Faludi's Nightmare

Michael C. Moynihan | October 23, 2007

New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani rips into Susan Faludi's The Terror Dream, a book, she explains, that takes the "momentous subject of 9/11 and come to the conclusion that it led to...an assault on the freedom and independence of American women." Kakutani opens:

This, sadly, is the sort of tendentious, self-important, sloppily reasoned book that gives feminism a bad name.

She pooh-poohs Faludi's premise that 9/11 has led to the "disappearance of female voices" from the public debate:

To begin with, the reader wants to ask: What disappearance of female voices? What "bugle call" to "return to Betty Crocker domesticity?" Since 9/11, Hillary Rodham Clinton has become the leading Democratic contender in the race for the White House, with a good chance of becoming the first female president in history; Katie Couric was named anchor of the CBS Evening News; and women like Lara Logan of CBS and Martha Raddatz of ABC have been reporting from the frontlines of the war in Iraq.

Kakutani twists the knife in the concluding paragraph:

Such errors of logic are typical of this ill-conceived and poorly executed book - a book that stands as one of the more nonsensical volumes yet published about the aftermath of 9/11.

Ouch.

Full review here.

Comments

Syloson of Samos|10.23.07 @ 3:59PM|#

When do we stop treating 9/11 as a "momentous subject" and start treating it as a normal, though tragic, part of human history?

VEGAN ACTIVIST|10.23.07 @ 4:08PM|#

9/11 has led to an assault on the freedom and independence of American Vegans

The Extispicator|10.23.07 @ 4:09PM|#

Point taken, but Katie Couric? Really?

LibertyPlease|10.23.07 @ 4:11PM|#

I once curried favor with a feminist date by leaving Susan Faludi's 'Stiffed' on the coffee table.

I did mean to read it, but.....zzzzzzzzzz

KATIE COURIC|10.23.07 @ 4:16PM|#

Thats right, bitch. You want some?

|10.23.07 @ 4:18PM|#

Wasn't Katie's new job touted as a triumph of feminism and the breaking of a glass ceiling?

|10.23.07 @ 4:18PM|#

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Xmas|10.23.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, a manly man if there ever was one! Yessir.

If anything, the current war on terror is erasing the belief that women can't be front-line combatants.

GILMORE|10.23.07 @ 4:20PM|#

Susan Faludi and Naomi Klein are dumb cunts

I am amazed I managed to get a Liberal Arts degree in the 1990s and didnt end up some idiot constantly mouthing the same tired cliches about race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. Maybe it was because I was down south. Whatever. I will be happy when no one can get dumb stuff like this published anymore.

|10.23.07 @ 4:21PM|#

Those damn femi-NAZIS are at it again!1! Next thing you know they'll be castrating boys in the schools and calling for a woman president!

BTW, does anyone else think that Susan Faludi is a little creepy-looking? Maybe it's just that lazy eye. Bah, I'd still do her.

|10.23.07 @ 4:23PM|#

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

swillfredo's corollary: When the only tool a feminist has is a hammer everything looks like a male.

ed|10.23.07 @ 4:23PM|#

Katie Couric? Really?

Note to Katie's makeup lady: Darken the eyebrows.
America does not trust a woman who looks like a lizard.

Guy Montag|10.23.07 @ 4:25PM|#

Apparently that author is trying to minimize the achievements of reason's management in hiring great writers who are women and, most importantly, advertisers who hire great women like the "I survived Roe vs. Wade" chick I am viewing as I attempt to type.

Also, the NYT writer forgot to mention how Ann Coulter's career has taken off since 9/11.

BugsBunny|10.23.07 @ 4:32PM|#

"When the only tool a feminist has is a hammer everything looks like a male."

Extremely well-done, sir.

|10.23.07 @ 4:37PM|#

9-11 was a plot of the hierarchical patriachy to get back what little power that women have. The terrorists from Iraq that caused 9-11 hate us because American women are too free and they colluded with the neocon men to cause 9-11 so that women would have less power. The government uses the war on Iraq as cover so that they can shoot women in Iraq for target practice. The government should be sued and should provide a list of every women ever born, there whereabouts and if dead the exact circumstances of their death so that we can prove the antifeminist patriarchical conspiracy responsible for 9-11, global warming and all the problems in the universe.

|10.23.07 @ 4:47PM|#

The government should be sued and should provide a list of every women ever born, there whereabouts and if dead the exact circumstances of their death so that we can prove the antifeminist patriarchical conspiracy responsible for 9-11, global warming and all the problems in the universe.

Also, LoopT is obviously a paternalistic Man-Plot so Men can track their Womyn at all times, to make sure they aren't voting or buying shoes. After all, it's Big Brother, not Big Sister.

|10.23.07 @ 4:54PM|#

Linda left off that America's women are being sent to Iraq to have their heads blown off for George Bush's amusement.

|10.23.07 @ 5:01PM|#

When the only tool a feminist has is a gas-powered dildo, nothing needs to be male.

Chuck|10.23.07 @ 5:02PM|#

Faludi is half right. What she leaves out is that 9/11 (more precisely, our panic in reaction to it) has led to a reduction of freedom and independence of American men as well as women.

|10.23.07 @ 5:11PM|#

It's not that far-fetched. I've recently concluded that the reason I'm not getting laid is because of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption.

fyodor|10.23.07 @ 5:17PM|#

I never heard of Ann Coulter till 9-11.

Wow, it really WAS bad!!

scott mcdonald|10.23.07 @ 5:20PM|#

Faludi is a one trick pony.

