Living Dolls

Jul 23, 2011 Malcolm rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism

One of the depressing things about living in a smug post-feminist age is just how sexist the world around us is, and how blatant that has become with little or no observable resistance. Walter was, in her earlier form, part of that problem with her late 1990s work arguing that things were pretty good for women, and a bunch of the fundamentals had come right. And now she admits just how wrong that analysis was.

The first half of this book doesn't tell us all that much that the half-aware observer...more One of the depressing things about living in a smug post-feminist age is just how sexist the world around us is, and how blatant that has become with little or no observable resistance. Walter was, in her earlier form, part of that problem with her late 1990s work arguing that things were pretty good for women, and a bunch of the fundamentals had come right. And now she admits just how wrong that analysis was.

The first half of this book doesn't tell us all that much that the half-aware observer of the modern world shouldn't be able to see down the high street: the myth of the ldeal woman as porn 'star' (or glamour model as the Brits say), all justified by 'choice'. That is, the Walter is exposing the argument we hear so often that sexism and misogynistic industries are OK if women 'choose' to work in them or pink dolls are OK if girls choose them (even if that is all they 'choose') – this is, of course, all part of neo-liberalism's fetishisation of 'choice', in the same way as education policy is not about having the best school, but having the choice of schools. Not of course that for many women work in those 'industries' is much of a choice. More disturbing is the way Walter reminds us that these doll-like women (glamour models or WAGS) become the celebrity world's image of ideal woman-hood. However, even the most casual observer should be able to see this.

More useful is Walter's relentless attack in the second half of the book on biological determinism – the pseudo- and selective science of biological differences between men and women including taste, social relations, caring, leadership, brain size, maths abilities, and so many other things that are held to be the product genetic development and psychological evolution (apparently, according to some psychologists, men prefer blue because in prehistoric times we hunted under wide open skies – a published piece in a peer reviewed journal.....). This section is great, all the more so because Walter adopts a naive observer voice meaning that she does not attack the determinist's science (for the most part) but she simply points out equally or more rigorous studies that they seem to ignore.

So, the first half is good but didn't tell me much I didn't know, the second half is great, and a must read (alongside Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column in the Guardian) – I've not read the book yet.

Lucid, accessible, and a pretty good piece of work at the scathing end of liberal feminism, but it is more than a little depressing to see the old arguments and issues coming back to haunt us. My major gripe is that the use of 'return' in the sub-title implies that at some stage sexism went away.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Nikki Mcgee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wish I had read this book when my daughter was younger. So many women think that the the battle for equality has been won and this books shows that is far from the case and we are actually moving backwards.

The first section looks at modern British society and the prevelance of Disney pink, Bratz dolls, glamour modelling and lapdancing. It did not tell me anything I did not know but seeing everything put together created a scary picture. Walter also makes the point that middle class educated wo...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Neal Alexander rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

‘Sexist adverts are back’: so a friend commented on a ‘Sisters of Murphys’ TV ad, soon after I returned to London in 1998. Harder to understand were the postgrad students wearing Playboy bunny or ‘Porn *’ tops. This is the kind of commodified sexuality the first part of the book rails against, although to me it seems more of an equal opportunity capitalist process than a ‘new sexism’. Here in Cali, for example, night clubs have taken to hiring male strippers as well as female ones and they're ad...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Important reading, for a number of reasons. It's split into two halves; the first tackling the increased "pornification" of the mainstream media, and the spread of the idea that stripping, lap-dancing and even prostitution are now to be seen as empowering and valid choices for liberated women. This section didn't really hold any surprises for me, but still this stuff bears repeating.
The second section was if anything more important, as it tackles (and debunks) an increasing number of scientific...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Jules rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, girl-power, feminism, gender-studies, feminist-thought, cultural-analysis

I found this book interesting, stimulating and relevant thus giving it an overall well-earned four star rating. That said though, at times, the book seemed repetitive and some sections seemed contradictory to the degree that I did consider marking it down another star for these areas alone. I’ll explain all in the review.

