Susan Faludi

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Susan Faludi
Faludi in 2008
Born
Susan Charlotte Faludi

(1959-04-18) April 18, 1959
New York City, New York, United States
EducationHarvard University (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Notable workBacklash
In the Darkroom
Awards

Susan Charlotte Faludi (/fəˈluːdi/; born April 18, 1959) is an American journalist and feminist author.[1][2] She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway, a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance."[3] She was awarded the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2016 for In the Darkroom,[4] which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[5]

Early life and education

Susan Faludi was born in 1959 in Queens, New York, and grew up in Yorktown Heights. She was born to Marilyn Lanning, a homemaker and journalist, and Stefánie Faludi, a photographer.[6][7] Stefánie Faludi was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who had emigrated from Hungary. In 2004 she came out to Susan as a transgender woman, and died in 2015.[6] Susan Faludi has dual US & Hungarian citizenship.[8] Her maternal grandfather was also Jewish.[6]

Faludi attended Harvard University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as managing editor of The Harvard Crimson.[9] She graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in history and literature.[10]

Career

Faludi became a professional journalist, writing for The New York Times, the Miami Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the San Jose Mercury News, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.[11]

During the 1980s, Faludi wrote several articles on feminism and the apparent resistance to the movement. Seeing a pattern emerge, she wrote her first book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, about this manufactured media resistance to feminism, which was released in late 1991.[12][13][14][15]

She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report in The Wall Street Journal on the leveraged buyout of Safeway.[3][16]

In 2008–2009, Faludi was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University,[10] and during the 2013–2014 academic year, she was the Tallman Scholar in the Gender and Women's Studies Program at Bowdoin College.[17] Since January 2013, Faludi has been a contributing editor at The Baffler.[18]

In 1996, Faludi was awarded honoris causa membership in Omicron Delta Kappa at SUNY Plattsburgh.[19] In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University.[20]

Books

Backlash

Susan Faludi's 1991 book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women argues that the 1980s saw a backlash against feminism,[16] especially due to the spread of negative stereotypes against career-minded women.[21] Faludi asserted that many who argue that women should stay home to look after children are hypocrites, since they have wives who are working mothers or, as women, are themselves working mothers. This work won her the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 1991.[22] The book has become a classic feminist text.[23]

In 2014, a public book club by Matter and MSNBC was started, where writers including Jill Abramson, Katha Pollitt, Lena Dunham, and Roxane Gay, reread chapters of the book and examined their contemporary relevance.[24] In September 2015, Bustle included Backlash among its list of "25 Bestsellers from the last 25 years you simply must make time to read."[25] Reflecting on the legacy of the book in The New Yorker in July 2022, Molly Fischer called Backlash "an era-defining phenomenon" that "presented a damningly methodical assessment of women’s status in Reagan-era America."[26] Backlash has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, German, Finnish, Korean, and Italian.

Stiffed

In Faludi's 1999 book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, Faludi analyzes the state of American masculinity.[16] Faludi argues that while many of those in power are men, most individual men have little power. American men have been brought up to be strong, support their families, and work hard, but many men then find themselves underpaid or unemployed, disillusioned, and abandoned by their wives. Changes in American society have affected both men and women, Faludi concludes, and it is wrong to blame individual men for class differences, or for differences in individual luck and ability, that they did not cause and from which men and women both suffer.[27][28]

The Terror Dream

In The Terror Dream (2007), Faludi analyzes the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the context of American history going back to insecurity on the historical American frontier. Faludi argues that the 9/11 attacks reinvigorated a climate in America that is hostile to women, where women are viewed as weak and best suited to playing support roles for the men who protect them from attacks.[29][30][31]

Kirkus Reviews called the book a "rich, incisive analysis of the surreality of American life in the wake of 9/11" and "brilliant, illuminating and essential."[32] Reviewing the book for Fresh Air, Maureen Corrigan praised Faludi for her "characteristic restraint and depth of research" and for her "rigorous insistence on truth."[33]

The book was disparaged as a "tendentious, self-important, sloppily reasoned work that gives feminism a bad name" by New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani.[34] Another New York Times critic, John Leonard, wrote: "In The Terror Dream a skeptical Faludi reads everything, second-guesses everybody, [and] watches too much talking-head TV."[35] Writing in The Guardian, Sarah Churchwell called the book "a persuasive analysis of post-9/11 sexism" but also said: "Ultimately Faludi is guilty of her own exaggerations and mythmaking, strong-arming her argument into submission."[36]

In the Darkroom

In the Darkroom, published in 2016 by Henry Holt and Company, is about "modern transsexuality,"[37] inspired by Faludi's father coming out as a transgender woman.[38] Writing in The New York Times, Michelle Goldberg called it a "rich, arresting and ultimately generous investigation of her father."[1] Writing in The Guardian, Rachel Cooke described the book as "an elegant masterpiece" and "a searching investigation of identity barely disguised as a sometimes funny and sometimes very painful family saga."[39] In the Darkroom won the 2016 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction[4] and was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.[3]

Views on feminism

Faludi has rejected the claim advanced by critics that there is a "rigid, monolithic feminist 'orthodoxy,'" noting as an example that she has disagreed with Gloria Steinem about pornography and Naomi Wolf about abortion.[40]

