Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 2013 | Page 137

BOOK REVIEWS 133 by defining the problem that this work would also present a strong Statement in terms o f how anyone could leam to Step out and resist being sold a bill o f goods. The potential is there and alluded to, but since very few women seem to overcome the heavy handed sense o f sex for sale in rock and roll, the book gets very dark as it reminds us o f how gender bias still holds women back in America as a whole. The point made here is that the gatekeepers o f this process are in control and are themselves controlled by a sense o f commodification and social norms that dooms the idea o f a female rocker to that o f the short lived life o f a sex kitten. The few examples o f female rockers who do succeed on their own terms are those who leam to command how their sexuality is used and this still leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. Dr. Lieb also nicely addresses the difficulty academia has in trying to remain scientific but also relevant in Contemporary culture. She also brings to the fore the power the normalization o f the notions by which girls themselves are taught to devalue themselves and how loyalty to a generalized notion o f the female who is valued only by the way she sells sex can ripple through a society and cripple it in many ways. The book provides a great arena for argument. You may not agree with the conclusions, but you will want to join the debate after reading it. Dr. Lieb leaves us with a pretty darkly deterministic view in terms o f what can be done to change how women are valued for how they look and ignored in terms o f what they can do. And unfortunately it’s not hard to see how gender branding in the music industry is reflective o f a fundamental ideological tendency that still shapes American society as a whole even today. K im Idol, U n iversity o f N ev a d a Las V eg a s