Where The Girls Are Analysis

Where the Girls Are is a book about the mass media, feminism, and feminists. Susan J. Douglas argues that the mass media is important because of the feminism and feminists in the world. She argues this in many ways and with many examples. Douglas actually grew up with the music, television, and magazines that she talks about in this book and explains each of these examples throughout the book, therefore she is able to say “I was there and I survived” these moments. Douglas’s main thesis is that women, caught between feminine desire and feminist repulsion, are “cultural schizophrenics.” “We love and hate the media, at exactly the same time, in no small part because the media loves and hates women (Page 12).” Douglas argues the history of the love and hate relationship of women to the mass media. The mass media creates messages that are both feminine and feminist towards women. It is because of the mass media that gives rise to women’s feminine and feminist viewing positions within and of the popular culture. Douglas argues that the mass media IS important because it is causing feminism in the world …show more content…
Douglas points out that some of the images the mass media puts out are harder to resist than others, simply because the mass media has taught women to continually place themselves into the male’s eyes. The mass media creates these images through the production, reproduction, and promotion of the ideas of femininity and womanhood. Douglas also argues that the mass media activates a certain degree of awareness and consciousness that incites women to rebel against these sexist and stereotypical images. Douglas explains that these women should either “flip the page or flip the bird.” Douglas also points out that audiences resist these media images and messages all of the time. They resist them by turning off the TV, ignoring magazine ads, and yelling “bullshit” at the