Table of Contents
Preface x
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
Part I The Cultural Construction of Gender 13
1 Women in Culture 15
Introduction 15
Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture 23 Sherry B. Ortner
Oppression 45 Marilyn Frye
Suggested Activities 50
Bibliography 52
2 Commonalities and Differences among Women 55
Introduction 55
Commonalities and Differences (excerpt) 63 Johnnetta B. Cole
Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference 69 Audre Lorde
And A’n’t I a Woman? 77 Sojourner Truth
When you Meet a Lesbian: Hints for the Heterosexual Woman 80
Indiana University Empowerment Workshop
Heterosexuality Questionnaire 81
Gay and Lesbian Speaker’s Bureau
Suggested Activities 82
Bibliography 85
3 Cultural Representations of Women 91
Introduction 91
Ways of Seeing (excerpt) 97 John Berger
Beyond caring: the De-moralization of Gender 105 Marilyn Friedman
Suggested Activities 112
Bibliography 114
Part II Cultural Institutions Defining Women 117
4 Women and Popular Culture I: Advertising, Print Media, and Pornography 119
Introduction 119
Beauty and the Beast of Advertising 127 Jean Kilbourne
Fresh Lipstick: Rethinking Images of Women in Advertising 131 Linda M. Scott
Suggested Activities 141
Bibliography 145
5 Women and Popular Culture II: Television and Film 149
Introduction 149
Solace in Soapland 153 Elayne Rapping
No Way to Treat a Lawyer 160 Terry Kay Diggs
Suggested Activities 165
Bibliography 167
6 Fashion, Beauty, and Women’s Health 171
Introduction 171
The Beauty Myth (excerpt) 179 Naomi Wolf
Madonna, Fashion, and Identity (excerpt) 187 Douglas Kellner
Obsession: the Tyranny of Slenderness 201 Kim Chernin
Suggested Activities 216
Bibliography 219
7 Motherhood and Families 223
Introduction 223
Shifting the Center: Race, Class, and Feminist Theorizing about Motherhood (excerpt) 231 Patricia Hill Collins
Fall from Grace: Twentieth-century Mom (excerpt) 244 Shari L. Thurer
Out of the Stream: an Essay on Unconventional Motherhood 251 Shirley Glubka
Abortion through a Feminist Ethics Lens (excerpt) 261 Susan Sherwin
Suggested Activities 272
Bibliography 275
8 Sex, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Abuse 283
Introduction 283
High School Lowdown 301 Miranda J. Van Gelder
Scope of the Problem 304 Carol Bohmer and Andrea Parrot
Legal Images of Battered Women (excerpt) 323 Martha R. Mahoney
In the Truth Itself, There is Healing (excerpt) 338 Ellen Bass
Suggested Activities 349
Bibliography 356
Part III Opportunities for Women in Culture 363
9 Women Creating Culture 365
Introduction 365
The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Woman in Nineteenth-Century America (excerpt) 372 Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
Revolution, Girl Style 391 Farai Chideya, with Melissa Rossi and Dogen Hannah
Witchcraft as Goddess Religion 394 Starhawk
Suggested Activities 401
Bibliography 404
10 Feminism and the Future 409
Introduction 409
Feminism: a Transformational Politic 418 bell hooks
Recognizing, Accepting, and Celebrating our Differences 427 Papusa Molina
Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture Dualism (excerpt) 433 Ynestra King
Still I Rise 440 Maya Angelou
Suggested Activities 441
Bibliography 444
Index 449