My starting point in reading the book came from me labelling myself as a ‘feminist’. That said, I am not a militant feminist, I am relatively happy with my female status in life...more I found this book interesting, stimulating and relevant thus giving it an overall well-earned four star rating. That said though, at times, the book seemed repetitive and some sections seemed contradictory to the degree that I did consider marking it down another star for these areas alone. I’ll explain all in the review.

My starting point in reading the book came from me labelling myself as a ‘feminist’. That said, I am not a militant feminist, I am relatively happy with my female status in life and have self-respect and feel comfortably respected by others. I am aware that I am relatively fortunate then as I am well-educated, have a satisfying and well-paid job and I don’t feel exploited due to the nature of my gender. Walter, of course, explains some of the flip sides to this model.

After her introduction, the first part of her book deals with what she labels ‘the new sexism’ and reports on examples of status for modern women from a variety of situations. Within this work, she comments on the surge of a pink and girlie ‘babe’ culture, a growth of use of pornography amongst young males and relevant impact on young women with a surge of openings of lap-dancing clubs and (associated) more visible prostitution. Surely all these factors are something for all young men and women to think about but the implicit impact on lives of young females growing up within this culture can be tremendous. Walter combines everything from personal interviews to endless media observations to sum up her findings from recent years to report on how, where and when women are actually and potentially exploited within predominantly a UK context.

The second part of her book ‘the new determinism’ cites mainly biological and psychological research projects that can sway the image and treatment of ‘the female’ due to these ‘tested’ biological/psychological differences yet critically Walter comments that many of their conclusions are contradictory and the experiments themselves technically ‘incorrect’ due to experimental design flaws. Although, the citations of on-going experiments and research are plentiful, for me personally, they seemed too much so – all statistics but less of the heart. It was a law of diminishing returns for me here I’m afraid and I found too many examples too repetitive for purpose. Brevity in some areas here would have been appreciated a lot by me and more qualitative than quantitative may well have won me over here as I believe that true gender analysis comes from socialisation factors and word/interpretation power!

I think anybody’s appreciation of this book may come from where they see themselves on the feminist scale. Walter provides a lot of examples of the counter-culture of feminism where women who have fewer choices in life and are led into lives of rampant exploitation are given a mouthpiece to speak about female life from the other side. Walter also acknowledges that an apparently pro-feminist media that belts out Sex and the City and a range of ‘supposedly empowering’ pro-prostitution memoirs such as Belle du Jour’s “Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl” can be just as contradictory as it can be emancipating.

For anyone academically or personally interested in feminism, popular culture and generally in the role of woman in modern society, I am sure this book will be interesting, helpful and, more importantly, thought-provoking through various points of the feminism compass.
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Sep 11, 2012 Deirdre rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Over the last number of years I can't help noticing how my clothing choices have become less and less varied. That the pink in toy shops and childrens clothing stores have become more and more invasive. How strangely focused the marketing is on women wanting pink and nothing else (and sometimes substandard pink too, with a side order of guilt because of the linked breast cancer marketing stuff).

When I was growing up I was aware of some barriers to being equal, I was a bit of a tom boy and tended...more

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May 08, 2012 Clare Herbert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“I feel like a goldfish fighting a whale. Most of our culture is dedicated to producing an endless conveyor belt of women for men’s sexual convenience”. (62)

Given the PwC debacle last week, it seems like an apt time to review Natasha Walter’s brilliant ‘Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism’.

I read ‘Living Dolls’ quickly, absorbing its familiar portrait of modern women easily. I recognized myself, my friends and my female relatives in it.

Structure

The book is divided in two parts. The first deals wi...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Lynley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism, non-fiction

Even though I hate these issues and am getting a little down on the current ways of the world as examined in this book, I have to give it five stars because it's full of common sense (which isn't actually that common). Walter puts into words lots of things that bug me, like the sexualisation of little girls, or rather, the acculturated sexualisation of women in general. As in everything, the working class fares worse.

