num_pages: 306
description: As 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 beand who she couldnt. Dutifully absorbing all the conflicting information the culture has to offer on how to be a woman Chocano grappled with sexed-up sidekicks princesses waiting to be saved and morally infallible angels who seemed to have no opinions of their own. She learned that the girl is not a person but a man's idea of what a woman should beshes whatever the hero needs her to be in order to become himself. It wasn't until she spent five years as a movie critic and was laid off just after her daughter was born that she really came to understand how the stories the culture tells us about what it means to be female limit our lives and shape our destinies. She resolved to rewrite her own story.In You Play the Girl Chocano blends formative personal stories with insightful and emotionally powerful analysis. Moving from Bugs Bunny to Playboy Bunnies from Flashdance to Frozen from the progressive 70s through the backlash 80s the glib 90s and the pornified aughtsand at stops in betweenshe 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. In 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.
language: English
title: You Play the Girl: And Other Vexing Stories That Tell Women Who They Are
publisher: Mariner Books