90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality
Written by Allison Yarrow
Narrated by Allison Yarrow
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award, muse to a Givenchy fashion collection, and recommended by the The New York Times, The Skimm, US Weekly, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Refinery 29, Book Riot, Bitch Media, and more.
""Yarrow’s biting autopsy of the decade scrutinizes the way society reduced — or “bitchified” — women at work, women at home, women in court, even women on ice skates . . . Direct quotes from politicians, journalists and comedians about the women provide the most jarring, oh-my-god-that-really-happened portions of Yarrow’s decade excavation."" — Pittsburg Post-Gazette
The nostalgic, smart, and shocking account of how the 90s set back feminism, undermined girls and women, and shaped the millennial generation from award-winning journalist, Allison Yarrow.
To understand how we got here, we have to rewind the VHS tape. 90s Bitch tells the real story of women and girls in the 1990s, exploring how they were maligned by the media, vilified by popular culture, and objectified in the marketplace.
Trailblazing women like Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno, and Marcia Clark, and were undermined. Newsmakers like Britney Spears, Monica Lewinsky, Tonya Harding and Lorena Bobbitt were shamed and misunderstood. The advent of the 24-hour news cycle reinforced society's deeply entrenched misogyny. Meanwhile, marketers hijacked feminism, sold “Girl Power,” and poisoned a generation.
Today echoes of 90s “bitchification” still exist everywhere we look. To understand why, we must revisit and interrogate the 1990s—a decade in which empowerment was twisted into objectification, exploitation, and subjugation.
Yarrow’s thoughtful, juicy, and timely examination is a must-read for anyone trying to understand 21st century sexism and end it for the next generation.
Allison Yarrow
Allison Yarrow is an award-winning journalist and National Magazine Award finalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vox, and many others. She was a 2017 TED resident and is a 2018 grantee of the International Women’s Media Foundation. She produced the Vice documentary “Misconception,” and has appeared on the Today show, MSNBC, NPR and more. Allison was raised in Macon, Georgia and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Reviews for 90s Bitch
66 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book a lot. For a reader with a non-American background, sometimes it was hard to follow the plotline/narrative as Yarrow was describing events that an average American reader not only has factual knowledge about, but might also an emotional connection to.
Yarrow is a skilled writer, and even though some passages were less interesting than others, overall the book "made sense" and has a well-rounded narrative.
Frankly, only towards the end of the book I understood what she really meant with "bitchification" - that it was both a frame and a role (both passive and active) and that's what's so tricky and worrying about it. Definitely don't skip the epilogue, it's a great round-up of the book's themes.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A must read if you were born in or lived through the 90s! Even if not, it’s a great feminist analysis of the 90s culture and ties into how we got to where we are today.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It’s fascinating what a difference of five years makes. The author says that she was ages 8-18 in the 90s, and her reporting of that shows what she mostly remembers was more late 90s. I was 13-23 in the 90s, and I feel there was a lack of early 90s mentioned besides the biggest news stories and not as much pop culture. It just didn’t grab me even though I lived it all. Also no mention of Sassy magazine except as a reference was ridiculous; Sassy legit made me a feminist—there was no other way to get to me in rural Michigan. FYI even though it says this is an ER book, I never actually received the book; I bought an ebook and also listened to the audiobook from the library.