The first part of the book was reminiscent of Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel L...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism, politics

How much does our modern society objectify women, and to what extent have women themselves been duped in to joining in, in a bizarre ritual of compulsive self-loathing? Those seem to be the central questions behind this latest book from Natasha Walter. She argues that feminism is ripe for a new “third wave” given the historical burdens that women still disproportionatly carry, and new all too modern equivalents that have been loaded on to their backs. The chapters on the pressures of fashion, pl...more How much does our modern society objectify women, and to what extent have women themselves been duped in to joining in, in a bizarre ritual of compulsive self-loathing? Those seem to be the central questions behind this latest book from Natasha Walter. She argues that feminism is ripe for a new “third wave” given the historical burdens that women still disproportionatly carry, and new all too modern equivalents that have been loaded on to their backs. The chapters on the pressures of fashion, plastic surgery and media exposure follow nicely on from the terrific work of Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth over 15 years ago now. There is also a very important chapter on the proliferation of pornography and the ease with which people, particularly young and impressionable people can find serious, hardcore pornography. Before becoming intimate with a woman, if you have seen certain types of abusive pornography then it is feasible that the person in question may come to expect such behaviour from future partners.

The book is at its most incisive and effective when the author conducts her journalistic interviews with people in certain areas of exploitative industry such as the employees of strip clubs or prostitutes. There are some women here who believe they have a better life simply because they have co-opted the male sneering and leering attitude towards women. Second wave feminism wasn’t about claiming preposterous and outdated practices as women’s possessions, but challenging those behaviours and hopefully leading humanity to a more egalitarian footing. That these forms of exploitation have now found a place in main stream society, and even in feminist domated arenas of acedemia shows just how clever the forces behind them are. Pretending to offer a choice while at all times making only one of those choices acceptable is a form of policy making that has been the norm for many years now in government, and it seems that society itself is feeding off this homogenisation of our culture. Exploitation of women is everywhere we turn and it is marketed as female choice and in some cases lead by females themselves in the market place.

The author adeptly shows up numerous pseudo-science books that proliferate the modern zeitgeist such as John Gray’s Men are From Mars…. Etc which seem to cherry pick tailored and controlled trials and studies to emphasise their own personal and political agendas relating to women and equality while ignoring huge swathes of research that prove the contrary. If women can be convinced that they are genetically different to men, predetermined to accept certain standard and historic women’s gender roles, are they not thus incapable of attaining the same levels as men in certain professional fields? And if so why then should they try? There are many, many fair studies which find outcomes totally different with the pseudo-science drivel that gets picked up on in the national and international press, but none of it is widely reported because it tells us nothing revolutionary – that women are not a species of fate and have the same capabilities as men, just not the same starting point.

Walter treads a dangerous course between wanting to help and at times protect her fellow women and girls, and the possibility of sounding like a prude. She manages to come out unscathed, which can’t perhaps be said for some of the people whom the author interviews throughout the book. It’s not stuffy to say modern society exploits and degrades women, and it’s not frigid to question 21st century attitudes towards sex and sexuality. This is about more than the usual, but serious statistics about women in the workplace, sex discrimination and equal pay, this is about how women as 51% of the global population are perceived, particularly in our western “cultured” nations, viewed not only by men, but by other women as well. (less)

