Post-feminist poppycock
September 21, 2005

Gotham is coming out with a book this January called What Would Jackie Do? Glancing over it, one finds such counsel as "How Not To Be an Interchangeable Woman," suggesting that, in order to appear more mysterious, women should not yammer on too much (unthinkingly, anyway.) The book also promises to help its reader "Attain the elegance that defined Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis". Surely there's a contradiction here: what the authors are really offering is merely another kind of redundancy (albeit more glamorized). So maybe I'm guilty of taking this post-feminist bit of fun too seriously (full disclosure: it is kind of fun looking), but the trend is worrying (see similar titles like How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life or A Guide to Elegance). Women, don't want to be Interchangeable? Ignore superficial counsel like this and follow your own. Or, try reading a book with real content—like Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs.—Tania Barnes

Posted by on September 21, 2005 | Comments (40)