusing on girl-on-girl bullying instead of addressing the issue of the sexual harassment of girls in school, everyone (male and female alike) is being distracted from the bigger problem. Douglas is not trying to argue that these scenarios of female aggression do not exist but, as she points out, they serve as a very good way of creating the myth that women are incapable of getting along with one another and, therefore, cannot handle equality. As Douglas argues, enlightened sexism tells us that women have been given the keys to the kingdom, but are too busy having cat fights over who gets to be the queen to unlock the realm.

Douglas also makes a strong argument when she picks apart the claim that women are empowered because they can now dress however they like: read, the more provocatively, the better. As Douglas argues, this is not really any indication that women are empowered. To say that a woman has equality because she can dress however she wants and then to encourage women to dress like sex objects is sinister. We now live in a society that offers low-rise jeans for kindergarteners and thongs for sixth-graders. Ever walked through a department store's girls' clothing section and read some of the slogans on the T-shirts? Try it sometime. It's pretty much a guarantee that you'll walk away feeling the need to bleach your eyes.

Douglas's analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign is also very provocative. Douglas discusses the way Hillary Clinton was treated, and also has a great deal to say about Sarah Palin. What I found really interesting, though, was her commentary about Michelle Obama. How many of us have looked at a newspaper, read a blog, or opened a magazine and wondered why every story is about what she is wearing rather than what she is capable of doing? As Douglas points out, it really says something when one of the most educated, most powerful First Ladies in history is usually discussed in the news media in the context of her fashion sense.

What is especially important about this eye-opening book is that it encourages women the ignore the deceptive signals they're being sent and to focus on the issues that are important for people of any gender: pay equity, better and more affordable child care, workplaces that offer more flexibility for parents, and access to health insurance for everyone, no matter their income bracket. These are issues that no one can afford to ignore, whatever their gender.

This book is hugely fun to read. If you consume pop culture to any degree, you'll see plenty of references to TV shows and movies you'll remember with laughter. But with the humor, Douglas delivers the diagnosis that explains so many confusing symptoms of our increasingly unsatisfying pop culture. From the hegemony of pop music's all-jiggle-all-the-time-talent-be-darned "stars," to the ubiquitous TV commercials still featuring grown women worried to distraction by ring around the collar . . . Douglas makes and proves her case: that the media has figured out how to get women to embrace and celebrate their own degradation. Wow.

I must grant special mention to Douglas' chapter on the depiction of black women in the media. It is one of the most cogent essays I have ever read. I'm African American, and I gave this white woman a giant "Amen" for nailing it. It - and the entire book - speaks to Douglas' unwaveringly observant eye, and her unflappable commitment to report back EXACTLY what's there, without trying to protect herself, women in general, or the dominant culture from its ramifications.

People, keep this book alive. Have book club discussions, fight with people of both genders (transgenders, too!) about it, leave comments here, mark it up, give it to your sons and daughters. Use it as a gauge to help monitor your own thoughts and behaviors. For here is a quiet revolution between two pieces of cardboard, and it's a laugh riot to boot. Buy it.

That's what my teen-age daughter said to me after viewing her first episode of "Mad Men." I hated to have to tell her, "No, darling, we really haven't!" but thanks to Susan J. Douglas' funny, acerbic, fact-filled, truth-telling new book, "Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done" at least I had a good book that proves my point to share with her.

Douglas who happens to be the mother of a teen-age daughter herself, is not vulnerable to the old hard-liners' cries of uptight, stuffy, no-fun priss that've been used to discredit feminists since women got the vote. Her writing's too funny, her analyses are too trenchant - especially her eye-n-mind-opening readings of the media programs that are programming young and *younger* women and girls to believe that feminism is fact and that women now "have it all."

She quotes the facts and figures to prove indisputably that "all" still consists in being expected to settle for vice president which is to say: Having an important-sounding title, a powerful man to look up to and serve, working out of sight, getting no credit for what's achieved but being the butt of an eternal joke! Gossipy spiteful teenager, ditzy mom, nagging mother-in-law. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! Your husband may have cheated on you, be sitting in jail for fraud while you solve important legal cases but *he* and *his* future will still be at the heart of the TV show's ongoing plot line!

Here I think is the point Douglas makes so supercalifragilistically (with a spoonful of sugar): Sit down and watch TV with your own daughter-niece-sister-etc and see if you really wish it were your kid or kin getting ogled like a side of Bachlorette-beef, or cat-fighting with a group of other attractive young women to win a chance to be pawed over and potentially rejected by some "Bachelor" who's looking for a wife-with-prizes attached, then be sure to read Douglas' stats proving that men's and women's salaries are still far from equal for comparable work and try singing one more chorus of You've Come a Long Way Baby!

Read this book with your daughter, give it to the young women in your life, send a copy to your senator and congressperson and don't let another kid kid herself that Mad Men shows truths about a long-dead past!

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