Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Humanities — Women's & Gender Studies

Dillon (Bates College) provides a fascinating analysis of female sexuality in the 1940s as depicted in a truly diverse array of mostly popular culture productions, including popular novels, radio serials, commercial and educational films, and comics.  In the introduction, the author provides an analysis of the message sent by what he calls the obliterating culture of popular culturecf., such works as Marilyn Hegarty'sVictory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes (CH, Sep'08, 46-0494), Jane Leder'sThanks for the Memories (CH, May'07, 44-5237), and Jennifer Scanlon'sInarticulate Longings (CH, May'96, 33-5416), which show how that message is at odds with the reality of womens sexual lives and identities.  Dillon demonstrates that female sexuality is depicted as either monstrously animalistic, an aberrant imitation of mens often-admired wolfish behavior, or almost nonexistent, an example of the good girl who makes herself available to a man without visibly expressing sexual desire.  Also important are Dillon's analyses of less-studied contemporary writers like Diana Trilling, Ruth Herschberger, and Elizabeth Hawes, who questioned the masculinist ideal of womens sexuality.  Dillon casts a wide net in this accessible study, offering a fruitful starting point for more in-depth research.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.