View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In 1988, Robert Filoso defines the "New Generation" of female beauty with mannequins that are:
(a) Flawless, shorter, bustier, and wasp-waisted.
(b) Taller, more slender, and poutier.
(c) All answers are correct.
(d) Flawless, slender, and shorter.

2. In the American version of the French film Three Men and a Baby, what significant change is made to the story line?
(a) It includes the remorseful mother returning to take care of the baby and marry one of the fathers.
(b) It adds a dour lawyer, Rebecca, who lacks both maternal and romantic "juices."
(c) It makes all of the men happy to have a baby to take raise.
(d) It has the men raising one baby rather than twins.

3. Sociologist Lenore Weitzman suggests that the issue of divorce should be handled by doing all of the following EXCEPT:
(a) Focusing on the core question of whether women are better off "protected" or equal.
(b) Rejecting the "charade" of the old system.
(c) "Fine-tuning" new divorce laws.
(d) Collecting pre-reform data against which to test her hypothesis.

4. In coining the term "cocooning," Faith Popcorn was seeking to do what according to Faludi?
(a) Show men as being more focused on sacrificing career advancement for family time.
(b) Support the backlash's efforts to highlight slight changes in women returning to traditional roles.
(c) Identify a gender-neutral trend of parents leaving the office for being at home.
(d) Highlight the fact that neither men nor women are placing family time over career advancement.

5. After the pop media launches its assault on single womanhood and increasing divorce numbers, what does Faludi quote as the percent drop in divorce rates?
(a) 0.2 percent.
(b) 2.0 percent.
(c) 20 percent.
(d) 2.2 percent.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Faludi, how are female characters treated in morality tales?

2. Newsweek uses the metaphor that women are "______ ________ to be killed by a terrorist" than to _________.

3. Faludi asserts that a major objective of the attack on feminism is the desire to:

4. _________ and ________, two demographers at the Census Bureau, re-run the Harvard-Yale study using 1980 data and find a major flaw in the study and its calculations.

5. Retin-A is approved by the FDA to treat _____________ and is eventually marketed to treat ________.

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 7 of the book, why does Faludi write that retailers use the word "choice" to make their sales pitches "sound feminist"?

2. On the issue of women's liberation and equality, compare the perspective of politicians, journalists, and business leaders versus those of women.

3. Contrast the media's transition from applauding "brave" relationship choices in the 1970s to the position the media outlets took to address this issue in the 1980s.

4. What is the purpose of the book Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women?

5. After Reagan is elected president, many changes occur in the political arena that affect the feminist movement. Discuss three of these changes and how they affect the fight for women's rights.

6. Faludi writes that getting ABC to put Marilyn French's best-selling novel The Women's Room on screen is Esther Shapiro's "most grueling" professional experience. What are some of the factors that make this project so difficult?

7. Chronicle the evolution of Ms. magazine in the 1980s.

8. Discuss the implications of the misinformation perpetuated by the Harvard study.

9. What are the implications of the findings that a divorce may not have as lasting a financial impact on women and that men are more likely to suffer greater psychological impact than women following a divorce?

10. Who is Dr. Robert Harvey and why is he discussed in the chapter on the cosmetic industry?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,789 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample