Daniel Green10/26/2009Prof. Stavitsky

Book Review: Where the Girls Are

Susan Douglas is a self^described feminist. Her book Where the Girls Are, is an attempt, often a self-

deprecating one, to illuminate the context in which she and the women of her era were manipulated into

believing certain ideals existed for them. According to Douglas these messages were conveyed via mass? JQ»O<5~ cTi O^^^Y^r-U^-^^

media. Douglas cites numerous sources fouria in media, mostly popular TV, music, and advertisements, for-

• creating an entire generation of women into male subordinates who felt they had very few options for

success. In my review of Susan Douglas's book, Where the Girls Are. I will focus my efforts into four

parts: the broad argument Susan Douglas makes, the evidence she puts forth, her thesis and finally, and

quite extensively, my take on Douglas's book.

Douglas argues that women of her generation-baby boomers-were manipulated via mass media

into believing they were male subordinates, good only for looking at, present solely for the benefit of men

and children, which in turn created a generation of unconfident girls and women who later became

confident feminists. It's Douglas's contention that the path she took from adolescent teeny-bopper,7

idolizing anything popular, to adult feminist, idolizing the antithesis of pop-culture, is in direct response to

the messages found in media during her adolescence. "Baby boom culture for girls...was a dangerous and

all too powerful enforcer of suffocating sex-role stereotypes." (Douglas. 6) i?s tho cotrtentiaggEDouglas

that as she became more self-aware she became more disillusioned with the messages being portrayed in

the media regarding women. _J7L , . ^> \/^^\ ~7~)^ ?

Do media create^eality or reflect it? That's a question Douglas should have asked herself prior to

starting this book. It'sxtjy_conteflrtTon that women were the primary homemakers during the 50's and 60's

and thus advertisements regarding sputum and talcum powder geared towards woman made natural

advertising sense. Put a man in the place of the woman in these advertisements and they wouldn't ring true

and they wouldn't be as effective.

Douglas argues that in order for a woman to be the subject of a celebratory tribute, she needed to

be in an abusive relationship first. She points to Tina TurneiWDouglas. 6\Dpug\as continues by noting that7 ^2&

Paul Simon, Elton John and James Taylor have all been subjects, respectively, of PBS pledge drive

documentaries. Wondering why she hasn't seen similar shows devoted to Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell or

Aretha Franklin, Douglas contends that these women have been overlooked simply because they are. ,

women. I disagree. These women, while wonderful singers, weren't prolific songwriters. Most of the songs

sang by these women were written by other people-usually men. I enjoy Mitchell and Franklin. Their 6*^2C, AC^

voices are synonymous with the 50's and 60's. But they weren't prolific singer/songwriters and thus aren't

as significant to an era as the aforementioned men.

Douglas's thesis is that all contemporary women are feminists and that all women should be proud

to be feminists, especially, considering these women of the baby boom era were spoon fed, on a consistent

basis, messages that would create generations of insecure females.

As a ooholai'ly book I did not enjoy Where the Girls Are by Susan Dou^l^s^I'm not anti-feminisffT

anti-woman or pro-misogyny. I think feminism and the women's lib movement helped usher in a period of

great cultural evolution, including, but not limited to Title IX. What I didn't like about Douglas's book was

that it seemed whiny, the arguments were elementary, and at times her facts were completely untrue. "Since

the 1950's, women growing up in America have been indelibly imprinted by movies, television, ads,

magazines and popular music. Now it's true that, when we're born, we come with this twisted coil of DNA

inside us that determines whether we'll be shy or gregarious, athletic or klutzy, cautious or daring."

^(Douglas. 13) Douglas goes further to place blame on parents for a woman's personality flaws. The quotev^

where Douglas places blame for these flaws on media and parents is, from the title of the book, to be

expected. However, her science, much like many of her arguments, is flawed. As any high-school science

students could tell you, DNA doesn't dictate personality or athleticism. There are traits within DNA that

can be built upon or disregarded but DNA doesn't make a comedian, Olympic athlete, or butler. It's this

freeform finger pointing and blame shifting that I found rather trite and unconvincing. /- n#\l"***<*€-

Where the Girls Are, by Susan Douglas, is an exercise in fingeV pointing. It attempts to justify her /^. rf/ O /7,. L^^r^-A+isstated position as a feminist as the natural conclusion a woman would make considering the progression, or '"̂ r^*-v«-f

in her opinion transgression, of mass media. The "Poor me, poor us" argument Douglas makes throughout .̂ / /)

the entirety of her book was almost laughable. She points to images of women in advertisements that

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that a generation of women grew up believing they had little chance to break free of these oppressive

chains because these types of messages were so prevalent. (Douglas. Photo 1) If this argument is to be

taken seriously, what then of all the pre-teen and teenage boys of the era? They had Marlon Brando, James

Dean, Sinatra, Elvis, Sean Connery and Steve McQueen. Not to mention Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan

Musial and Johnny Unitas. These leading men, according to Douglas's argument, unquestionably dictated

how men should look, act and be. So why didn't a generation of boys, who could never be Brando or Mays,

grow up feeling inadequate, insecure and ill-equipped for success? OR, if this generation of pre-teens and

teenage boys did grow up just as insecure and confused as their female counterparts, as I contend they did,

Douglas's argument and suspect evidence is pointless,and unfounded.'^(tUO i/dStT^O0 '

Douglas attemp$\o wYite aNerious, thought provoking book regarjl«I|fthe plight of baby boom

era women. Rather she ended up with a(Taughable, free-form thought exercisejon why she grew up and

matured the way she did: clueless, confused, insecure, disillusioned, rebellious, liberated, secure, and

finally mature. If this isn't the step-by-step progression most, if not all, people go through, I don't know

what is. If media play a role in the process of maturity, which we are all exposed to, tPleveitthe playing

7 <field and in a sense makes the messages non-existent. If we're all exposed to the same messages and some

of us are successful and others not, the messages cannot be to blame for the unsuccessful person's failures.

In Susan Douglas's book, Where the Girls Are. Douglas cites numerous sources found in media,

mostly popular TV, music, and advertisements, for creating an entire generation of women into feminists.

Her book is an attempt, often a self-deprecating one, to illuminate the context in which she and the women

of her era were supposedly manipulated into believing certain ideals existed for them. Written from the

perspective of a self-described feminist, Douglas seemed more concerned with her own diary, adolescence

and maturity than she did with the women of the baby boom generation.

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