They're Playing Our Songs offers a unique and fascinating vehicle for women's voices to be heard on the subject of women's music and how it affects their lives. Author Ann M. Savage explores 15 women's engagements with what might be called feminist rock music, including that of such noted artists as Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, the Indigo Girls, and Melissa Etheridge. The women interviewed here tell deeply personal stories of how songs by these musicians have helped them survive and cope with turbulent life experiences such as difficult work environments, depression, and abusive relationships. As we can see, then, music can be not only pleasurable but also fiercely expressive, in ways that allow its listeners some vicarious catharsis. These accounts of personal transformation make for a book that is at once compelling and dynamically political, revealing the myriad ways in which art, polemics, and life intertwine to create a side of womanhood that few ever get to see.

Covering from 1900 to the present day, this book highlights how female artists, actors, writers, and activists were involved in the fight for women's rights, with a focus on popular culture that includes film, literature, music, television, the news, and online media. Women's Rights: Reflections in Popular Culture offers a succinct yet thorough resource for anyone interested in the relationship between feminism, women's rights, and media. It is ideally suited for students researching popular culture's role in the modern history of women's rights and representation of women, women's rights, and feminism in popular culture. This insightful book highlights of some of the most important moments of women taking a stand for women throughout popular culture history. Each section focuses on an aspect of popular culture. The television section covers important benchmarks, such as Julia, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Roseanne, Murphy Brown, and Ellen. Coverage of films includes Christopher Strong, Foxy Brown, and Thelma & Louise; the literature section features the work of influential individuals such as Virginia Woolf, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. The book celebrates early musical ground-breakers like Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and Bessie Smith as well as contemporary artists Janelle Monáe and Pussy Riot. The work of key women activists—including Margaret Sanger, Angela Davis, and Winona LaDuke—is recognized, along with the unique ways women have used the power of the web in their continued effort to push for women's equality.