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Book Reviews

Linda K. Fuller, Editor. Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations. NY: Palgrave MacMillan: New York, 2006. Reviewed by Jay Baglia, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network

Courses addressing the intersection of media and gender are growing on America’s college campuses. While earlier offerings in gender studies tended to focus on communication styles or the psychosocial developments inherent in gender roles, the emergence of a focus on sports and media is an obvious and popular development in this interdisciplinary area.

Fuller’s edited collection is a worthy complement topreceding studies of gender, sports, and media, namely Wenner’s (1989) Media, Sports, and Society, Messner and Sabo’s (1990) Sport, Men, and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives., Creedan’s (1994) Women, Media, and Sport, and Baker and Boyd’s (1997) Out of Bounds: Sports, Media, and the Politics of Identity. In this collection, Fuller divides the twenty-one offerings into six sections: 1) language; 2) historical perspectives; 3) print media; 4) broadcast media; 5) visual media; and 6) classic case studies. To be clear, the chapters that make up these sections do not all address media and yet each points to mediated communication and the power of rhetorical constructions. In addition to the twenty-one chapters, there is also an introduction by the editor, which contains a muscular bibliography. A variety of contexts and many different sports are represented. Curiously absent from this volume are women’s competitive softball, golf, and gymnastics. Likewise, I expected at least one chapter to address the growing impact of women’s coaching and leadership.

The chapters that launch this collection – including the introduction – appropriately address the role of language, the phenomenon of competitiveness, and the concept of hegemony in this critical arena of gender studies. A series of historical treatments of sport and gender follow and while I often find examination of a particular historical figure interesting and relevant, the analysis of the sportswriter Annie Laurie (“One of America’s First Sportswriters”) lacked direction. I was unclear whether this chapter was included purely for historical context or as an exploration of gendered writing in the male-dominated field. In either case, the author cites only two of Laurie’s news stories. On the other hand, Nancy Rosoff’s look at how women’s sportswear was advertised in the decades before and after the fin de siècle was revealing, demonstrating how emphasis moved from fashion to function.

The next section – Print Media Representations –contains five chapters and they demonstrate a varied cross-section of topics. The chapter about the WNBA is excellent as it reveals how news coverage of this growing spectator sport both inhibited its early years and contributes to its burgeoning appeal. While discourse analysis is often the “go-to” method when considering critical treatments in the field of gender studies, the choice in this case is solid, for access is plentiful, the

results establish a trajectory for both advances and limitations, and it is replicable. With its consistent approach, this section is the book’s strongest.

One wonders then why each of the next two sections that follow – Broadcast Media (with two entries) and Visual Media (with three) – would stray so far with regard to approach and utility. Specifically, I was surprised by the chapter analyzing Britney Spears’ lyrics and videos. While this was a well-written piece, it was clearly out of place; the attempt to connect its revelations to an imprecise operationalization of health was a stretch. For different reasons, a chapter analyzing the rhetoric of the University of Connecticut/University of Oklahoma Women’s NCAA basketball championship of 2002 provided scant return. From the beginning of this chapter, I wondered why the tack seemed so anti-Connecticut Husky. Upon turning to the “contributors” section, I discovered that the author was a Oklahoma faculty member. When the methods section revealed that the analysis was produced by a graduate class, I wondered why the authors’ affiliation with the University of Oklahoma was not revealed in the text. Indeed, one of the real advances in third-wave feminist criticism is thatacknowledging positionality of the researcher adds credibility. With few exceptions, this contemporary turn in subject-position was not shared by many of the authors of this collection

The truly good news about this collection is the Classic Case Studies section. Crawford’s chapter about NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon left me feeling more knowledgeable about the gender perspective in this strangely popular spectator sport and is the only chapter that specifically addresses masculinity. Likewise, Golimbisky’s chapter about Little League Moms is the only one using the participant/observer approach and, as a result, we live and breathe her perspective.

