Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Print Media (Magazines and Newspapers)
In Susan Faludi’s book Backlash, it addresses some of the mistreatments that women of the 1980s went through in America by the media. The 1980s media editors’ reigning publications saw women issues as less significant in the society covering nothing at all that women participated or did that was essential in the society. According to Susan Faludi, the 1980s, women had suffered from the right to express themselves and be heard, especially when they wanted media to report some of their concerns. The 1980s media saw women and feminism as inferior in the society who had less impact on the society affairs and deserved not to be had by the press. Thus, from Susan Faludi’s book, media is one of the primary instruments used to suppress the voice of women in society during the 1980s.
Some of the shreds of evidence Susan Faludi uses in her book Backlash to express women’s oppression and discrimination by media are as follows. For the new women’s liberation movement to be recognized by the media to cover the national front-page, the Miss America pageant had to protest so that media can hear them. According to Susan Faludi 89, many of the 1980s feminists marched good jobs, coeducation, and pay equity, but they did not appeal anywhere near media consideration. The media did not cover women’s liberation movement activities. Some of the female reporters like Marilyn Goldstein who wanted to publish a story on the movement were threatened with instructions like “Get out there and find an authority who’ll say this is all a crock of shift” by male editors (Susan Faludi, 89). Also, the women’s movement story was rewritten every week for only two months, and then everything was killed.
Susan Faludi’s book Backlash unearths some many issues that the 1980s women went through for them to be heard by the media and society. In general, the 1980s women were alienated from crucial matters of the society as their voices were suppressed, and no one could hear them. The only hope they had to be heard was by the use of media channels, which gave them a hard time to express their concerns. Women’s concerns were less focused on by the media as some of the stories were killed or discontinued by the media and female reporters who wanted to publish women’s stories given disappointing and harsh instructions. Instead of the media to investigate and expose women backlash in the society, they chose to peddle backlash rather than probe it (Susan Faludi, 92). Therefore, the media contributed a lot to women and feminism discrimination in society dragging behind women’s developments and dignity.
Susan Faludi issues raised in her book Backlash cohered with my impressions regarding the women discrimination in the decade. Before I read Susan Faludi’s book, I had an idea of how the 1980s women were oppressed in society, seen as inferior, while men as superior. Women were segregated from making essential decisions in society, and their views were considered minor. To date, some communities still take women’s opinions less significant in making important decisions. Susan Faludi comprehensively captures all sides of the women’s suppression in society and how the women liberated themselves through their movement for them to be heard by the media and society.
Bibliography
Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Crown. 1991