Article ID: CBB699307947

The Anti-Feminist Reconstruction of the Midlife Crisis: Popular Psychology, Journalism and Social Science in 1970s USA (2018)

unapi

Journalist Gail Sheehy's Passages (1976) was the first book to successfully promote ‘midlife crisis’ in the United States as a feminist idea, which described middle life as the point when men and women abandon traditional gender roles. Psychological experts responded with a male-centred definition of middle age, which banned women from reimagining their lives. Presented and received as more scientific, this became the dominant meaning of ‘midlife crisis’. This paper reverses histories of ‘popularisation’ by tracing how an idea moved from popular culture into academia. It examines the gender politics of scientific demarcation and shows that the midlife crisis has historical roots in debates about gender roles.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB699307947/

Similar Citations

Book Susanne Schmidt; (2020)
Midlife Crisis: The Feminist Origins of a Chauvinist Cliché

Article Kelly O’Donnell; (2020)
The Case Against the Doctors: Gender, Authority, and Critical Science Writing in the 1960s

Article Zeman, Scott C.; (2008)
“Taking Hell's Measurements”: Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines and the Atomic Bomb from Hiroshima to Bikini

Article Houck, Judith A.; (2003)
“What Do These Women Want?” Feminist Responses to Feminine Forever, 1963--1980

Article Alexandra Rutherford; (2017)
“Making better use of U.S. women” Psychology, Sex Roles, and Womanpower in post-WWII America

Article Nora Ruck; Vera Luckgei; Barbara Rothmüller; Nina Franke; Emelie Rack; (2022)
Psychologization in and through the women's movement: A transnational history of the psychologization of consciousness-raising in the German-speaking countries and the United States

Article Loss, Christopher P.; (2011)
“Women's Studies Is in a Lot of Ways---Consciousness Raising”: The Educational Origins of Identity Politics

Chapter Stéphanie Pache; Alain Giami; Sharman Levinson; (2021)
‘Healthy’ Relationships: Feminism and the Psy Disciplines in the Political History of Sexual Violence in Contemporary America

Article Rutherford, Alexandra; (2003)
B. F. Skinner's Technology of Behavior in American Life: From Consumer Culture to Counterculture

Article Weidman, Nadine; (2011)
Popularizing the Ancestry of Man: Robert Ardrey and the Killer Instinct

Article Paul Williams; Brian Edgar; (2018)
The Primal Is the Political: Psychotherapy, Engagement, and Narcissism in the 1970s

Article Nerlich, Brigitte; Johnson, Susan; Clarke, David D.; (2003)
The First “Designer Baby”: The Role of Narratives, Clichés and Metaphors in the Year 2000 Media Debate

Article Kohring, Matthias; Matthes, Jörg; (2002)
The Face(t)s of Biotech in the Nineties: How the German Press Framed Modern Biotechnology

Article Dimopoulos, Kostas; Koulaidis, Vasilis; (2002)
The Socio-Epistemic Constitution of Science and Technology in the Greek Press: An Analysis of Its Presentation

Article Loughlin, Kelly; (2005)
Spectacle and Secrecy: Press Coverage of Conjoined Twins in 1950s Britain

Thesis Dingel, Molly J.; (2006)
“A Window into the Soul”: Gender and News Coverage of Genetic Research

Book Rachel E. Walker; (2022)
Beauty and the Brain: The Science of Human Nature in Early America

Book Charles L. (Charles Leonard) Ponce de Leon; (2015)
That's the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America

Article Alexander, Jennifer Karns; (2008)
Efficiencies of Balance: Technical Efficiency, Popular Efficiency, and Arbitrary Standards in the Late Progressive Era USA

Article Castagnaro, Mario; (2012)
Lunar Fancies and Earthly Truths: The Moon Hoax of 1835 and the Penny Press

Authors & Contributors
Rutherford, Alexandra
Alexander, Jennifer Karns
Castagnaro, Mario
Clarke, David D.
Dimopoulos, Kostas
Dingel, Molly J.
Journals
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Public Understanding of Science
American Quarterly
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
History of Psychology
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
University of Chicago Press
University of Kansas
Springer International Publishing
Concepts
Popular culture
Journalism
Psychology
Feminism
Cold War
Science and gender
People
Ardrey, Robert
Skinner, Burrhus Frederic
Seaman, Barbara
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
Places
United States
Germany
Great Britain
Austria
Greece
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment