Susan Douglas and James Baldwin on American character

Susan J. Douglas' Where the Girls Are and James Baldwin's the Fire Next Time

The American Character in Susan J. Douglas' Where the Girls Are and James Baldwin's the Fire Next Time

Many works in American history portray various versions of the American character. The idea of the staunch individualist is on one side of the spectrum, but many portray the typical American character as dependent to the social norms and mores of American culture. In her work Where the Girls Are, Susan J. Douglas portrays American women to be a product of the mass media in the United States, constructing their vision of themselves through the strict limitations placed on American women through the various facets of the media. James Baldwin's novel, the Fire Next Time, also shows the limitations of American individualism based on the constraints of the social structure. The racial stigmas associated with minorities in the United States constrict the true independence of the American character just as the media does in the case of American women. Both works show a facade of American individualism which masks the underlying dependence of each individual on the social order of the United States.

Where the Girls Are is a work which aims to expose the constricting nature of the female representation in the mass media. Douglas explores how the mass media "raised us, socialized us, entertained us, comforted us, deceived us [...] This has been one of the mass media's most important legacies for female consciousness: the erosion of anything resembling a unified self," (Douglas 13). She questions many media movements which were supposed to be liberating American women, but actually served as reinforces of the typical inferior stereotype. The image presented by the mass media is one which not many real women can fulfill without effort. Many then attempt to model their own self-image to the image perpetuated by media propaganda. However, unlike Baldwin, Douglass steers clear of dealing with racial and class struggle. Her exploration of American character constraints stick mainly to the experience of white middle class women in the United States, which is some ways another constriction in itself.

James Baldwin explores how America's rampant racism forbids the essential individualism which is glorified in the United States. Despite believing in the possibilities of American individualism, Baldwin believes that this will never be possible due to racism. He believes that the idea of white purity is constructed based on the notion that blacks are inferior in some ways. This he believes, holds not only African-Americans back from attaining true independence, but also whites. African-Americans are denied the chance to become the real individuals that they are based on social constructions; white Americans he believes are holding themselves back through the "innocence which constitutes the crime," (Baldwin 6). In both cases, the racial nature of the social construction of American culture disables individuals from attaining the American dream of staunch individualism, similar to how the media limits women in the case of Douglas.