{"product_id":"you-play-the-girl-on-playboy-bunnies-stepford-wives-train-wrecks-other-mixed-messages-isbn-9780544648944","title":"You Play The Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, \u0026 Other Mixed Messages","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this smart, funny, impassioned call to arms, a pop culture critic merges memoir and commentary to explore how our culture shapes ideas about who women are, what they are meant to be, and where they belong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a kid in the 1970s and '80s, Carina Chocano was confused by the mixed messages all around her: messages that told her who she could be—and who she couldn’t. She grappled with sexed-up sidekicks, princesses waiting to be saved, and morally infallible angels who seemed to have no opinions of their own. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChocano learned that \"the girl\" is not a person, but a man's idea of what a woman should be—she’s whatever the hero needs her to be in order to become himself. Drawing from her years as a movie critic, Chocano unveils how stories in popular culture too often limits girls' lives and shapes their destinies. She resolved to rewrite her own story. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e, Chocano blends formative personal stories with insightful and emotionally powerful analysis. Moving from Bugs Bunny to Playboy Bunnies, from \u003cem\u003eFlashdance\u003c\/em\u003e to \u003cem\u003eFrozen\u003c\/em\u003e, from the progressive ’70s through the backlash ’80s, the glib ’90s, and the pornified aughts—and at stops in between—she explains how growing up in the shadow of “the girl” taught her to think about herself and the world and what it means to raise a daughter in the face of these contorted reflections. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the tradition of Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, and Susan Sontag, Chocano brilliantly shows that our identities are more fluid than we think, and certainly more complex than anything we see on any kind of screen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If Hollywood's treatment of women leaves you wanting, you'll find good, heady company in \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e.\"—\u003cem\u003eElle\u003c\/em\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism  A Finalist for the PEN\/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay   One of Amazon's \"Best Books of 2017: Nonfiction\"  One of iBook's \"Best Books of August\"  One of \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e's \"Books of the Week\"\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Carina Chocano's \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e reads like a war cry\u003c\/strong\u003e. With \u003cstrong\u003edazzling \u003c\/strong\u003eclarity, her commentary exposes the subliminal sexism on our pages and screens.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eO, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"\u003cstrong\u003eIf Hollywood's treatment of women leaves you wanting, you'll find good, heady company in Carina Chocano's essay collection, \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e Why, Chocano asks, does the ingenue have to choose between marriage and death?\"  —\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eELLE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e   \"In Carina Chocano’s \u003cstrong\u003ewhip-smart\u003c\/strong\u003e new book \u003cem\u003eYou Play The Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, \u0026amp; Other Mixed Messages, \u003c\/em\u003eshe analyzes the 'girls' of pop culture across the decades, from \u003cem\u003eBewitched \u003c\/em\u003eto contestants on \u003cem\u003eThe Bachelor \u003c\/em\u003e(and its fictional counterpart, \u003cem\u003eUnREAL\u003c\/em\u003e) to the princesses of \u003cem\u003eFrozen.\u003c\/em\u003e Through cultural commentary mixed with personal reflections, \u003cstrong\u003eChocano explores the ways on-screen women have influenced her life and the way she sees the world\u003c\/strong\u003e. A-.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Best New Books\"\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"\u003cstrong\u003eBrilliant and insightful\u003c\/strong\u003e...\u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e stands apart from others in the genre [...] by dissecting pop culture through the lens of a mother watching her young girl try to make sense of the world. The result is a \u003cstrong\u003eheartfelt \u003c\/strong\u003elook at the complicated messages women receive, and argues that gut feelings about these messages should be carefully examined. Chocano persuades the reader that the media we absorb around us does matter, and shapes how we feel about ourselves. And she deftly shows how books, TV, and film that have been labeled “empowering” for women [...] often have hidden agendas.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePLAYBOY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e   “The cultural formulas that Chocano identifies are frustrating, but her readings don’t deny them their \u003cstrong\u003efun\u003c\/strong\u003e…\u003cstrong\u003eIn the tradition of a long line of women writers\u003c\/strong\u003e, Chocano wants to make sense of this sort of enchantment and understand what kind of education it is offering up, and to whom.