{"product_id":"penis-envy-and-other-bad-feelings-the-emotional-costs-of-everyday-life-9780231186698","title":"Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eMari Ruti combines theoretical reflection, cultural critique, feminist politics, and personal experience to analyze the prevalence of bad feelings in contemporary everyday life. Proceeding from a playful engagement with Freud's idea of penis envy, Ruti's autotheoretical commentary fans out to a broader consideration of neoliberal pragmatism. She focuses on the emphasis on good performance, high productivity, constant self-improvement, and relentless cheerfulness that characterizes present-day Western society. Revealing the treacherousness of our fantasies of the good life, particularly the idea that our efforts will eventually be rewarded--that things will eventually get better--Ruti demystifies the false hope that often causes us to tolerate an unbearable present. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTheoretically rigorous and lucidly written, \u003ci\u003ePenis Envy and Other Bad Feelings\u003c\/i\u003e is a trenchant critique of contemporary gender relations. Refuting the idea that we live in a postfeminist world where gender inequalities have been transcended, Ruti describes how neoliberal heteropatriarchy has transformed itself in subtle and stealthy, and therefore all the more insidious, ways. Mobilizing Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics, Jacques Lacan's account of desire, and Lauren Berlant's notion of cruel optimism, she analyzes the rationalization of intimacy, the persistence of gender stereotypes, and the pornification of heterosexual culture. Ruti shines a spotlight on the depression, anxiety, frustration, and disenchantment that frequently lie beneath our society's sugarcoated mythologies of self-fulfillment, romantic satisfaction, and professional success, speaking to all who are concerned about the emotional costs of the pressure-cooker ethos of our age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mari Ruti\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Columbia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/02\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.10w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780231186698","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42447027142793,"sku":"9780231186698","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_52f6d5dd-e883-403d-9680-591fc5c26caa.jpg?v=1716236301","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/penis-envy-and-other-bad-feelings-the-emotional-costs-of-everyday-life-9780231186698","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}