Oct9 Terror Dream: highlighting the total non-issue of the day
I wasn’t aware that 9/11 had reverted the status of women back to pre-Susan B. Anthony days. Were you? Apparently feminist writer Susan Faludi was, according to a Los Angeles Times article on her new book The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.
Now, in her latest work — “Backlash” meets “Stiffed” and thinks about terrorism — Faludi wonders why the nation’s response to the 2001 attacks was to retreat into a mythological framework that insists the only way for America to be safe is for men to be strong, and the only way for men to be strong is for women to be weak.
Or as she describes the combined reaction of media and government in “Terror Dream”: “Why were we willing ourselves back onto a frontier where pigtailed damsels clutched rag dolls and prayed for a male avenger to return them to the home?”
Uh… What?
Am I the only one completely lost here? What country has she been living in? Iran, perhaps? I haven’t a clue what the devil she’s talking about. Did I miss the memo announcing that women have all quit their jobs or been fired by their male bosses? Did I merely dream that Nancy Pelosi became the speaker of the house? (Lord, I hope so.) Have I been misinformed about the Democratic party’s current front runner primary candidate? Did the blogs I read not pick up on the new report saying colleges have all dropped their Women’s Studies programs and adopted Men’s Studies programs instead? No?
I haven’t the foggiest notion how 9/11 can possibly relate to feminism—unless you relate it to the repression of women in the Middle East. Why don’t you write about a problem that actually exists, Ms. Faludi? How about the women coerced into committing suicide in Turkey or the women stoned to death in Iran for committing adultery, even though the practice has been outlawed?
Ah, but I suppose those two issues don’t fit very well with her politics. Well, in that case, ignore away, ma’am, ignore away…
Usage of the cover of The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America is considered by the author of this article to be fair use under copyright law.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 12:57 pm in Current Issues, Literature. You can subscribe to the comment feed to follow replies or leave a trackback from your own site. Tags: feminism, Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America, women
Kaylee says...
It’s amazing how someone can take two things and say they’re linked. I wonder how she supported her claim, but I guess I would have to read to find out!
Oct. 9th, 2007
Chantelle says...
You’ll have to read the book to see what she’s getting it. I’m assuming that you haven’t read it, yet. ;) I have ideas about where she’s coming from… and she does have a point, an exaggerated point, but a point nonetheless. Her book should have a lot to do with the military…
Oct. 9th, 2007
Shawna says...
It’s not so much the fact that she’s linking these two things. It’s that she’s linking 9/11 to something that appears to be nonexistent. If she were linking 9/11 to say, how many kittens people have adopted in the last year, at least I would not be disputing that people have adopted kittens. I would merely be disputing the correlation between the two.
No, I admit I have not read it. Based on its premise, I do not think it would be worth my time. I imagine it probably does have a fair amount to do with the military, but even so, there are many brave women in our military, and I highly doubt they’re sitting around at camp braiding each other’s hair and playing dolls, waiting for the men to come back. I would be interested in hearing your ideas on the point she’s making. I’m utterly baffled by it.
Oct. 10th, 2007