Big-ups to my TEDRes 4 fam—Alvin, Anouk, Bob, Derrius, Eiji, Jason, Karen, Kifah, Malika, Michael, Tobacco, Stan, Will, Cyndi, and Katrina. You kept me inspired, challenged, hydrated, and in good company.
Ruby was born a week before the sale of 90s Bitch was announced, and Oscar arrived on the cusp of the first round of edits. I admire and appreciate Arlene Fender, and thank her deeply for loving and caring for our kids so that my husband, Ben, and I can work.
Leah and Bill Yarrow are fantastic and writerly in-laws for whom I am grateful. You always get me talking and thinking. Thank you Jami and Jim Gaudet for your unyielding support, love, and curiosity. You have no small role in the fact that I think and see the world the way that I do. Joby Gaudet, you amaze me and make me stupidly proud. I’m grateful for you in too many ways to count here.
Ruby and Oscar, I love you infinity. You aren’t old enough to read, and you probably shouldn’t say the title of the book out loud in public, but I’ll leave this here for you for later—I believe in each of you and will always fiercely support you in exactly who you are, and who you want to become. I hope things that were hard for me won’t be hard for you, that the world has changed since the 90s, and that it will continue to change and become more loving and just. Let’s keep working on it.
I heard someone say that family members make the best editors because they can speak blunt truth to you. Maybe, but that idea is complicated when you’re married to someone who also happens to be the best editor you’ve ever encountered. I’m lucky but also, well, shit. Ben, had I known sooner, I might have married you on our first date. This book wouldn’t be what it is without you. You thrill and inspire me, and you’re the best man I’ve ever met that I’m not related to by birth. Thank you for your love, support, and for our life.
Endnotes
PROLOGUE
by calling them dogs in heat: Clare Bayley, Bitch: A History, June 2, 2011, http://clarebayley.com/2011/06/bitch-a-history/.
INTRODUCTION
they earned more bachelor’s, master’s, and associate’s degrees than men: Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, US Census Bureau, March 2011, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2011/demo/womeninamerica.html.
the median marriage age for women swung between twenty and twenty-two, but in 1990, it nearly jumped to twenty-four: Women in America, US Census Bureau.
reached twenty-five: Women in America, US Census Bureau.
women accounted for close to 30 percent of lawyers: Peggy Orenstein, Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World (New York: Random House, 2000), 4.
“Women are the new providers”: Tamar Lewin, “Women Are Becoming Equal Providers,” New York Times, May 11, 1995, http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/11/us/women-are-becoming-equal-providers.html.
“They were a bunch of nerds”: Coolio, interview with the author, September 2015.
after meeting at the liberal arts school Adelphi University on Long Island: S. Craig Watkins, Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 114.
“throw tantrums in Bloomingdale’s”: Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), 30.
“I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want”: Mary Biggs, Women’s Words: The Columbia Book of Quotations by Women (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 187.
CHAPTER 1: PRETTY ON THE OUTSIDE
Americans didn’t just watch—they binged: Douglas Kellner, “The Persian Gulf TV War Revisited,” UCLA, https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/gulfwarrevisited.htm.
1991 Times-Mirror survey: Kellner, “The Persian Gulf TV War Revisited.”
“beautiful, dependent, helpless . . .”: Mike Feinsilber, “TV Poorly Serves People Who Rely on It Most, Report Says,” Associated Press, February 25, 1992.
report by an American Psychological Association task force: Aletha C. Huston et al., Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992).
The proportion of women characters appearing on primetime television barely budged: Tom Tapp, “New Survey Says Tube Not Tops for Women,” Daily Variety, September 17, 1999.
15 percent of the creators of the top hundred primetime shows: Tapp, “New Survey Says Tube Not Tops for Women.”
The program’s credits: Susan J. Douglas, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010), 28.
close to eleven million households: Steven Herbert, “Fox ‘Hills’ Strategy Pays Off,” Los Angeles Times, July 13, 1991, http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-13/entertainment/ca-1884_1_beverly-hills.
half of teenage girls polled: Bruce Horovitz, “Marketers Rethink Show’s Teen Appeal,” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1992, http://articles.latimes.com/1992-12-22/business/fi-2407_1_teen-talk.
A thirteen-year-old Manhattan private schooler revealed: Anne Jarrell, “The Face of Teenage Sex Grows Younger,” New York Times, April 2, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/02/style/the-face-of-teenage-sex-grows-younger.html?pagewanted=all.
