Fire with Fire: New Female Power and How It Will Change the Twenty-First Century: New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century - Softcover

Wolf, Naomi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099329611 ISBN 13: 9780099329619

Publisher: Vintage, 1994

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Most women embrace equality, but reject "feminism." In clear and brilliant prose, the author of the best-selling The Beauty Myth shows how this rift came about, and how to close it. A practical and inspiring road map for personal and political equality in our time.

From Booklist:

Wolf sees the political and cultural "genderquake" set off by Anita Hill in 1991 as evidence for "the seemingly ludicrous assertion that women already run the country--in electoral and consumer terms, not, of course, in economic terms--and have the power now to bring about the conditions that can begin to secure our equality." Despite the backlash documented by Susan Faludi--and by Wolf in her first book, The Beauty Myth (1991)--Fire with Fire argues for a more inclusive, less doctrinaire feminist movement; for a new "power feminism" to replace the "victim feminism" that has dominated the Reagan-Bush retrenchment years; and for a female psychology of power that, in place of the aspiration to "niceness" and fear of power at the center of traditional acculturation, permits women to explore and actualize all aspects of their personalities. Fundamentally, Wolf insists that "difference feminism" mistakes nurture for nature and therefore misrepresents reality: the enemy is not men but patriarchy; the goal for women should be teamwork and respect, rather than sisterhood and intimacy; new psychological strategies and effective use of the powers women already have can produce "victory in our lifetime." Fire with Fire is certain to spark controversy; expect requests. Mary Carroll

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0099329611
• ISBN 13: 9780099329619
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400