The contributors of this volume represented journalism, media criticism, kinesiology, sociology, English, anthropology, and communication studies. Such a range is apt for this area of research. The book is recommended reading for anyone developing a course in sports, gender, and media. While I would have a hard time saying the entire book should be adopted for a single class, there are plenty of chapters that I would assign for an introductory gender class, a journalism class, a methods class, or even a U.S. history class. And they are, for the most part, well-written and easily accessible for the undergraduate liberal arts student. I would be remiss, however, if I were to leave the book jacket photograph without remark. The image is that of a by-any-standards attractive blond woman in a red dress about to hurl a football; she bears a striking resemblance to a mid-80s Christie Brinkley. In the background are what appear to be several Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, fans, and media

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personnel. It is a peculiar selection for a book that attempts to advance feminist criticism in this genre. Tomake matters worse, she is not holding the laces correctly to throw a serviceable forward pass. I would not, however, say that she throws like a girl. Rather, she is throwing like someone who is not in the picture to throw a proper pass. Clearly, her role is to be beautiful and sexually alluring. One step forward, two steps back.

References

Baker, Aaron & Todd Boyd, Eds. (1997). Out of bounds: Sports, media, and the politics of identity. Indiana University Press.

Creedan, Pamela, Ed. (1994). Women, media, and sport: Challenging gender values. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Messner, Michael A. & Don F. Sabo, Eds. (1990). Sport, men, and the gender order: Critical feminist perspectives. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers.

Wenner, Lawrence A., Ed. (1989). Media, sports, and society. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations is available from Palgrave MacMillan for $65.00 Hardcover, ISBN: 1403973283.

Reviewer Jay Baglia is a Medical Educator at the Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network in Allentown, PA.

Clara Sarmento, Editor. Eastwards/Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century? Cambridge University Press. Reviewed by Hsin-I Cheng, Santa Clara University

In recent years, voices of non-white, non-middle-class, and non-U.S./European women have been gradually reclaimed (e.g., Behar and Gordon, Collins, Enloe, Kaplan, Alarcón and Moallem, hooks, Mohanty, Moraga and Anzaldúa, Ong, Shome, Spivak). Documenting the shared struggles and triumphs among women across nation-states remains a continuous project. Eastwards/Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century? surveys pressing issues on how language, culture, and state apparati influence gender equality in the globalized world.

This collection cogently calls for inclusion of those whose voices have been neglected or even erased in academic research. Conditions of women’s lives in areas such as India, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, and Southeast Asia are discussed. In general, all seven chapters attempt to unfold the structural effects of national constitutions, religious doctrines, or linguistic practices on women. In “Construction and Reaffirmation of Social Gender Stereotypes,” and “The Semiosis of the Feminine in Bangla Language” the authors interrogate the ways in which women in India are linguistically located in a binary system that excludes gender equality and perpetuates “authentic” femininity. Such framing leaves the unbalanced social space imbued with power-laden ideologies unchallenged. Like India, which has undergone significant socio-economic shifts in the past decades, nations such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and China have gone through their own transformations. Three chapters –“Gender Equality in Ukraine,” “Culture and Language,” and “Marriage in China as an Expression of a Changing Society” critique the impact on women’s lives after (inter)national statutes were materialized. Each briefly discusses the conditions for women under the previous political entity and illustrates the social, economic, or political (in)congruencies that occurred during and after these changes.

The final chapters in this anthology discuss texts produced during the colonial and postcolonial eras in Portuguese India and Southeast Asia. In “The ‘Other

Woman’ in the Overseas Space,” Maria de Deus Manso reflects on women’s conditions under the Portuguese rule of parts of India during the 17th century. There, women were positioned in between local practices that denied their rights and liberation through Christian conversion offered by the colonial government. In a similar vein, “Heading East this Time” identifies controversial issues of women’s rights after decolonization in various societies such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Both chapters suggest that interstitial space might have occurred in these “transcultural contact zones.” Overall, this collection raises intriguing topics on the interactive nature of gender and communication.

Eastwards/Westwards contributes to interdisciplinary interests on issues pertaining to gender equality. By shifting terrains of inquiry away from the U.S. and European-centered topics and perspectives, this compilation encourages readers to acquire additional knowledge on historical and current geopolitical relationships in order to understand the complexity of women’s conditions. This collection of thought-provoking articles triggered my desire for more in-depth analyses on the historical contexts and socio-political currents in the critiques. I was left with questions about the significant common threads that connect these struggles in which various oppressive forces and insidious forms of power subjugate women in these nation-states.