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Jan 29, 2012 Margaret Houston rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An absolutely excellent - well-researched and well-written - indictment of the steps backwards that have been taken over the last twenty years. The scope is narrow, focusing mostly on Western heterosexual experience, but Walter acknowledges that from the outset and covers her topic thoroughly, which is certainly better than trying to take on too much and getting sloppy. From the rise of raunch culture and the sexualisation of young girls, through to the normalisation of pornography and lap-danci...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Natalie Salmon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I respect the fact that Natasha Walter admits early on in the book that she made a mistake in the
late 90s when she said women had just about achieved equality and that choice was an enabling factor in this. At the time I was not quite as optimistic as Natasha but certainly more optimistic than I am now. I don't have any children but I do have lots of nieces and after reading this book I am more worried for them than ever. The statements from teenagers and young women in this book are saddening...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Ailsa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I'm probably fairly well-read in women's studies texts, but I enjoyed Walter's style and thought she had a fresh and engagingly honest approach to her topic. Walter's basic thesis is that far from sexism dying a death in western culture, it is actually gaining new ground, as the increasingly sexualisation of girls and women is masked by the rhetoric of choice and empowerment. But, as Walter convincingly argues, how free are the choices we make when our entire culture is predicated on women's wor...more I'm probably fairly well-read in women's studies texts, but I enjoyed Walter's style and thought she had a fresh and engagingly honest approach to her topic. Walter's basic thesis is that far from sexism dying a death in western culture, it is actually gaining new ground, as the increasingly sexualisation of girls and women is masked by the rhetoric of choice and empowerment. But, as Walter convincingly argues, how free are the choices we make when our entire culture is predicated on women's worth being linked to how sexually attractive they are? The book is split into two sections: "The New Sexism" and "The New Determinism." The first section charts how, in a relatively short space of time, aspects of the sex industry have become so normalised in our society that even women who self-describe as feminist see becoming a lap dancer as an "empowering" choice. But as Walter uncovers, the demeaning focus on women as sexual objects actually constricts women wishing to choose another sexual identity for themselves, so that as teenage girls seek to find their identity as sexual beings they all too frequently gain the message that if you don't buy into the hyper-sexual culture that is so pervasive today then they are "prudes" or somehow abnormal. At times I found this section truly frightening and disturbing and I recognised the narrative Walter spun of anyone who objects to our hyper-sexual culture being branded as somehow abnormal or a kill joy. In particular I was horrified reading about doctors who market plastic surgery at women so that they can have their vaginas more closely resemble those of porn stars: what on earth is our world coming to when a woman would think she needed to have painful and unnecessary surgery in order to fit some bizarre ideal put forth by the porn industry? Why is there this seeming demand that we all look/ dress/ and have sex in the same way? Surely one of the beauties of nature is the enormous range of variety it offers us, the individualities that mean sleeping with someone new means experiencing and getting to know someone wholly different?

Interestingly, Walter furthermore links this mantra of choice to class. As she points out, there is an unwritten assumption that middle-class girls will make different choices than working-class girls:

Dave Read, the director of Neon Management, which supplies models to the industry [glamour modelling:], has a daughter. What would he think if she wanted to be the next Jodie Marsh, I asked, and he was frank. 'I would die to think that she'd try to follow in her footsteps. I want her to have other options.' Phil Edgar-Jones, the creative director of Big Brother, also has a young daughter. He started with surprise when I asked how he would feel if she wanted to go into Big Brother and do glamour modelling. 'I'm a middle-class parent, so I'd be-' The he stopped himself. 'If that's what she wanted to do...' He paused again. 'I would hope she would have different aspirations. I encourage her to read books. Other people have different backgrounds.'

Not only is this extremely problematic in and of itself (and really undercuts the whole 'choice' mantra) but it is also, as Walter shows, a fallacy. Girls across all social backgrounds are affected by a culture in which overt sexuality both in "small" ways (from how they think about themselves) to larger ones (the aspirations they will have for themselves, the roles they will take on, the violence they might experience). This particularly resonated with my own experiences. As a number of you will know, I spent most of this year working as a mentor with two groups of fifteen year old girls. The topics we were meant to be discussing were, ostensibly, higher education and their aspirations for their future. But time and time again we returned to the topic of sex, both directly and indirectly. These girls were obsessed with how to perform sexually confident roles, to seem knowledgeable, to denigrate girls who didn't fit their type. And although it has probably ever been thus, to some extent, the severity of the sexual stereotypes this girls were buying into were truly shocking at times. A girl who had stopped a boy having sex with her at a reason party was condemned as a 'cock-tease,' and one of my mentees who hadn't had a boyfriend yet (at FIFTEEN) was repeatedly asked if she was frigid, why she didn't just find someone to "lose it" with. A number of them thought that they'd like to go into glamour modelling and then become a WAG. And these were bright, sassy, loudmouth and confident girls, who couldn't see how much more value they had beyond their bodies. They loved being told how nice they looked; they got distinctly uncomfortable if I tried to tell them how smart they were and would often put down their own academic skills. Seriously, if anyone needs to ask why feminism is still a relevant cause in this day and age, they would do well to spend a day with girls like these, because I cannot get over the sense that we are letting these young people down, and we urgently need to take action.

