“Women & Power” was the theme of Newsweek’s October 15 issue, and a quote in one of its feature interviews resonated with me. Journalist Ariana Huffington wrote, “I was struck by how often, when I asked women to blog for The Huffington Post, they had a hard time trusting that what they had to say was worthwhile.” Thankfully, some women seem to never have that problem (or perhaps succeed at sublimating it), like Huffington herself or others equally outspoken on polarizing issues, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan Faludi. The author of 1991’s Backlash—which posited that the media cyclically constructs setbacks for women in their quest for equal rights—reads from and discusses her new book, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America, tonight. In it, she questions our country’s “psychological response” to the tragedy, which she views as a desire to restore “traditional” values. Faludi observes the media’s fascination with 9/11’s victims, many being widows, as well as the role of women in the years since. And then, as in Backlash and Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man before it—like it or not—she luckily retains the power to share her opinions with everyone else.

Thu., Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m., 2007