Nearly 70 percent of elementary school girls: A. E. Field et al., “Exposure to the Mass Media and Weight Concerns among Girls,” Pediatrics, March 1999, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10049992.
girls were nearly twice as likely as boys to believe they were overweight: National Center for Health Statistics, “Many Teens Engage in Risk-Taking Behaviors That Can Lead to Chronic Disease, Injury, or Death,” news release, July 11, 1995, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/95facts/fsyrisk.htm.
more than 40 percent of first through third graders wanted to be thinner: Elizabeth Collins, “Body Figure Perceptions and Preferences among Preadolescent Children,” International Journal of Eating Disorders 10, no. 2 (March 1991): 199–208.
Cultural aspiration to thinness could explain: Mandy McCarthy, “The Thin Ideal, Depression and Eating Disorders in Women,” Behavioral Research and Therapy 2, no. 3 (1990): 205– 215, http://www.darkcoding.net/research/the_thin_ideal.pdf.
“a strong blast from a blow dryer would waft her away”: Louise Lague, “How Thin Is Too Thin?” People, September 20, 1993, http://people.com/archive/cover-story-how-thin-is-too-thin-vol-40-no-12/.
Women looked at thinning female bodies: Tracie Egan Morrissey, “Portia de Rossi, Ally McBeal, and a Generation of Eating Disorders,” Jezebel, November 2, 2010, http://jezebel.com/5679536/portia-de-rossi-ally-mcbeal-and-a-generation-of-eating-disorders.
“assumed a new presence in the lives of Americans”: Keith Bradsher, “A Job for Real Men: Buying Lingerie,” New York Times, February 4, 1990.
“When I tried to buy lingerie for my wife”: Merrill Fabry, “The History Behind ‘Victoria’ in Victoria’s Secret,” Time, December 8, 2015.
nearly six hundred stores: Stephanie Strom, “Profile: Grace Nichols; When Victoria’s Secret Faltered, She Was Quick to Fix It,” New York Times, November 21, 1993.
“what was once a discreet (or salacious) business”: Bradsher, “A Job for Real Men: Buying Lingerie.”
By 1992, more than $51.5 billion: Holly Brubach, “Mail Order America,” New York Times, November 21, 1993.
By 1997, Victoria’s Secret was shipping out 450 million catalogues: Casey Lewis, “The Rise and Fall of the Victoria’s Secret Catalog,” Racked, July 25, 2016, http://www.racked.com/2016/7/25/12119174/victorias-secret-catalog-rip.
Victoria’s Secret reached $1 billion in revenue: Strom, “Profile: Grace Nichols.”
one report likened its gain on the panty: Asra Q. Nomani, “How Thong Underwear Managed to Win Over a Mainstream Market,” Wall Street Journal, June 8, 1999, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB928797031306049284.
“the fastest growing segment of the $2 billion a year women’s panty business”: Nomani, “How Thong Underwear Managed to Win Over a Mainstream Market.”
“You lifted
the back of your jacket”: Monica Lewinsky, interview by Barbara Walters, ABC, March 1999.
“the garment that shook a presidency”: Nomani, “How Thong Underwear Managed to Win Over a Mainstream Market.”
more than two billion people: Brendan Baber and Eric Spitznagel, Planet Baywatch: The Unofficial Guide to the New World Order (London: Michael O’Mara Books, 1996).
“sizzling sweet eye candy”: Leah Ollman, “Galleries: Art That’s Instantly Gratifying,” Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2004, http://articles.latimes.com/2004/may/28/entertainment/et-galleries28/2.
“out-there sex weirdo”: Linda Stasi, “After 11 Years Looking at This: Behind Baywatch Reveals the Interesting Side,” New York Post, June 29, 2001, http://nypost.com/2001/06/29/after-11-years-looking-at-this-behind-baywatch-on-e-reveals-the-interesting-side/.
in small outfits: John Crook, “Pamela Anderson Makes Her Bow as Sitcom Star in ‘Stacked,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 10, 2005.
“erotic cartoons”: Michael Wilmington, “This ‘Naked Gun’ Misfires as It Runs Out of Ammunition,” Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1994, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-03-18/entertainment/9403180278_1_frank-drebin-david-zucker-academy-awards-show.