I definitely thought the first half of the book was the strongest section, being the most polemical and shocking. But this was possibly because the second section dealt with territory that I am much more familiar with, that is, the resurgence of biological essentialism. I think the key thing to take from this section, for me, is Walter's assertion that biological determinism damages both men and women. The idea that women are innately caring and men are hardwired to only be interested in grunting and fiddling with objects is not only based on shaky scientific grounds, but it also hugely insulting to men. Men should be up in arms that they, as a gender, are all borderline autistic (see Simon Baron-Cohen on how autism is just extreme masculinity). They should be angry that their contribution as fathers isn't valued more by society (and protected with fairer parental leave), that they are told they can't communicate (when many are able to be emotionally warm and loving), that all they should care about in life is their job! For me, what this section drives home is that feminism, in its best iterations, is truly a human rights movement, because moving past these tired old cliches is good for everyone, equality is good for all of us.

But, as this really very good piece in The Independent shows, we are far from being anywhere close to achieving full equality:

This overestimation of the power and representation of women is commonplace. Research shows that when women speak in the classroom exactly 50 per cent of the time, both men and women think they spoke more. When I took part in an internet debate recently about whether Oxford University was sexist, James Kingston, president of the Oxford Union, said: "Most of the History tutors at Christ Church seem to be women." In fact, there are six women and six men there.

So perhaps that is why we put up with such appalling under-representation of women in public life. We believe there are more than there are. A report out last week from UK Feminista found that for every female character in TV drama there are two men. Is that an accurate portrayal of our lives? At Glastonbury this year, 71 per cent of the performances were all-male acts. Just 12 per cent of Turner Prize winners have been women, and 7 per cent of Bafta award-winners for screenplay-writing. Even in literary fiction, at which women are supposed to excel, awards go two-to-one in favour of men.
Far from being despondent though, Walter argues that we should take action, reinvigorate the women's movement and build on the very real foundations that second and third wave feminism have built. (less)

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Apr 08, 2012 Jenny Grieve-laing rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Natasha Walter's book on the re-emergence of sexism and deterministic ideas of gender differences is divided into 2 parts. The first part deals with the narrowing of the definition of feminine, the pinkification of girls and the idea that 'empowerment' can be found in glamour modelling, prostitution and pole dancing. Her research is wide ranging and she uses interviews to illustrate her points effectively.
The second part of the book looks at biological determinism and how it has come to the for...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Rebbie Bennett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent read! I will try and make you read it in as little words as possible. But, it could easily turn into an essay. It is an issue close to my heart, so very biased. Nevertheless, I would recommend it to all men and women alike, who wish to change society for the better. First, to all mothers and fathers. It is extremely enlightening on the gender stereotyping of young children and would make any mother, or father, question buying their daughter a Bratz doll.

Walter has done a superior job...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Clare rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

EVERYONE MUST READ THIS! A truly wonderful read which discusses the problems women still face today and shows sexism in a new light. Read in one day, so brilliant. She writes with honesty and an abrupt frankness which is often missing in many other similar books. She considers the writings of other authors and gains real living accounts of women affected by today's society. This book has a hold on me, i love it! Very eye opening. Should be on the national curriculum to teach both boys and girls...more

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May 17, 2013 Hiep Huynh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As with the other reviewers, the first half is nothing that an astute observer would not already have discovered for themself. You would have to be blind to not notice the overtly sexual billboards; deaf to not hear pop music's strains of 'honest baby I'll do anything you want to'; etc. Having it all put together, and seeing (reading!) someone else express outrage, does help to strengthen my own feminist beliefs though.