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e   \"\u003cstrong\u003eThree sentences into \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e I already felt like cheering\u003c\/strong\u003e. Carina Chocano is \u003cstrong\u003ea first-rate cultural critic\u003c\/strong\u003e whose specialty is constructing \u003cstrong\u003edead-on\u003c\/strong\u003e feminist analyses of such sinister artifacts as the relentless 'Frozen' and the various horrifying iterations of Barbie. Chocano is unusually skilled at dismantling the toxic underpinnings of such pop-culture mainstays, motivated in part by her desire to help her young daughter confront 'a world that literally never stops yelling at her that her primary value is sexual.' And Chocano demolishes the dismal shibboleth that feminists can’t be funny, \u003cstrong\u003ewielding abundant wit with a devastating sardonic edge\u003c\/strong\u003e.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eWASHINGTON POST\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Reading Carina Chocano is like listening to a smart friend think out loud [...] [\u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e is] a ruefully funny collection.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFILM QUARTERLY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e   \"Chocano's book is funny and exasperating and \u003cstrong\u003efull of revelations and epiphanies\u003c\/strong\u003e...If being a woman means being obligated to play a game you can't win because the rules keep changing (and \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e arbitrarily), Chocano's book is something you'd be behooved to read while you catch your breath between rounds of disorienting blows to the head.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eLA WEEKLY \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Pop-culture critic Carina Chocano’s\u003cstrong\u003e smart, colorful, and compelling\u003c\/strong\u003e collection of essays, \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e, unpacks the ways movies, TV, and advertising sculpt perceptions of who and what women can and cannot be. \u003cstrong\u003eChocano achieves the right mix between personal essay and clear-eyed criticism, between high culture and low\u003c\/strong\u003e (discussion of Virginia Woolf leads into the 'Ghostbusters' reboot and the attendant trolls). We get a sense of her formative pop-culture experiences ('The Philadelphia Story'; 'Bewitched'; 'Flashdance') as well as dips into feminist history and the tension between being yourself and being a person people are comfortable with. 'You could choose to be a person or you could choose to be loved,' Chocano writes. It is not a pessimistic collection, but it shows that the myths and narratives of female identity are still in place and largely shaped by men.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eTHE BOSTON GLOBE\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"[A] memoir\/pop culture takedown of the way women are characterized by the media...The author is both a brilliant, funny analyst, and a terrific yarn-spinner...razor-sharp.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eLOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"\u003cstrong\u003eIf you're ever at a party with author and former \u003cem\u003eBUST\u003c\/em\u003e columnist Carina Chocano, sit down next to her. \u003c\/strong\u003eIn her first book of essays, the pop-culture critic tells her story of girlhood through the lens of the films and TV shows that made her realize she never actually wanted to play 'the girl'...Chocano's life advice doubles as a recommendations list....What makes Chocano\u003cstrong\u003e so enjoyable to read \u003c\/strong\u003eis that, for better or worse, she revels in what she watched as a kid, and she'd like other women to do the same.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBUST\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Pop culture critic Carina Chocano understands that how women are represented in movies, TV shows, books, memes, and music is reflective of how they’re treated in real life. That’s the driving force of her \u003cstrong\u003ewitty\u003c\/strong\u003e essay collection...In \u003cem\u003eYou Play the Girl\u003c\/em\u003e, Chocano examines everything from \u003cem\u003ePretty Woman\u003c\/em\u003e to \u003cem\u003eFrozen\u003c\/em\u003e to \u003cem\u003eI Dream of Jeannie\u003c\/em\u003e, and makes it clear that although women are bombarded with imagery that may be warped, we have the fortitude to dictate who we are outside of who we’re told to be.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBITCH MAGAZINE\u003c\/em\u003e, \"10 Books You Must Read in August\"\u003c\/strong\u003e   “A look at how popular culture depicts women through the eyes of a critic looking out for her daughter. You’ll never see \u003cem\u003eAlice in Wonderland\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMy Best Friend’s Wedding\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eFrozen\u003c\/em\u003e the same way.” \u003cstrong\u003e—JAKE TAPPER, for \u003cem\u003ePARADE\u003c\/em\u003e, \"JAKE TAPPER PICKS 3 BOOKS HE LOVES\"\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"One of the smartest collections of essays in a year where smart essays were queen of writing, Chocano examines the mixed messages that are a part of every American woman’s upbringing. Whether analyzing the appellation 'train wreck' to a number of female celebrities who have been through public mental health issues, to the constant presence of the madonna\/whore complex adapted for new times, Chocano provides much to chew on in this thoughtful series of essays\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890064552165,"sku":"NP9780544648944","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780544648944.jpg?v=1730232476","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/you-play-the-girl-on-playboy-bunnies-stepford-wives-train-wrecks-other-mixed-messages-isbn-9780544648944","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}