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Title: Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas ISBN: 0-8129-2530-0 Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA) Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (34 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Proceed with caution.
Comment: While I found this book to be breezily written and often entertaining, I also found it to be very one-sided in its knowledge of and presentation of primetime entertainment television history.
To read Ms. Douglas's book, one could easily come away with the belief that not a single "positive" image of American womanhood has ever been broadcast in the history of the small screen. The world set forth in "Where the Girls Are" is one where women were constantly demeaned by the media; and the real-life women of the time (one assumes) willingly, ignorantly accepted these images and these programs which (one also gathers) were created and broadcast by a group of 100% male, women-hating producers, writers and network execs.
To make the above myopic point, Douglas ignores entire genres and entire series. In her book, she makes no mention of Barbara Stanwyck on "The Big Valley" or Anne Francis on "Honey West" or of the series "The Nurses"; or of the popular anthology programs of the era often hosted by the likes of Stanwyck, Jane Wyman and Loretta Young; or of the variety shows of the time also often helmed by women; or of the constant presence of individuals like Kitty Carlisle, Faye Emerson or Arlene Francis and their witty, wise contributions to the primetime panel programs also of the time.
She also makes no mention of Yvonne Craig or Julie Newmar on "Batman" or of Pat Crowley's avant-garde mom on "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and she unfairly dismisses "Our Miss Brooks" as just a "husband-hunter," failing to recognize her as the competent professional she was. Instead, Douglas prefers to take easy shots at the usual TV targets-"Charlie's Angels," "I Dream of Jeannie" and the poor, much-maligned Donna Reed, among others.
By focusing only on the popular targets, Douglas fails to put her subject (TV programs) in a proper context. If Lucy or Donna Reed were unfair images to beam into the homes of the young women of the 1950s and '60s, was Gomer Pyle, Gilligan or Ralph Kramden an inspiring image for young males? And if young men were able to watch shows like "Gilligan's Island," et.al. and suffer no ill-affects then why doesn't Douglas have faith in young women that they too could and did do the same thing?
Furthermore, in order to build her case of all-bad-female-images-all-the-time, she carefully prunes away episodes of many series which do not support her thesis. For example, she chastises the "Bionic Woman" for often sending its lead, Lindsey Wagner, undercover in traditionally female occupations as a nun or a roller derby queen. She ignores the times the series sent Jamie Sommers undercover as a scientist, a race car driver or a police woman. (She further dislikes that the "Bionic Woman's" day job was as school teacher; a diss that seems to degrade the hundreds of women all over the country who, proudly teach America's next generation.)
In regard to undercover roles, Douglas has the same criticism of "Angels," again not mentioning the times that the trio went undercover as female football players, truck drivers, stuntwomen or even joined the military for a particular case.
Concerning "The Flying Nun," Douglas focuses only on the Sister's clumsy, slapstick landings in the few two or three episodes of the series, choosing to ignore the rest of season one and all of seasons two and three where's Sally Field's ability to fly often saved the convent, saved the day, and even saved lives.
And sometimes she misreads programs entirely. She upbraids "Wonder Woman" stating that Wonder Woman's alter ego, Diana Prince, always showed up at the office in "low-cut dresses." Actually, the first season of this series was set during WWII, when Ms. Prince wasn't Wonder Woman, she was in an official Army uniform. Later, when the series was moved ups to present day, Prince's daytime wear was always appropriate to the workplace. Did Douglas even watch an episode?
"Where the Girls Are" is a thought-provoking work but I believe it must be read with a critical eye. To accept all its arguments without questioning does an enormous disservice to the women, in front of the camera and behind it (and, yes, there were many) who created these long-lasting, enduring programs and images. I also can't help but think that it also does a disservice to the women, young and mature, then and now, who watch/watched these programs and felt not only entertained by them but also often empowered by them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Who says scholarly writing can't be fun?
Comment: Reading this book is like spending a long weekend with a new friend about your own age, wallowing in music and decades-old sitcom reruns while you trade memories that begin "Did you ever see . . . ?" and "Remember the one about. . . ?" You laugh yourselves silly, but also come away with a new appreciation for how TV, movies, and music helped you define who you were and how you saw the world.
OK, I'll be honest. _Where The Girls Are_ is also a first-rate introduction by example to the field of media studies, a brilliant defense of feminism, a scathingly funny critique of American broadcast journalism and an insightful exploration of the complex ways that girls and women relate to the steady stream of female images they're fed by the mass media. But if I led with that paragraph, the book wouldn't sound like it was any fun at all. And it *is* fun. Oh, my, is it fun.
Susan Douglas starts from the idea that, although her experiences and those of her friends (white, middle-class, suburban, straight, Baby-Boom-era women) aren't universal, they *can* be used to illustrate larger truths about how people relate to the mass media. She proceeds, for 300 pages, to do just that. Her analyses are always sharp (you will *never* look at "Charlie's Angels" the same way again), and her prose is as far from academic-ese as you can get: funny, pointed, and (when the subject warrants it) wrath-of-God angry at some of the manifest injustices she describes.
Read this book. Even if you're not part of the Baby Boom generation. Even if you're not a woman. Trust me.
Rating: 3
Summary: easy to read, but...
Comment: this book is very readable, but I found if you do not know much about the tv shows she talks about, it really isn't that interesting or imforative. I do know a bit about I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched, so I found the particular chapter on these two tv shows very informative. However, some of the other chapters seemed a bit dull if I had no other knowledge of the shows, movies, etc that were being talked about. Don't get me wrong, it is very readable, but for me it was harder to stay with it if I had no prior to fall back on. Also, maybe it was me, but I don't know if it went deep enough into the issue of mass media and how it reflects on women.
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Title: To Die For by Cecilia Elizabeth O'Leary ISBN: 0691070520 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao ISBN: 0140263616 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Girl on the Magazine Cover: The Origins of Visual Stereotypes in American Mass Media by Carolyn Kitch ISBN: 0807849782 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians by James Welch, Paul Stekler, Paul Jeffrey Stekler ISBN: 0140251766 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Kristin Ann Hass ISBN: 0520213173 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.80 |
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