In Our Prime

December 1, 2019

Sounding a clarion call for the empowerment of women, Douglas (communications, Univ. of Michigan; Where the Girls Are) blasts the media and cosmetics industry for portraying women over 50 as has-beens, stating that, in fact, feminist boomers are reinventing older age and building up the social infrastructure of child care, eldercare, and public schools. Douglas proposes a model for "intergenerational bridge groups," in which women share their stories, confront their challenges, identify areas of their lives that need improvement, and band together to make a difference, a task for which they are uniquely qualified. VERDICT Smart, savvy, and informed, Douglas is the perfect guide for women who are sick of the rampant sexism and ageism in our society and are ready to do something about it.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2019
A feminist scholar rallies the troops in the battle against injustices to older women. Douglas (Communication Studies/Univ. of Michigan; Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work Is Done, 2010, etc.) melds history, advocacy, and media criticism as she calls for a counteroffensive against America's "war on older women." With alternately insightful and overfamiliar arguments, the author makes the case for a new wave of feminist activism to challenge the "gendered ageism" that sidelines women of her boomer cohort or implies that they're all "supposed to go plant peonies and play peekaboo" with grandchildren. In the book's best sections, Douglas smartly analyzes portrayals of older women in popular culture, including movies and TV shows like Book Club and The Golden Girls. While images have diversified, the media often depict older women only to exploit them as sales targets or foster what marketers call "aspirational aging." Even AARP magazine has been "moving down the age chain" and once featured then-49-year-old Brad Pitt saying, "Personally, I like aging." As the author notes, "come back to me in thirty years, buster. And as a woman, with no health insurance." Douglas also lands well-placed jabs at "anti-aging" cosmetics and diseasemongering pharmaceutical ads built on the "infantilizing strategy of using cartoons." Unfortunately, the author gives too little attention, too late in the book, to the issue that polls repeatedly have identified as the No. 1 concern of older women--health care--and claims as feminist issues some concerns that don't affect women exclusively, such as Medicare. Elsewhere, she offers a to-do list with timeworn tasks such as forming discussion groups, "kind of an update on [1970s] consciousness-raising," and holds up, as a model of engagement, the late Gray Panthers founder Maggie Kuhn, who in her 70s successfully lobbied Congress against the mandatory retirement age of 65. Women of any age can learn from trailblazers like Kuhn, but those seeking a fresher and more urgent battle cry will find it in books like Jennifer Block's recent Everything Below the Waist (2019). Your mother's feminism, sent back to the front lines with refurbished weapons.

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February 15, 2020
Women in their fifties should feel fabulous. Alas, they often don't. Movies, TV shows, and cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies conspire against them. Who hasn't seen ads for products that reverse aging? Douglas (Enlightened Sexism, 2010) denounces this anti-aging weaponry and examines the shameful treatment of female baby boomers. She critiques a Disney cartoon with a cigarette-smoking ogress who kidnapped little puppies so she could sell them for their fur and TV characters like Hazel, who were pushy, nosy, asexual battle-axes. In 1968, the then-president of Columbia University even said, It would be preposterously na�ve to suggest that a B.A. can be made as attractive to girls as a marriage license. Today, many older female stars and politicians are rebelling against ageism and misogyny, even as a Trump rally attendee called Hillary Clinton an angry, crotchety old hag. Motivated and empowered by her own life, too, Douglas, a master at powerfully marshalling anecdotes, statistics, and words, asks women to push back and support each other.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)