Fire with Fire
New Female Power and How It Will Change the Twenty-First Century
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
In her bestselling book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf sought to change the way in which women see themselves in relation to their bodies. Now she focuses on how they see themselves in relation to power.
She argues that the feminist movement has to change if it is to speak to a new generation of women, and that, even as women are gaining more ground than ever before, a wariness of feminist orthodoxies keeps them away from the only movement capable of putting political clout behind their personal success. The book represents a call to women to throw off centuries of conditioning about the relationship between power and femininity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Feminist author of the bestselling The Beauty Myth , Wolf has written an empowering, impassioned manifesto that points the way toward a flexible feminism for the 1990s and beyond. Part political analysis, part psychological manual, part activist handbook, the book argues that women should renounce ``victim feminism,'' which casts them as sexually pure, fragile, beleaguered creatures whose problems are all the fault of men. As an alternative, Wolf outlines an anti-dogmatic ``power feminism'' which sees women as no better and no worse than men, celebrates female sexuality and encourages women to claim their individual voices through a variety of tactics. These include ``resource groups'' for sharing contacts and increasing access to information and services; consumer campaigns; and pressure on the media to alter their portrayals of women. Wolf theorizes that little girls, as much as boys, have fantasies of absolute dominion but learn to repress their ``will to power'' at a very early age. Wolf here sketches a psychological road map designed to help women deal with their ambivalence about success, power, equality and money. Author tour.
