Why any woman: Feminism and popular culture in the late twentieth‐century South By Keira V. Williams. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press. 2023. pp. 236. 29. 95 (pbk)

In Keira Williams's Why Any Woman, the reader is transported back in time to relive many iconic moments in both Black and white late twentieth-century Southern pop culture history. From plays to novels, television to films, these moments were also movements in between second- and third-wave feminism and Williams strives to show the reader that "pop culture by and about southern women was … the primary source of contemporary forms of feminism in this era" (6). In the Introduction, Williams argues that like the Lost Cause movement of the turn of the twentieth century, this movement at the end of the twentieth century has everything to do with sociopolitical reasons and nothing to do with historical reality. Williams herself says in the book is "not meant to be a comprehensive study of popular culture featuring the feminist South in this era" (12) but rather a look at case studies to show that the southern context was crucial. The case studies are an even mixture of both Black and white feminist theory as they each have separate goals and therefore different moments of pop culture to study. Chapter 1, "Keep Living Daughters," examines the generational conflict between mothers and daughters in the play Crimes of the Heart (1979) by Beth Henley, which is "not subtle in its attack on southern tradition" (31), and the novel Ugly Ways (1993) by Tina McElroy Ansa, which is "a promise of a next generation ever further removed from the corruption of traditional southern patriarchy" (50). In Chapter 2, "You Get What You Settle For," the characters in the novel The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker and the characters in the movie Thelma and Louise (1991) represent sisterhood in which the women are "bound by 'political solidarity' in collective action against systems of oppression" (53). In the Color Purple, it is the oppression created by violent and racialized capitalism, whereas in Thelma and Louise, it is the oppression created by sexism and violent misogyny. In Chapter 3, "The Business of Being a Woman," the compromise between regional politics and feminism, or Third Way, is viewed through the lens of the television show Designing Women (1986–1993) and the short documentary The Man from Hope (1992), both created by Linda Bloodworth. For the show Designing Women, the use of comedy that mocked stereotypical southern culture from the viewpoint of middle-class, white women was key, as this made their "transgressive message both palatable and popular" (94). Her version of Third Way feminism continues its reach into the mid-1990s with the 18-min documentary The Man from Hope. With a theme of "progressive paternal authority" (118), this film was created to aid in the election of her friend Bill Clinton, a southern democrat, to the presidency and forever changed the way campaign films are made. Chapter 4, "Change Your Life Television," looks at the concept of lifestyle feminism through the lens of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986–2011) and the movie Beloved (1998). Williams argues that "Winfrey became a conduit of widely consumed ideas about American womanhood" and exposed "her mainly white audience to some of the core tenets of radical Black feminism" (124), in particular through her book club. Williams states that the book club "generally featured the theme of uplift" and "plucky girls and women who overcome obstacles" (135–136) indicating that she has not read the majority of the books on the list but rather only a select few related to the topic of this book. For the movie Beloved, an adaption of the novel by Toni Morrison who is featured four times on Oprah's Book Club list, Williams successfully argues that "the guilt-ridden white mother, newly empowered by her engagement with Morrison's novel, Winfrey's film, her fellow discussants, and of course Winfrey herself, can teach her own children to break the cycle of white supremacy—an internal revolution rather than a systemic one in accordance with Winfrey's patented neoliberal feminism" (155). In the Epilogue, "Just a Southern Girl in a Southern World," Williams brings the reader into the early twenty-first century by connecting Oprah's work to the work of Beyoncé, and the new Southern fourth wave of feminism. According to her, "Beyoncé's message is capitalist, yes, but it is also a radical call from the South to Black women to 'get information'" (167). By comparing and contrasting these two powerful, Black women, who represent different generations and multiple aspects of feminism, Williams concludes that "as in previous eras, the new feminist revolt will come from the South" (172). Though the book is short with only 172 pages and just 4 chapters, it is dense. Furthermore, even though Williams thoroughly evaluates and breaks down each case study so one does not have to have first-hand knowledge of them beforehand, this book is best for those who do. The movies, books, and television she writes about need to be experienced first-hand by the reader beforehand to truly grasp the nuances described. This is also not a book for a casual reader but instead for academics looking for a good, well-written source about the contemporary feminism of the late twentieth-century South.