Susan Charlotte Faludi (; born April 18, 1959) is an American
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...
of
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops, and veh ...
, a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for '' In the Darkroom'', which was also a finalist for the 2017
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
in biography.
Biographical information
Faludi was born in 1959 in
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, New York, and grew up in
Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census.
History
Yorktown Heights is in the town of Yorktown, New York, in northe ...
. She was born to Marilyn (Lanning), a homemaker and journalist, and Stefánie Faludi (then known as Steven Faludi, and born István Friedman), who was a photographer. Stefánie Faludi had emigrated from Hungary, was Jewish, and a survivor of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
; she eventually came out as a transgender woman and died in 2015. Susan Faludi has dual US-Hungarian citizenship. Faludi's maternal grandfather was also Jewish. Susan graduated from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
in 1981, where she was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
and served as Managing Editor of ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students.
His ...
'', and became a journalist, writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...
'', ''
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger ...
'', ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'', and ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', among other publications.
Throughout the eighties she wrote several articles on feminism and the apparent resistance to the movement. Seeing a pattern emerge, Faludi wrote ''
Backlash
Backlash may refer to:
Literature
* '' Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'', a 1991 book by Susan Faludi
* ''Backlash'' (Star Wars novel), a 2010 novel by Aaron Allston
* Backlash (Marc Slayton), a comic book character from ...
'', which was released in late 1991. In 2008–2009, Faludi was a fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...
, and during the 2013–2014 academic year, she was the Tallman Scholar in the Gender and Women's Studies Program at
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794.
The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
. She is married to fellow author
Russ Rymer
Russ Rymer (born May 17, 1952) is an American author and freelance journalist who has contributed articles to the ''New York Times'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''National Geographic'', ''Harper's'', ''Smithsonian'', ''Vogue'', ...
. Since January 2013, Faludi has been a contributing editor at '' The Baffler'' magazine in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
. In 1996, she was awarded ''honoris causa'' membership in
Omicron Delta Kappa
Omicron Delta Kappa (), also known as The Circle and ODK, is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes leadership and scholarship. It was founded in 1914, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and has chartered more t ...
at SUNY Plattsburgh. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from
Stockholm University
Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, especially due to the spread of negative stereotypes against career-minded women. Faludi asserted that many who argue "a woman's place is in the home, looking after the kids" are hypocrites, since they have wives who are working mothers or, as women, they are themselves working mothers. This work won her the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Jill Abramson and Katha Pollitt, actress/writer
Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham (; born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series '' Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two G ...
, and feminist novelist
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection ''Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayiti ...
, among many others, reread each of the chapters of the book and examined their contemporary relevance. In September 2015, Bustle.com included Backlash among its list of "25 Bestsellers from the last 25 years you simply must make time to read." Reflecting on the legacy of the book in
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
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." ''Backlash'' has also been translated into several foreign languages, including 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 the American man. 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 who followed this now 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 plain differences in individual luck and ability, that they did not cause and from which men and women suffer alike.
''The Terror Dream''
In ''
The Terror Dream
''The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America'' is a 2007 book by Susan Faludi, in which the author argues that the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001 resulted in an attack on feminism. In 2007, the book was a finalist for the Nation ...
'', Faludi analyzes the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
in light of prior American experience going back to insecurity on the historical
American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...
such as in Metacom's Rebellion. Faludi argues that 9/11 reinvigorated in America a climate that is hostile to women. Women are viewed as weak and best suited to playing support roles for the men who protect them from attack. The book was called a "tendentious, self-important, sloppily reasoned work that gives feminism a bad name" by ''The New York Times'' principal book reviewer
Michiko Kakutani
is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Early life and family
Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...
. Another ''New York Times'' journalist, John Leonard, stated "In ''The Terror Dream'' a skeptical Faludi reads everything, second-guesses everybody, watches too much talking-head TV and emerges from the archives and the pulp id like an
exorcist
In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person ...
and a
Penthesilea
Penthesilea () was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope, and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was killed by Achilles or Neoptolemus. The ...
." Sarah Churchwell in ''The Guardian'' says, "Ultimately Faludi is guilty of her own exaggerations and mythmaking, strong-arming her argument into submission." On the other hand, ''Kirkus Reviews'' claimed that the book was a "rich, incisive analysis of the surreality of American life in the wake of 9/11" and that it was "brilliant, illuminating and essential." 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".
''In the Darkroom''
Faludi's most recent book, published in 2016, is '' In the Darkroom'' with Henry Holt & Co; it is about the "fluidity and binaries" of "modern transsexuality", inspired by Faludi's father coming out as a transgender woman. Writing in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Michelle Goldberg called Faludi's book a "rich, arresting and ultimately generous investigation of her father." Writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 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." ''In the Darkroom'' won the 2016 Kirkus Prize for nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2017
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
in Biography. The book has been translated into multiple foreign languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Turkish, Dutch, and Chinese.
Faludi and feminism
Faludi has rejected the claim advanced by critics that there is a "rigid, monolithic feminist 'orthodoxy,'" noting in response that she has disagreed with
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem ( ; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social movement, social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...
about pornography and
Naomi Wolf
Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist.
After the 1991 publication of her first book, '' The Beauty Myth'', Wolf became a prominent figure in the third wave of the feminist movemen ...
about abortion.
Like
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem ( ; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social movement, social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...
, Faludi has criticized the
obscurantism
In philosophy, obscurantism or obscurationism is the Anti-intellectualism, anti-intellectual practice of deliberately presenting information in an wikt:abstruse, abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subj ...
prevalent in academic feminist theorizing, saying, "There's this sort of narrowing specialization and use of coded, elitist language of
deconstruction
In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...
or New Historicism or whatever they're calling it these days, which is to my mind impenetrable and not particularly useful."Conniff, Ruth (June 1993) "Susan Faludi – feminist author – Interview" ''The Progressive''. She has also characterized "academic feminism's love affair with deconstructionism" as "toothless", and warned that it "distract from constructive engagement with the problems of the public world".
Bibliography
Books
*
*
*
*
Essays and reporting
* Faludi, Susan, All the News That's Fit to Feel " ''The New York Review of Books'', August 15, 2024.
* Faludi, Susan,� Hag of Misery ” ''The New York Review of Books'', November 02, 2023.
* Faludi, Susan, ''The New York Times'', June 20, 2022.
* Faludi, Susan,� ” ''The New York Times'', October 29, 2020.
* Faludi, Susan,� ” ''The New York Times'', May 18, 2020.
*
*
* Faludi, Susan, (October 2010) "American Electra: Feminism's Ritual Matricide" ''Harper's'': 29–42.
*
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth-wave feminism, fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second-wave feminism, second wave, Generation X, Gen X ...