Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Haves and Have-Nots
Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America 3
How You Can Save Wall Street 47
S&M As Public Policy 51
Going to Extremes: CEOs vs. Slaves 55
Are Illegal Immigrants the Problem? 58
What's So Great about Gated Communities? 62
Is It Now a Crime to be Poor? 66
A Homespun Safety Net 73
Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of Americas Blue-Collar White People 80
Health
Welcome to Cancerland 89
The Naked Truth about Fitness 121
Got Grease? 128
Our Broken Mental Health System 133
Liposuction: The Key to Energy Independence 137
The Selfish Side of Gratitude 140
Men
How "Natural" Is Rape? 147
The Warrior Culture 151
At Last, a New Man 155
Patriarchy Deflated 176
Women
Are Women Getting Sadder? Or Are We All Just Getting a Lot More Gullible? 183
Our Neighborhood Porn Committee 189
Strategies of Corporate Women 193
What Abu Ghraib Taught Me 203
Making Sense of la Difference 208
Outclassed: Sexual Harassment Alissa Quart 212
God, Science, and Joy
Mind Your Own Business 219
The Animal Cure 229
The Missionary Position 241
The New Creationism: Biology Under Attack Janet McIntosh 253
Up Close at Trinidad's Carnival 265
The Humanoid Stain 273
Bourgeois Blunders
Family Values 293
The Cult of Busyness 304
Death of a Yuppie Dream John Ehrenreich 309
The Unbearable Being of Whiteness 319
Is the Middle Class Doomed? 323
Welcome to Fleece U. 339
Prewatched TV 343
The Recessions Racial Divide Dedrick Muhammad 346
Divisions of Labor 354
Throw Them Out with the Trash: Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue 362
Acknowledgments 369
Index 373
About the Author 383