why pop culture matters

Susan Douglas's seminal 1995 book Where the Girls Are: Growing Up with the Mass Media explored how woman see and are seen in pop culture, tracing feminism in pop culture from the 1950s and '60s through the 1980s.  Her newest book, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism’s Work is Done, revisits the subject of women's representation in the mass media, and finds a troubling series of mixed messages, empty "empowerment," and consumer imperatives masquerading as postfeminist power.

As longtime fans of Douglas's wit, irreverance, and spot-on critique, Bitch is thrilled to feature the epilogue of Enlightened Sexism. It's after the jump, as is an interview with Douglas by Andi Zeisler.

I am just so proud that the Academy Awards gave the man who said "if you don’t want to be pitied for being a cripple in a wheelchair, don’t come out of the house" a humanitarian award for being so good and giving to those wretched disabled children! I do hope that everyone gives money to a man who said "You might as well put a gun in your mouth" after you find out you have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (that's ALS- Lou Gehrig's Disease). And heaven knows that money goes to really important stuff - like a CURE! - because things like wheelchairs and accessible transportation and helping families get their homes renovated to be fully accessible would be a total waste of that money, right? Why help people with disabilities now when in the future, they may have a CURE!