The second part of the book is more credible as it looks at the popular studi...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Lois rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Living Dolls' is a well conceived investigation into contemporary British gender roles, focusing largely on idealized femininity. A lot of the book concentrates’ on Raunch culture, detailing its origins, impact, justifications and it's relation to post-feminist politics of choice. Gendered toy marketing, the sexualisation of girls and the kitschy domestic goddess role are also discussed within this framework.

I feel that the first half (‘The New Sexism’) is slightly weaker, as on occasion Walter...more

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May 19, 2011 JenniferRuth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism

This is a pretty good book for introducing someone contemporary UK feminism and exploring some of the sexist issues that are effecting women today. However, if you are already a reader of feminist works you might find the book a tad on the shallow side. I don't mean that the topics or the book itself was shallow, but rather it doesn't have the in-depth analysis or radicalism that more advanced feminist readers may prefer.

Walters admits in the first section of the book that she isn't going to de...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Sho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, feminism

Well, that was depressing. I was expecting a bit more about sexism (in the workplace, in the home, in schools etc etc) but it started with an awful lot about the sexualisation of young girls (which is an issue that we must address) which did set the context but I feel it could have been a bit shorter. It then moved on to examining why mainstream media only seem to publicise the results of studies that reinforce the "Women are from Venus Men are from Mars" stereotypes and debunks a lot of the mor...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Shayan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just as good as her first book 'The New Feminism' but better. This book is, needless to say, more modern and more suited if our present society. While reading this book, I was thinking of how I would want my children brought up, how, in the past blue was the colour for girls and pink the colour for boys, and how once the media grabs onto something and society inhales what the media has to give then it is very hard for change. Very hard but still possible.

Unfortunately we still have a lot of sex...more

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May 29, 2011 Jur rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

hard book to review. Cant disagree with much of what Walter observes. The pink is everywhere, and hard to escape. The expectations on women and men are stifling at times, especially when it comes to family roles.

The best and most illuminating part of this book is that the determinists play the role of oppressed academic minority against left wing/feminist orthodoxy, while it it is clear that determinism is not the academic standard. At best, the nature/nurture debate is back pretty even.

It is...more hard book to review. Cant disagree with much of what Walter observes. The pink is everywhere, and hard to escape. The expectations on women and men are stifling at times, especially when it comes to family roles.

The best and most illuminating part of this book is that the determinists play the role of oppressed academic minority against left wing/feminist orthodoxy, while it it is clear that determinism is not the academic standard. At best, the nature/nurture debate is back pretty even.

It is also a misrepresentation of feminist viewpoints on male-female roles. In fact, this is one of the main weaknesses in feminism. There's a strand that argues that there are no inherent differences between men and women, while other are as deterministic as anything. Let's call them the 'if women ruled the world, everything would be better'-strand of feminism. As if somehow women would be inherently better than men. I don't see much evidence of that.

What we do see is that women worldwide are still largely on the receiving end. And while Living Dolls focusses on the western world, the message is clear: what women think they have gained since the late 18th century is now under threat. That is indeed an important warning.

That the threat is made while protesting women's right to choose is all the more worrying. Whoever thought that the Spice Girls were promoting Girl Power, you were wrong. All that showed that the illusion of women's freedom had become a marketable commodity. That the girls could hardly sing and faded into oblivion when released from the custody of their record company is telling enough.

The illusion of choice and empowerment by beauty connects very starkly to the recent discussion about how women are portrayed in Berlusconi's media and political empire in Italy. They have turned around the empowerment discussion to 'we are proving that pretty women can be smart too', while it is clear that the women in the Berlusconi entourage are not chosen for their intelligence first. In that sense, it is a pity that Walter doesn't put her story in a more international perspective.

Finally, a note on porn. While it is clear that porn is still mostly an exploitative industry (despite some women doing very well for themselves nowadays), the link to rape is still weak in my opinion. I'd like to have seen evidence to back that up.

Yes, porn probably puts up some standards that men measure themselves and their female companions against, but these are not only tough on women (look at the amount of viagra and penis enhancement ads).

But do men draw a line between the world of porn and the real world? Do they really expect women to enjoy that? I think not. So porn is mostly the world of fantasy. And just as women fantasising about being handled by four black studs don't really want that to happen, men might not necessarily aspire to making all their dreams come true.

