Imelda Whelehan's 'The Feminist Bestseller: From Sex and the Single Girl to Sex and the City' Book Review

Author Imelda Whelehan traces the evolution of feminist writings from the academic to the iconic pop culture books of modern times. The writings may evolve but one thing is clear, that the introduction of the pill radically altered how men and women dated and mated, especially in major cities. The Feminist Bestseller is a synopsis and analysis of how feminist literature defined generations, segmented into sub-feminist themes, and continues to impact female sexual behavior.

Feminism is a political statement but it has taken many forms given geography and cultural trends. Feminism promised equality and with the pill became the driving force for sexual emancipation in the 1960s. Pop culture books and movies appeal to women who are single or married because of the promise of an eternal youth, free of the confines of Victorian sensibilities. Between serious books and more stylish outpourings in the feminist genre, sex and the single female has never been the same.

Chick lit, a sub version of feminist literature, is the most read version of mainstream feminist bestsellers. Ripe with romance, angst, heartbreak, a career girl making a choice, it's the perils of feminism made front and center in a funny witty fashion. Have women become equal now? In some ways but in other respects, feminism has rendered entire groups of women alone, isolated, and robbed of the joys of motherhood. We can't be Carrie Bradshaw forever. Eventually she too got married and the woman who brought her to life is settled in domestic comfort with a husband and three children.

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