The Terror Dream

The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America by Susan Faludi is interesting - and frightening - reading. I decided to read it because I was very impressed by her book Backlash. The Terror Dream could almost be said to be an updated version of Backlash. I've read the first two chapters so far and it is interesting and disturbing how the American media turned on feminist writers and journalists after 9/11. People such as Susan Sontag and Barbara Kingsolver were pilloried for daring to write anything not wholeheartedly pro America's response to 9/11. Rational articles which suggested America put its own house in order were referred to as treason.

The number of comment articles written by women in the American mainstream press more than halved overnight. It was stated by many commentators that feminism was wholly responsible for 9/11 because it had weakened America and made the attacks possible because no one expected them to retaliate. This was mainstream, journalism not the nuttier outer fringes! The attitude from many quarters was - 'Not now, dear, we're at war.' Domesticity was suddenly top of the agenda and the country behaved as though 9/11 was an attack on domestic life rather than on America's foreign policy in the Middle East. Absolutely fascinating reading.