It also leaves the question what Walter thinks is the alternative. While the sexual revolution has opened the opportunities for women to have sex as much as they like with whoever they like, this has not improved matters for most men. With access to women harder, because women are economically independent and prostitution definitely in the moral shadows, watching porn is about the only form of sexual gratification left without bringing outright condemnation on you.

If watching porn is still wrong, what happens to the 90% of men who watch it? (less)

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Feb 18, 2010 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was really looking foward to this book and wasn't disappointed, although i thought it could have gone deeper/experessed more of an opinion at some points. The first section, dealing with 'the new sexism' in society through 'pornification', 'pinkification' etc didn't provide much in the way of new insight if, like me, you've followed women's issues, feminist blogs and newspaper coverage for the last five years, but for anyone who hasn't it would be a good intorduction to how certain ideals and...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism

I have been reading this book for 6 months - as it pertained to my research, and then read properly for interests sake. The book is divided into two sections - the first which examines hypersexualised culture and the objectification of women - specifically by Lads Mags, and the second which explores the categorisation and stereopying of the two primary genders - called the new determinism.

The First section blew me away it its balanced interrogation of hypersexualised culture, where Walter manag...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Zzoeeeee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is excellent to see academics admitting that what they said at one point in their career was incorrect in hindsight, 'mon the dialogue! Here the author admits she was wrong when she said in the past that 'Glamour' modelling and porn would further gender equality by creating acceptance of women's sexuality and details how this has instead created a culture of women being viewed as the 'Living Dolls' of the title rather than as reasoning human beings.

Another fascinating section debunks the work...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Adrienne Urbanski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the most thought provoking and compelling books I have read in a long time, it made me realize new things about myself and how our current culture has affected me.

(This is an earlier draft of a review which will appear in Bust Magazine's fall issue):

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter
Virago Press
In her first book, The New Feminism, British writer Natasha Walter posited that women had accomplished near equality on the personal front and that now women needed to fo...more This is one of the most thought provoking and compelling books I have read in a long time, it made me realize new things about myself and how our current culture has affected me.

(This is an earlier draft of a review which will appear in Bust Magazine's fall issue):

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter
Virago Press
In her first book, The New Feminism, British writer Natasha Walter posited that women had accomplished near equality on the personal front and that now women needed to focus on achieving equality politically and professionally. "I am ready to admit that I was wrong," she writes, now looking towards the personal, arguing that our culture’s hypersexuality has lead to the sexualization and objectification of both girls and women.

In terms of her analysis as well, Walter looks towards the personal, relying on personal interviews as well as empirical data to back up her beliefs. Walter interviews high school age girls, former strippers and prostitutes, and young women vying to be glamour models to create personal examples of the damaging effects of our culture. Walter also turns her criticism towards the false appropriation of feminist rhetoric and values, suggesting that they are being used to convince both women young girls that empowerment means completely disconnecting emotion from sex and viewing sex work as a means of empowering women. Walter provides quotes from personal interviews to back up her contention, quoting a prostitute who said she entered the line of work because she had been convinced it would be “empowering”, as well as several high school and college-age girls who proudly list off their number of conquests, writing off emotions as if they were disempowering. Walter writes that while women were once kept from finding sexual fulfillment they are now in “a cage in which repression of emotions takes the place of repression of physical needs.” In the book’s second section, Walter uses scientific research to successfully dismantle supposedly innate gender differences in behavior proving them to be the result of social influence and expectation. Living Dolls is a riveting work that accurately reflects the many pitfalls women face today as they attempt to construct empowered identities, its compelling and convincing analysis makes this is an essential read for any feminist.
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Feb 07, 2013 Michael Palkowski rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a book, there are so many issues and flaws with the premise and analysis that it would take a book length thesis to deconstruct and properly reflect them all here. However I will attempt to encapsulate the key problems for me as a sociologist and critical reader. This is based from my notes

There seems to be a duality which contradicts itself within the entire scope of the analysis. One is in the moral and angstful representation of girls liberated agency in showcasing/exploring their sexualit...more

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Jun 19, 2011 CuteBadger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found it interesting that the subtitle of this book is “The Return of Sexism” as I believe, and the book seems to demonstrate, that sexism has never gone away – it has just reared up again in a different form over the past decade due to the direction in which society has been moving. Push it down in one place and it just pops up somewhere else.