Faludi has criticized the obscurantism prevalent in academic feminist theory: "There's this sort of narrowing specialization and use of coded, elitist language [...] which is to my mind impenetrable and not particularly useful."[41] She has also characterized "academic feminism's love affair with deconstructionism" as "toothless", and warned that it "distract[s] from constructive engagement with the problems of the public world."[40]

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women has been described as an influential text of third-wave feminism.[42]

Personal life

Faludi is married to author Russ Rymer.[43]

Selected works

Books

Articles

See also

References

  1. Goldberg, Michelle (June 16, 2016). "Susan Faludi's 'In the Darkroom'". The New York Times.
  2. Dean, Michelle (June 17, 2016). "Susan Faludi: the feminist writer on trans issues, Donald Trump and masculinity". The Guardian.
  3. "Susan C. Faludi". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  4. "The 2016 Kirkus Prize Winners". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  5. "Biography". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  6. Faludi, Susan (June 4, 2016). "Susan Faludi: getting to know my father, the woman". The Guardian. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  7. "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  8. Faludi, Susan (December 5, 2016). "Susan Faludi: Hungary's sharp rightward turn is a warning to America". The Guardian. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  9. Parrish, Erin Elizabeth (2024). "Susan Faludi". EBSCO. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  10. "Susan Faludi". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  11. "Susan Faludi". Encyclopedia Britannica. April 26, 1999. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  12. Haas, Renate; Binard, Florence (May 4, 2022). "Introduction: Patriarchal backlashes to feminism in times of crisis: plus ça change, moins ça change". European Journal of English Studies. 26 (2): 163–175. doi:10.1080/13825577.2022.2091274. ISSN 1382-5577.
  13. Fischer, Molly (July 21, 2022). "The Real Backlash Never Ended". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  14. Grady, Constance (February 3, 2023). "The mounting, undeniable Me Too backlash". Vox. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  15. Gibbs, Nancy (March 9, 1992). "The War Against Feminism". TIME. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  16. Halpern, Sue (September–October 1999). "Susan Faludi: the Mother Jones Interview". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  17. McBride, Abby (June 13, 2013). "Bowdoin Welcomes Writer Susan Faludi as Tallman Scholar". Bowdoin College News. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015.
  18. "Masthead". The Baffler. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  19. "Notable Members". Omicron Delta Kappa. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  20. "Previous honorary doctors at Stockholm University". Stockholms universitet. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  21. Reese, Hope (March 17, 2021). "Backlash Then, Backlash Now". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  22. "1991". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  23. Carmon, Irin (July 25, 2014). "Welcome to Backlash Book Club". Matter.
  24. "#BacklashBookClub". Matter. September 13, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
  25. Paul, Crystal (September 29, 2015). "25 Bestsellers from the last 25 years you simply must make time to reread". Bustle.
  26. Fischer, Molly (July 21, 2022). "The Real Backlash Never Ended". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  27. Harlib, Amy (May 1, 2000). "Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man". Rambles.NET. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  28. Shulevitz, Judith (October 3, 1999). "The Fall of Man". The New York Times. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  29. Prose, Francine. "The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi". Oprah.com. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  30. Labhart, Jessica; Witt, Joanna (June 24, 2016). "A member's view: The Terror Dream changed my thinking on America". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  31. "The Terror Dream". The New Yorker. October 8, 2007. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  32. "THE TERROR DREAM". Kirkus Reviews. September 1, 2007.
  33. Corrigan, Maureen (November 6, 2007). "Susan Faludi Slams Media, Myths in 'Terror Dream'". NPR.
  34. Kakutani, Michiko (October 23, 2007). "9/11 Is Seen as Leading to an Attack on Women". The New York Times.
  35. Leonard, John (October 14, 2007). "Macho Security State". The New York Times.
  36. Churchwell, Sarah (March 22, 2008). "We're at war, sweetheart". The Guardian.
  37. Cronn, Kirstin (June 14, 2016). "IN THE DARKROOM by Susan Faludi". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  38. Politics and Prose (July 10, 2016). Susan Faludi, "In the Darkroom". Retrieved June 17, 2026 – via YouTube.
  39. Cooke, Rachel (June 19, 2016). "In the Darkroom review – an elegant masterpiece". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  40. Faludi, Susan (May 13, 1997). "Revisionist Feminism". Dialogues. Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  41. Conniff, Ruth (June 1993). "Susan Faludi – feminist author – Interview". The Progressive.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  42. Brunell, Laura; Ostberg, René (January 3, 2024). "Third wave of feminism". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  43. Brown, Patricia Leigh (October 21, 1999). "AT HOME WITH: Susan Faludi and Russ Rymer; Sympathy for Men, Empathy With One". The New York Times.
External videos
video icon Booknotes interview with Faludi on Backlash, October 25, 1992, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Faludi on Stiffed, September 25, 1999, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Faludi on Stiffed, November 20, 1999, C-SPAN
video icon After Words interview with Faludi on The Terror Dream, January 5, 2008, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Faludi on In the Darkroom, November 20, 2016, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Faludi on In the Darkroom, September 29, 2018, C-SPAN