Eastwards/Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century? accomplishes an ambitious task of unpacking linguistic and structural injustices enacted against women around the globe whose situations have often been neglected. It would be a beneficial text for graduate students who are beginning to explore gender relations on political, historical, and linguistic fronts.

Eastwards/Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century? is available from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, $69.00, hardback; ISBN 1-84718-308-5.

Reviewer Hsin-I Cheng is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Santa Clara University.

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Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America. New York: Metropolitan Books; Henry Holt and Company, 2007. Reviewed by Joey W. Pogue, Pittsburg State University - Kansas

It has been eight years since the tragedy of 9/11. In The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America, Susan Faludi recognizes 9/11 as “a great moment of possibility” which could turn the myths we live by into progressive truths. Incorporating critiques of media, the Bush administration, and patriarchal mythology, Faludi’s examination of 9/11 as an emasculation of America deconstructs America’s gender order. According to Faludi, after 9/11, U.S. citizens experienced a psychosomatic shock induced by the awareness that neither America nor the heroic men in charge of “her” protection were invincible. The terror she identifies reflects a masculine powerlessness appearing in a variety of forms – political, economic, social and, perhaps most alarmingly, sexual. The fantasy she uncovers is pure masculine projection.

While feminism had become part of the mainstream prior to 9/11, in the aftermath, the movement was blatantly discredited. Spokespersons from the media transformed independent women and feminine strength into traitorous scapegoats. Encouraged by gatekeepers who were pro-administration, pro-domesticity and antifeminist, many Americans were invited to revisit a Father-Knows-Best ideology reminiscent of the 1950s Cold-War era. Any feminist voice attempting to explain 9/11 was quickly vilified. When Susan Sontag suggested “that a few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what had just happened” (27), New York Postcolumnist Rod Dreher retaliated that he wanted to “walk barefoot on broken glass across the Brooklyn Bridge, grab [Sontag] by the neck, drag her down to ground zero and force her to say that to the firefighters” (27). Citing a variety of publications, Faludi argues Dreher’s rant was but one example of many sentiments that “elevated to new legitimacy the venting of longtime conservative antifeminists who were accorded a far greater presence after the attacks” (22).

Echoing Sontag, Faludi characterizes response to the tragedy as an old familiar pattern of America’s investment in patriarchal virility. Her chapter “The Cowboys of Yesterday,” notes the press’s elevation of New York’s firefighters into idealized profiles of masculinity that the firemen themselves found unrealistic. Such unrelenting idealization was captured vividly in a CBS interview when rookie firefighter Tony Benetatos was urged to assert that 9/11 had turned him from a boy into a man. Instead, staring back at the camera, he replied: “Has it made me a man? No. What’s a man?” (73).

Focusing on the fiction of heroic patriarchy, Faludi refers to history and frontier icon, Daniel Boone, who said: “Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related to me which exist only in the regions of fancy” (256). Like Boone, the firefighters shunned media attempts to turn them into super human beings. When

Rudy Giuliana claimed they had performed “the greatest single rescue mission in America’s history” (66), surviving firefighters regarded his claim as preposterous.

Selective media coverage reinforced a pathos of idealized masculinity. When tears were shed by the men of ground zero, crying was identified as a courageous “sign of unshaken manhood” (73). Weakness, dependency or stress, simply were not discussed. Abandoned widows, fragile little girls, and damsels in distress, on the other hand, were everywhere. Faludi recounts how newscasters and talk-show hosts sentimentalized “wives without husbands and mothers without sons” (90). Not surprisingly, post 9/11 media sources indicated that traditional marriage was reclaiming popularity while corresponding stories reported women surrendering their professions, returning home and choosing to bear rather than abort children.