GILMORE|10.23.07 @ 5:23PM|#

Chuck =

"Half-Right" is an expression only a woman could say unashamedly :) "Half-Right" is still pretty freaking wrong.

Im nagging you of course ("watch the road!")...

Yes, anybody could stand on their particular soapbox and claim that 9/11 was particularly bad for [insert = Gays? Blacks? Libertarians? Arab Americans? The Deficit? Urban Planners? Political Poets?]... and they would maybe have a point, albeit one that consciously ignores that the same is more or less true for *everyone else as well*

It's this kind of 'identity politics' shit that drives me up the wall. I went to a rally at the UN prior to the invasion of Iraq with my girlfriend (who worked/works at the UN)...one of these protest things. I wasnt protesting. I made a sign that said "No duct tape for freedom fries". A lot of people asked me who I was with. I said the UN. I was in a way. I was with my girlfriend. Anyway, all these groups were there protesting the invasion. I was protesting the protestors I guess. They were like, "Lesbian Vegans Against the War" , "Palestinian American Business Owners" "ASPCA Against Bombs In General".... not one of them could be against a policy (in this case, invasion) without first putting "who they think they are" in front of it... as though the two things have something to do with one another.

Some people argue that Who You Are sorta predetermines What You Are Supposed To Think... or if not determines... at least somehow *justifies* your opinion.

Example = One time a girl said she had 'a more detailed understanding of marginalized cultures like "the poor" because she was a rich middle class white lesbian. Being lesbian made her an "outsider", ergo closer to the other "outsiders" in her mind at least. When I pointed out this was sorta... well, tenuous... she was like, TYPICAL! White Male Oppressing My Uniqueness!! His Discourse is Repressing My Relevance!!

Anyway, thats my beef with this crap. I pray for a day when we figure out there are bigger fish to fry and dont sit around stroking our 'unique identities' instead of trying to be as objective as possible about the state of affairs that affects everyone. Maybe a little less egotism, a little more effort to see the world in broader, more inclusive terms.

|10.23.07 @ 5:30PM|#

Gilmore, you sound like you hang out with a lot of stereotypes.

SIV|10.23.07 @ 5:47PM|#

This, sadly, is the sort of tendentious, self-important, sloppily reasoned book that gives feminism a bad name.

Is there any other kind?

Xmas|10.23.07 @ 5:47PM|#

Gilmore,

Was she a Lesbian or just a L.U.G.?

|10.23.07 @ 5:53PM|#

Gilmore

I'm afraid we're in for a lot more tribal identification. Oddly enough as people become more globally concious they seem to compensate by adopting a smaller group (viz national or trans-national) identity.

|10.23.07 @ 6:24PM|#

I've recently concluded that the reason I'm not getting laid is because of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption.

I thought I was the only one.

LibertyPlease|10.23.07 @ 6:30PM|#

I pray for a day when we figure out there are bigger fish to fry and dont sit around stroking our 'unique identities' instead of trying to be as objective as possible about the state of affairs that affects everyone.

Agreed. I like this blogger's take on the issue

GILMORE|10.23.07 @ 6:58PM|#

Marcvs | October 23, 2007, 5:30pm | #
Gilmore, you sound like you hang out with a lot of stereotypes.

I live in NYC. I live around a lot of everything. Some of them are sterotypes. Some make you wonder how the hell they possibly managed to be who they are in the face of all this shit. More sterotypes than the latter though.

The sterotype in my neighborhood is this kind of shit =
http://www.viceland.com/int/dos.php?country=us

everyone gets boring sooner or later when they're so many people being 'different' in the same way, at the same time.

duster|10.23.07 @ 7:33PM|#

"...an assault on the freedom and independence of American women."

That statement is around 50% correct.

|10.23.07 @ 8:02PM|#

If accurate about this book, then it does much to demonstrate that it is indeed a stupid, stupid book. Such is usually the case when people want to view everything through a single issue. It reminds me of the joke about the NYT headline "World to End This Week, Minorities and Women Likely to be Hardest Hit."

Franklin Harris|10.23.07 @ 9:18PM|#

When the only tool a feminist has is a gas-powered dildo,*

* Offer not valid in Alabama.

|10.23.07 @ 11:51PM|#

"Katie Couric was named anchor of the CBS Evening News"

I don't think it's fair to blame the terrorists for that!

Mad Max|10.24.07 @ 2:35AM|#

When the New York Times (official motto: "World ends - women, minorities hardest hit") says a feminist author is too extreme, then you better believe she's extreme.

|10.24.07 @ 11:55AM|#

Gilmore, I don't know what that is on the other end of the link you posted, but it definitely reeked of "I'm going to try really hard to look different but still fit in with what my friends are wearing." I'm reminded of the goth kids in South Park singing "Not gonna be in the talent show..." in the talent show.

dhex|10.24.07 @ 2:33PM|#

hey all you reasonoids - vice mag is here and there but the DOs and DON'Ts are a fucking gem of american culture. the book will make you laugh so hard you will actually die.

|10.24.07 @ 2:45PM|#

Oh joy, Faludi. Yet another white, Ivy League feminist. She can speak for all of us wimmins cuz she dun got educated at one of them thar fancy schools! She knows what's best, coz she took a WHOLE YEAR of women's issues! LISTEN TO HER! LISTEN!
Bet you won't see this NYT review posted on that f*ckhole site Feministing.
Screw the bourgeouis twatery!

|10.24.07 @ 2:47PM|#

or, er, the twatery without the extra U. Shit.