Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (1991)

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women is a 1991 book by Susan Faludi, in which the author presents evidence demonstrating the existence of a media-driven "backlash" against the feminist advances of the 1970s in the United States.

Faludi argues that the backlash uses a strategy of "blaming the victim", which suggests that the women's liberation movement itself is the cause of many of the problems alleged to be plaguing American women in the late 1980s. She also argues that many of these problems are illusory, constructed by the media without reliable evidence.

Faludi also identifies backlash as an historical trend, recurring when women have made substantial gains in their efforts to obtain equal rights. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 1991. A 15th anniversary edition was released in 2006.

Context

Backlash is a 550 page analysis of the social, economic and political inequities and resulting difficulties American women faced in the 1980s. The book was hailed as "..the most vehement and unapologetic call to arms to issue from the feminist camp in many years," and "..a rich compendium of fascinating information and an indictment of a system losing its grip" that "..has already done much to ignite a revolutionary 'national' consciousness." Published within a year of several other high-profile feminist works; Naomi Wolf's “The Beauty Myth”(1990), Gloria Steinem's “Revolution from Within” (1992), and Marilyn French's “The War Against Women” (1992), Faludi's book garnered front page attention in national newspapers and magazines, and interviews of its author on television and radio. As a best-seller, Backlash rejuvenated feminist discussion in the media, and established Faludi as a leading spokesperson for women's issues in the 1990s.

Synopsis

Introduction – Blame it on Feminism

The main premise of the book is that there are two overarching media messages regarding feminism's gains for women since the 1980s: the feminist fight for equality has largely been won, and now that women have this equality they have never been so miserable (ix). Faludi contends that women are not yet equal and there is a counter-assault to halt or reverse their hard-won gains in the quest for equality. By reporting statistically unsupported ideas of how feminism has negatively affected women, the media has helped to create a 'backlash' that encourages women to reject the gains and the struggle for real equality. Reports of "the man-shortage", "the infertility epidemic", "female burnout", and "toxic day-care" are not the actual conditions of women's lives, but are false images portrayed by the media, popular culture and advertising.(xv)

Part One – Myths and Flashbacks

This section documents the statistics that form the backdrop of myths about women being more unhappy in their lives now. Faludi presents counter-evidence to several media myths which include: that there is a shortage of potential spouses for women; that new no-fault divorce laws are negatively affecting women's finances; that professional and career women are increasingly infertile and have more mental illnesses than their non-working counterparts; and that working women's reliance on daycare subjects their children to permanent adverse effects academically, socially and emotionally. Faludi argues that none of these are true.

She also charts the occurrence of similar backlashes in American history, focusing on the women's movements of the Victorian era and after – the late 1840s, and the early 1900s, 1940s and 1970s. She shows that the same media reporting of adverse effects was present in each of these eras, as well as the same pressure to reverse women's gains. She quotes American scholar Ann Douglas, "The progress of women's rights in our culture, unlike other types of 'progress', has always been strangely reversible." (46)

Part Two – The Backlash in Popular Culture

This section describes the media delivery of a backlash through the reporting of 'trends'; the evidence of a counter-assault on feminism in Hollywood's portrayal of women in the 1980s; television's projection of the backlash in its changing roles for women; the change of focus in the fashion industry from the business suits of the 1970s to 'feminine' and impractical lingerie in the 1980s; and the cosmetic industry's emphasis on unnaturally accentuating features and its promotion of cosmetic surgery.

Faludi describes 'trend journalism" of the 1980s, where newspaper articles gained authority through repetition rather than evidence-based reporting (79). Reporting on trends such as "cocooning ", "the new abstinence", "the new femininity", "the new morality" and "the new celibacy" pretended to be about facts while offering none. Trend stories contradicted each other, and served a political agenda by implying women's experiences had nothing to do with political events or social pressures (81). She also discusses the change in Hollywood's screen images of women from the 1970s independent single women to the epitome of anti-feminist sentiment in the vengeful and frightening portrayal of a single career woman in the 1980s movie Fatal Attraction.

Although less virulent than Hollywood, television toned down the strong independence of women in 1970s shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bionic Woman, returning actress Mary Tyler Moore to the 1980s screen as a burned out divorcee with a bleak career and existence in the short-lived Mary (157) and cancelling its extremely popular and award-winning series Cagney & Lacey because the characters were "inordinately abrasive, loud, and lacking warmth."(152). According to Faludi, a "good" female character was Hope, the angelic stay-at-home mother in the series Thirtysomething, who was envied by her careerist female friends.