“freakish mammary glands”: Patt Morrison, “Haughty, Naughty: A ‘Model’ Word,” Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1995, http://articles.latimes.com/1995-11-29/local/me-8377_1_modeling-agency.
were a primary subject: “RARE Anna Nicole Smith Interview Regis Philbin 1992 GUESS JEANS,” YouTube video, 6:26, posted by Guess Again, May 27, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C-u5J6oqP4.
“Did you have breast augmentation?”: Anna Nicole Smith, interview by Larry King, CNN, May 29, 2002, www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/29/lkl.00.html.
“Everything I have is because of them”: “Obituary: Anna Nicole Smith,” Economist, February 15, 2007, http://www.economist.com/node/8697358.
“the number one requested body image in L.A.”: Dara Welles, “Teamsters Say They’re Ready to Get Back to Work: Dow Chemical May Face Lawsuits in Reference to Breast Implants,” CNN, August 19, 1997.
Godiva chocolates at every photo shoot: Matthew Heller, “The White Widow,” The Independent, February 11, 1996, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-white-widow-1318392.html.
“uncontainable by ordinary clothes”: Philip Kennicott, “The Fantasy of Happily Ever After,” Washington Post, February 9, 2007.
“She brings back visions of Hollywood glamour”: Susan Schindehette and David Hutchings, “Anna Nicole Smith Models for Guess Jeans,” People, April 12, 1993, http://people.com/tbd/from-the-archives-anna-nicole-smith-models-for-guess-jeans-1993/.
“She spilled out of her tops”: Kennicott, “The Fantasy of Happily Ever After.”
“There were only two of them”: “Obituary: Anna Nicole Smith,” Economist.
“Something is going on”: Ellen Crean, “What’s Up with Anna Nicole Smith?” CBS, December 30, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-up-with-anna-nicole-smith/.
“thought they would shake things up”: James Kahn, interview with the author, October 2015.
“bothersome Issues and Morals”: David Wild, “‘Melrose Place’ Is a Really Good Show,” Rolling Stone, May 19, 1994.
Actress Hunter Tylo sued: “Would-Be ‘Melrose’ Actress Wins Nearly $5 Million Award,” CNN, December 22, 1997, http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9712/22/melrose.lawsuit/.
“stop-at-nothing female character”: Denise Gellene, “Ad Agency Women Hit TV Stereotypes: From ‘Bewitched’ to ‘Melrose Place,’ Life on Madison Avenue Has Been Distorted, Critics Say,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1996.
“she is really very nice, the kind of woman”: Elizabeth Kolbert, “So Nice to Be Mean,” New York Times, April 3, 1994.
“I love it”: Bruce Fretts, “Entertainer 4: Heather Locklear,” Entertainment Weekly, December 30, 1994, http://ew.com/article/1994/12/30/entertainer-4-heather-locklear/.
Women characters in media were more likely: Dinitia Smith, “Media More Likely to Show Women Talking About Romance Than at a Job, Study Says,” New York Times, May 1, 1997.
“the most screwed-up Real Worlder ever”: Chris Hewitt and Jim Walsh, “A New Reality: The Sixth Season of MTV’s Video-Verite ‘The Real World’ Is a Cause for Celebration among Those Who Are Beyond Mere Fans,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 27, 1997, https://savesb6.newsbank.com:8443/MNGsave/classic/doc?docid=1204002&q=(%20(video)%20)%20AND%20 date(07/27/1997%20TO%2007/27/1997)&stem=false&spa ceop=AND&ttype=xsl&tval=headline_mng&pos=1&hn=2&pubAbbrev=mng&dtokey=zouarqhlgykimtyiqunlrdww#anchor1204002.
volunteered with AIDS patients: Matthew Scott Donnelly, “Tami Roman of ‘Real World: Los Angeles’ . . . Where Is She Now?” MTV News, December 19, 2011, http://www.mtv.com/news/2382184/where-is-real-world-tami-roman-now/.
“Why did you kick David out”: Steve Weinstein, “A ‘Real World’ of Difference,” Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1993.
looking to cast “stereotypes”: Rick Jervis, “Real World, Few Vacancies: Hundreds Jockey for Spots When MTV Comes to SOBE,” Miami Herald, November 18, 1995.
“I could be the bitch”: Jervis, “Real World, Few Vacancies.”
