ABSTRACT
The term backlash refers generally to a perceived conservative or right-wing reaction to social changes or progressive ideas. Susan Faludi, who has most recently popularised the term, uses 'backlash' to refer to an anti-feminist counterattack in retaliation for the achievements of the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, in areas like political and media representation of women, employment, health, educational opportunities and the environment. Faludi has been criticised for over-emphasising commonalities between feminists in the USA and UK and generalising that feminists everywhere share basic objectives against the universal subordination of women. The term 'backlash' is also sometimes linked to 'postfeminism'. 'Postfeminism' was coined in the period between the achievement of women's suffrage in the USA and the rise of 'second-wave' feminism during the 1960s. Feminists have tended to cast a critical eye on women's involvement in the 'beauty system'.
