Enlightened Sexism

Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done by Susan J Douglas is a new American book about feminism and where it is today by reference to TV programmes and films. I've read about 100 pages so far and I'm finding it really interesting and well written. I must be the only women in the Western Hemisphere who has never seen Sex and the City, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Desperate Housewives but it doesn't stop me understanding what the author is saying.

There are many touches of humour in the book but it does have a serious message about consumerism and the way buying the latest must have fashion accessory is so much a part of modern American life. The book covers some of the same area as Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman which looks at consumerism, television, films and women though Power's much shorter book covers the issues in the UK rather than in America.

International Women's Day - yesterday

Why do we need International Women's Day? To highlight problems such as female genital mutilation, lack of education for women in some countries, lack of freedom, forced marriages, equal job opportunities, equal pay for equal work, violence both by and against women.

There are still problems out there which need to be solved. I can't remember the exact figures but I think over the whole world women own less than 10% of the world's property and wealth - so inevitably they have less freedom and fewer opportunities. That in itself would be enough of a reason to have such a day.

It is also 40 years this year since the first publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch - which acted as a focus for the women's liberation movement in the UK much as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique had done in the US in the 1960s. It is this anniversary which has prompted - I think - the publication of Natasha Walter's Living Dolls, Kat Banyard's The Equality Illusion and later in the year Catherine Redfern's Reclaiming the F Word. There was also Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman which was published at the end of last year and looks at women and the consumer society. So 4 books on various aspects of feminism and women today in the UK. Then there is a US offering from Susan J Douglas - Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done.

This is an ideal time it seems to be interested in feminism.