Description:
A quick stroll through the toy aisles in any American superstore splits gender as neatly as Moses did the Red Sea. On your left, the pink and purple ghetto reserved for girls intent on dolls and their endless accoutrements; to the right, the swaggering, bare-chested superheroes with bulging plastic muscles doled out to boys. Once out of the toy store, a gazillion more real and imaginary "tough guys" like Bruce Lee and Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and James M. Cain and Ernest Hemingway lope across the social radar. It's only in the last few decades that a battalion of "tough girls" hailing from toy stores, comic books, films, TV, and video games have carved out their own clearly lucrative niche. "In a culture where women are often considered the natural victims of men, tough women rewrite the script," says Sherrie Inness, author of Tough Girls. Whether you like them or loathe them, she adds, these cartoonish femme icons flexing muscle and attitude expand the acceptable scope of gender roles in the public consciousness. Deftly exploring how images of toughness and femininity play out in pop culture, politics, the military, and business, Inness also pays heed to how and why women's punches get pulled. --Francesca Coltrera
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