Living Dolls feels like the latest “state of the nation” despatch from the front line of the battle against sexism and joins earlier despatches such as...more I found it interesting that the subtitle of this book is “The Return of Sexism” as I believe, and the book seems to demonstrate, that sexism has never gone away – it has just reared up again in a different form over the past decade due to the direction in which society has been moving. Push it down in one place and it just pops up somewhere else.

Living Dolls feels like the latest “state of the nation” despatch from the front line of the battle against sexism and joins earlier despatches such as “The Female Eunuch” and “The Beauty Myth” in pinpointing “how we live now”. And wow, is it a depressing picture. The focus of the 1970s and 1980s on the fight for equality in life, in the workplace and in politics seems to have faded, and now we’re battling a world in which women and men are thought (incorrectly) to be victims of their genetic destiny, and where conforming to porn-like standards of appearance and sexuality is seen to be the only road to success for many women. The political has very much become the personal, and you can’t get much more personal that dictating to women how they should look, right down to very intimate personal grooming.

The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with how women are now pressured into being hyper-sexualised beings, living as pink and sparkly princesses who must measure up to a narrow range of physical standards in order to be seen as acceptable. The second looks at the way scientific and sociological research has been wrongly interpreted to come down on the nature side of the “nature v nurture” debate on the differences between men and women. On our journey through the book we hear about the impact of the internet (in particular readily-available pornography), reality TV, the Spice Girls, lads’ mags and why everything you can buy for little girls is now pink and glittery.

I found the first half of the book, The New Sexism, more successful than the second as I felt it related more to real life. It is more anecdotal and demonstrates more obviously the result of the application of today’s sexism to real women’s lives. The second half is also interesting, but is more abstract and I found it harder to draw conclusions from the information it gave me.

In the main, I found that the book observes what is going on and does not attempt in any major way to account for the reasons for where we are or to tell its readers how to fight back. This felt a little disappointing to me, as at various points I would have liked more discussion on, for example, the class issues that may be contributing to the glorification of lap-dancing and overt sexuality in young women, or how the politics of the past twenty years may have contributed to the idea of female empowerment lying in sexualised behaviour.

These points apart, I found Living Dolls an interesting read and much more accessible than I thought it would be. I don’t think it answers many of the questions it poses, but in truth there may not be very many ready answers to these huge issues. In the end, just bringing them to our attention may be enough.
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Aug 31, 2010 Nicola rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, gender

In the same vein as Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs, Natasha Walter questions why, if sexism is dead, have lap dance clubs and glamour modelling experienced such a resurgence in the last ten years? The resulting testament, Living Dolls is a solid, persuasive piece of journalism, although less revelatory than Pigs.

Dolls is full of depressing anecdotes and sad truths about the current state of feminism. It’s not an easy read, though it is compelling. Personally, it made me want to photocopy th...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Thalestral rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

4 out of 5. I'm giving this the same score as Female Chauvinist Pigs as in many ways this title is the UK equivalent, at least in the first part of the book. It's a really interesting read, and definitely thought provoking, and it's good to have a more mainstream title speaking out about the misrepresentation of biological determinism and how it isn't accepted science. But, the book is problematic in what it doesn't cover. This is a great read for how sexism affects straight, white, upper and mi...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yes, yes, yes, feminism hasn't disappeared! In a time when 12-year-old girls buy Playboy pencil cases at WH Smith and plastic surgery seems to be a necessity for so many women, I was delighted to read Walter's new book and read her witty arguments against tabloid headlines regarding how a preference for pink is innate for girls. Any book that criticises the women/Venus and men/Mars argument is one for me.

A Guardian critic was disappointed that Walter didn't deal more with LGBT issues; however, a...more

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