Drawing upon history, Faludi cites numerous examples from the colonial era forward that explain how media have fostered our culture's adherence to a doctrine of separate spheres. While men are free to navigate the outside world, women remain constrained to hearth and home. When women do attempt to leave their domain, peril and the accompanying need to be rescued by heroic men are inevitable. Media use of one of America’s favorite tropes, “the captivity narrative," provide numerous historical and contemporary illustrations. Examining accounts of women abducted by Native Americans, Faludi exposes a huge gap between the actual events and their subsequent framing by media sources. In a pointed comparison of media distortions from both colonial and contemporary eras, Faludi recounts the stories of three captives, each made famous through media depictions later found to be at distinct variance with reality. Mary Rowlandson and Cynthia Ann Parker were kidnapped by Indians in the colonial period. Jessica Lynch was the post 9/11 representative of the captivity narrative in her designation as the most famous prisoner of war taken in Iraq.

Faludi offers persuasive evidence that the stories accepted as truth about these three women and their experiences were in fact media creations, sensationally altered to fit patriarchal fantasy. Rowlandson, relying on ingenuity, flattery, and sewing skills, gained her own freedom. Parker refused rescue and remained to bear two children with her Comanche husband. And, after countless media stories of her travails as a wounded POW, it has become clear that the "rescue" of Pvt. Jessica Lynch was just the most recent exploitation of the damsel-in-distress theme, and was in large part a pure media fabrication.

Critical response to The Terror Dream suggests that Faludi’s critique of our culture’s patriarchal narratives is a solid one. In urging us all to question the authenticity of

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the narratives that are presented by the media for our consumption, she invites us to consider post 9/11 consciousness with a careful introspection and reflexivity. Whether her work is a subtle indictment of American provocation for the 9/11 attacks is another question altogether. What seems undeniable from her book is that our mediated response to 9/11 has been one that is highly gendered rendering troubling aspects of the gender order visible and in need of further examination. For those teaching Media or Gender Studies courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, the book is invaluable

in provoking students to think through the gendering of our national histories, social relations, political realities, and media fantasies.

The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America is available from Metropolitan Books: Henry Holt and Company for $26.00, hardcover; ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-8692-8; or, ppbk ISBN-10: 0-8050-8692-7.

Reviewer Joey W. Pogue is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Pittsburg State University – Kansas.

Books in Brief: Editor Anita Taylor’s book notes on some interesting volumes, not all of them new,that recently crossed the editor’s desk.

Historian Marilyn Yalom, A History of the Wife,(Harper, 2002), looks at Judeo-Christian developments and considers questions such as “How did marriage change from religious duty to a venue for personal fulfillment? And if the original purpose of procreation has been superceded, then for what?” This book might be a good companion piece to Stephanie Coontz’ recent book, Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage (Viking, 2005); and for those who might be new to the subject, her older publications on marriage and family life might be instructive: The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic Books, 1992), and The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families, 1600-1900 (Verso, 1988).

If the subject of marriage is of interest, Germaine Greer can still be relied on for a fresh take on previously visited subjects. Note her 2008 Harper publication, Shakespeare’s Wife, that works to place this married couple in context and to bring Ann, the long ignored farmer’s daughter, to life.

To learn more about both a marriage and a woman too often overlooked as we think about our forebearers among outspoken women, see Eve LaPlante’s American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans (HarperOne, 2004). Hutchinson also deserves a larger place both in histories

of free expression and rhetoric. Women and Languageshould not have missed the opportunity to review this book.

And for a look at one of the most widely known of modern wives, see Susan Morrison’s timely edited collection, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers (Harper 2008), aiming to illuminate the attitudes women have toward powerful women. Morrison’s take could be a good illustration of the argument made by Harvard historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History(Knopf, 2007), a book she wrote exploring the question of why a phrase she first wrote in an academic essay struck such a chord that it is now “one of the best-known slogans of modern feminism,” according to Michael Dirda’s review published in The Washington Post in 2007 (and now posted on Amazon.com to advertise the book).

Finally, worth noting are a group of valuable biographies: Paul J. Giddings, Ida: A Sword Among Lions (Amistad, 2008); Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era (Harper, 2006); Brenda Maddox, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (HarperCollins, 2002); and the reissue of Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006).