“just like those live cop shows”: Sam Whiting, “Chance to Get Real on MTV Hit Serial S.F. Locale for New ‘Real World,’” San Francisco Chronicle, October 18, 1993.
“cute and sassy, but a two-faced back-stabber”: Hewitt and Walsh, “A New Reality.”
“bitch slap” was named: Jennifer L. Pozner, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV (Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2010).
“what happens when people stop”: Nancy Sidewater, “If We Ran Reality TV; Paris, You’re In. Trista, You’re Out. We’ve Got an Extreme Makeover for Television’s Most Popular—and Polarizing—Genre,” Entertainment Weekly, May 21, 2004.
Casting Doherty as a witch: Ann Hodges, “Fall TV’s Hits & Misses,” Houston Chronicle, September 6, 1998.
“a procession of attractive males”: Michael P. Lucas, “The Real Stories Behind a Trio of ‘Charmed’ Lives,” Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1999.
“Charmed is a perfect postfeminist girl-power show”: Bruce Fretts, “The Women of the WB Wow Audiences,” Entertainment Weekly, December 25, 1998.
“undead between dates”: Paula Geyh, “Feminism Fatale? ‘Bad Girls’ Adapt Women’s Movement to Suit Themselves,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1998.
CHAPTER 2: SEX IN THE 90s
“Teachers say, ‘Let’s gross these kids out’”: Laura Sessions Stepp, “Beyond AIDS: Teenagers and STDs,” Washington Post, March 23, 1999.
$50 million per year: Marcela Howell and Marilyn Keefe, “The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding,” Advocates for Youth, July 2007, http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/publications-a-z/429-the-history-of-federal-abstinence-only-funding.
By 1994, the disease: “A Timeline of HIV and AIDS,” AIDS.gov, last updated 2016, accessed September 2016, https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline.
More than 440,000 cases: Lawrence K. Altman, “AIDS Is Now the Leading Killer of Americans from 25 to 44,” New York Times, January 31, 1995, https://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/science/aids/013195sci-aids.html.
In 1996, women comprised 20 percent: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Update: Trends in AIDS Incidence, Deaths, and Prevalence—United States, 1996,” MMWR Weekly, February 28, 1997, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr html/00046531.htm.
“European countries tend to be more open”: Debra W. Haffner, ed., Facing Facts: The Report of the National Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health (New York: National Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health, 1995).
fifteen million Americans were contracting STDs: “1998-MTV Sex in the 90’s XII Fact or Fiction STD’s-FULL EPISODE,” MTV, YouTube video, aired March 1999, 21:50, posted by Matty Brown VHS Archives, August 2, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI_WQYckPeQ.
“Cat Daddies”: John Pope, “STD
Rise in Teens Blamed on Older Men; ‘Cat Daddies’ Lure Girls, Infect Them, Officials Say,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 15, 1999.
it was collegiate women: Author interviews with half a dozen women who were in college in the 90s.
“There are no Magic Johnsons”: Stepp, “Beyond AIDS: Teenagers and STDs.”
“a detention-class film strip”: Mike Flaherty, “Sex in the ’90s XII: Fact or Fiction?” Entertainment Weekly, March 26, 1999, http://www.ew.com/article/1999/03/26/sex-90s-xii-fact-or-fiction.
“Sex is famously hot hot hot”: “1998-MTV Sex in the 90’s XII Fact or Fiction STD’s-FULL EPISODE,” YouTube video.
Jennie Miller was ashamed to discover: Perri Peltz and Hugh Downs, “Intimate Danger,” ABC News Network, September 3, 1999.
An executive producer: Children Now, “Reflections of Girls in the Media” (presentation, 4th Annual Children and the Media Conference, Los Angeles, April 30–May 2, 1997), http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED433131.pdf.
Seventeen, Teen, and YM circulation: Diane Seo, “Magazines for Teens Thrive as Numbers, Buying Power Grow,” Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1998.
“Objectification theory” explained: Barbara L. Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts, “Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 21, no. 2 (1997): 173–206, http://www.sanchezlab.com/pdfs/FredricksonRoberts.pdf.
In 1994, sociology professors: Tamar Lewin, “Sex in America: Faithfulness in Marriage Thrives After All,” New York Times, October 7, 1994, http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/07/us/sex-in-america-faithfulness-in-marriage-thrives-after-all.html?pagewanted=2.
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