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WEDNESDAY

Who knew that obsessively scoping the latest incarnations of Hollywood starlets was part of the initiation of a feminist? Susan J. Douglas, a professor of media studies, has nailed the boomer and Gen X conflict of women who look to TV and press for a faint reflection of themselves and are repulsed by the unattainable image they find. Its prose sprinkled with rock hits of the ’50s and ’60s (like “Tell Him” and “He’s So Fine”), Douglas’ 1994 Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media, reads easily and proves as relevant as Susan Faludi’s contemporary manifesto, Backlash, which tends to set even the most dedicated feminist insomniac to snoring. Douglas discusses Girls and her more recent media targets at noon at the Museum of American History’s Carmichael Auditorium, 14th & Constitution Ave. NW. FREE. (202) 357-2700. (Ginger Eckert)