Word: backlashers
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Faludi acknowledges the presence of strong female figures in films, but she notes that their strength is often directed at protecting their young, which even in a backlash era is an acceptable female preoccupation. This takes care of Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, Jessica Lange and Sally Field in Country and Places in the Heart. Overall, Faludi finds that female characters were more likely to be portrayed as obsessed with career at the expense of family (Broadcast News), burning out from the rat race (Baby Boom), abandoning their children (Three Men and a Baby) or exploring...
Faludi, in fact, takes pains to make her targets more subtle. "The backlash is not a conspiracy, with a council dispatching agents from some central control room, nor are the people who serve its ends often aware of their role," she explains. "Some even consider themselves feminists...
...Backlash Worked...
...American women perceive a backlash against their progress, it is probably due more to what they encountered at work than on the screen or in the newspapers. The persistent recession pitted men and women against one another in a battle over job quotas that threw all the issues of economic fairness into bold relief. "Women, after all, and minorities are the first to lose jobs," observes Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a black political leader in Los Angeles. "So there is what you might call a new militancy among women...
...Anita Hill that unveiled the depth of passion that women still feel about discrimination in private and public life. The fact that a majority of women as well as men wound up disbelieving Hill did not change the fact that the episode was a defining moment in the backlash debate. The National Women's Political Caucus placed an ad in the New York Times and in one week raised $85,000 from 1,300 people, far exceeding any of the caucus' previous ads or mailings. "Anita Hill focused attention on the fact that there were no women on that Senate...