You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.12 (663 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01912P4NA |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 509 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-20 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Re-looking at Stepford Wives, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and all of the other hypnotic suggestions about my supposed woman-hood made me feel alive and energized and ready to topple the patriarchy. Like a goldfish realizing that water existed, I instantly came alive to the air and the atmosphere of how my Otherness informed my girlhood. One of iBook's "Summer's Most Anticipated Books" "If Hollywood's treatment of women leaves you wanting, you'll find good, heady company in Carina Chocano's essay collection, You Play the Girl. Why, Chocano asks, does the ingenue have to choose between marriage and death?" —ELLE"In Carina Chocano’s whip-smart new book You Play The Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages, she analyzes the 'girls' of pop culture across the decades, from Bewitched to contestants on The Bachelor (and its fiction
From Bugs Bunny to Playboy Bunnies, from Flashdance to Frozen, from the progressive ’70s through the backlash ’80s, the glib ’90s, and the pornified aughts—and at stops in between—Chocano blends formative personal stories with insightful and emotionally powerful analysis. "The girl" looms over us like a toxic cloud, permeating everything and confusing our sense of reality. In You Play the Girl, Carina Chocano shows how we metabolize the subtle, fragmented messages embedded in our everyday experience and how our identity is shaped by them. In this smart, funny, impassioned call to arms, a pop culture critic merges memoir and commentary to explore how our culture shapes ideas about who women are, what they are meant to be, and where they belong.Who is "the girl"? Look to movies, TV shows, magazines, and ads and the message is both clear and not: she is a sexed up sidekick, a princess waiting to be saved, a morally infallible angel with no opinions of her own. She's whatever the hero needs her to be in order to become himself. She explains how growing up in the shadow of “the girl” taught her to think about herself and the world and what it means to raise a daughter in the face of these contorted reflections. In the tradition of Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, and Susan
"Repetition, spoilersand a bit of brilliance." according to Julee Rudolf. The blurb about this book promised that this collection was "In the tradition of Roxane Gay" I read and loved Bad Feminist. Save the genre, Chocano's essays bear little resemblance to Gay's.I wanted to love this collection. Chocano was born in the late 60s, I in the mid. She uses a number of TV series, movies and books with which I'm familiar as her subjects (I Dream of Jeannie, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Feminine Mystique), and she covers feminism, mostly shining a light on the way women are portrayed in books, movies and on television. I absolutely loved a few of Chicano's essays, but it's not a b. "Thoughtful and well-done reflections on pop culture and other topics" according to Nathan Webster. This was a thought-provoking collection of essays, especially on the subject of women in moviesin my lifetime, I've seen the quality/quantity of female representation in movies go from semi-okay (in my mind) to woeful and pandering and condescendingand it's no wonder so many good actresses have gone to television. Carina Chocano's takedown of movies like "Knocked Up" and the related attacks on Katherine Heigl are infuriating and accurate. The same is true for her take on Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck" and other films.I was hoping to find some essays in this collection I could use in a first-year college wri. Unique, insightful, relevant, look at how media has portrayed females and how that has affected us Just Me This is a true 5 star book. I expected more “same old same” criticism of how the media portrays women. I was delighted to find a well written book that is a combination of Chocano’s personal insight and her research. For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 80s, as Chocano did, the references will really strike a chord.One reason You Play The Girl is unique is in the way it takes a detailed look at specific TV shows, movies, etc. rather than painting in broad brushstrokes. By looking at the details, we can see the whole picture; but the details let us feel the impact on more of a g