ABOUT THE BOOK
From the cultural historian M.G. Lord, an intimate examination of the unexpected feminist content in Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic roles. Via her work in films from National Velvet (1944) to Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? (1966), Taylor repeatedly, if not intentionally, introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas—gender discrimination, sexuality, abortion rights, the oppressed housewife’s anguish—and helped directors thwart Hollywood’s Production Code, which restricted content from 1934 to 1966.

PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“What Lord did for Barbie, she now does for La Liz in The Accidental Feminist, which argues that the lavishly proportioned actress was much more than a beautiful face and body: she was a pathbreaker for social progress and women’s rights.”— Liesl Schillinger, New York Times

“With ‘The Accidental Feminist,’ M. G. Lord makes the intriguing case that for Elizabeth Taylor, too much was never enough — not for the woman, not for the actress and not for the society that produced the theater of her life.”—New York Times Book Review

“M.G. Lord has written a marvel of a book that is as intellectually engaging as it is entertaining. She looks at Elizabeth Taylor—and through her—to a bigger story about popular culture and especially the role of women in it. A wonderful, engrossing read.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book