The Glass Slipper

"Weisser dissect[s] the myths and persistence of the love story. She finds the story of the glass slipper-the arrival of a man who represents the 'perfect fit'-to be as pernicious as the limitations of the glass ceiling"

(New York Times Book Review)

"In its impressive scope and critical trajectory, The Glass Slipper is likely to be the most useful book on its subject yet."

(The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory)

"The Glass Slipper compellingly urges readers and critics to question whether subversion is really possible in the romance narratives consumed en masse by Western culture."

(The Journal of American Culture)

"A critical but compassionate exploration of how the romantic stories women tell and consume reflect the anxieties associated with our changing options and constraints. Perceptive and thought-provoking."

- Stephanie Coontz (author of Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage)

"With her lively and witty style, Weisser argues in this absorbing and ambitious work that our culture is dominated by fundamentally conservative assumptions about romantic love, marriage, and gender."

- Robyn Warhol (The Ohio State University)

"The Glass Slipper is a fine addition to gender and popular culture studies. Its sound scholarship and engaging, witty style demonstrate that the more things change, the more they too often stay the same."

- Elayne Rapping (State University of New York at Buffalo)

"Weisser poses the question: What hath English novelist Jane Austen and ABC’s reality television series The Bachelor wrought? While the glass ceiling has arguably been broken, the idealized glass slipper romance remains 'embedded in women’s identity as a powerful marker of value.' In this nonjudgmental exploration of women’s relationship to romance, covering everything from Charlotte BrontË to The Jersey Shore, Weisser’s stated goal is not to shatter the glass slipper but rather to see beyond its idealized narrative. For those interested in the impact of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover on the most recent season of The Bachelorette and how both have affected women’s views of themselves, both in and out of love."

(Library Journal)

"In this timely, valuable, relevant study, Weisser examines the ways in which traditional ideas of romantic love endure, despite decades of feminist scholarship and critique challenging sexism and misogyny and calling for change. Her prose is accessible, lively, and informed, and her discoveries outlining where feminism and romance dovetail and diverge have far-reaching implications to be valuable to anyone interested in gender studies, narrative theory, and cultural studies. Highly recommended."

(Choice)