Susan Faludi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who focuses onwomen's issues in her writing. She wrote a very successful book in 1992,titled Backlash, which talked about the media's negative portrayalof women. The title refers to her belief that society is lashing back at the accomplishments of feminists and against the progress that women have made in the past couple of decades.
Faludi credits her feminism to her mother, who was a newspaper editor.Her mother often fought for social change in their neighborhood, and spoke out loudly against injustice.
Faludi is one of few feminist journalists writing today who getmainstream attention. She writes for magazines such as The Nation and the New Yorker, and is working on anotherbook. Her articles usually focus on women's issues, or how men react to women's struggle for equality. She often criticizes the mainstream media for being lazy, not checking theirfacts, or writing articles that don't provide any real information thatpeople need. She says she comes from the days when "muckraking" was anoble cause -- that is, when exposing injustices and inciting people toaction through education was considered part of a journalist's job. Shehopes to change things by telling people the truth behind statistics andstudies, and by revealing larger patterns of sexism in society and themedia that are harmful to women.
Faludi thinks a journalist's job is to create social change byeducating people and taking the time to investigate things. A journalistneeds to be passionate about a cause, she says.
Look through popular magazines or watch a few TV shows and study howwomen are portrayed - are they simply mothers and housewives with nocareers? Are they shown as less intelligent and capable than men? Arethey presented as obsessed over males, or about their appearance andtheir clothes? If you find some articles or shows offensive to females,write a letter expressing your views to the editor or TV station. Tellyour friends and adults around you what you think, and refuse to read orwatch things that are sexist.