Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture

by Ariel Levy

book data

1,425 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 308 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		39%
3		28%
2		7%
1		1%

edit

published

October 3rd 2006 (first published 2005) by Free Press

binding

Paperback, 256 pages

url

http://www.ariellevy.net/books.php

setting

The United States

isbn

0743284283 (isbn13: 9780743284288)

description

Ariel Levy's debut book is a bold, piercing examination of how twenty-first century American society perceives sex and women. Writing vividly, she br...more

[close] Ariel Levy's debut book is a bold, piercing examination of how twenty-first century American society perceives sex and women. Writing vividly, she brings her readers to places she visited to make her assessment; the elevator of Playboy Enterprises with women auditioning to be Playmates in the fiftieth anniversary edition, a Florida beach where sunbathers urge a woman to take off her bathing suit for the camera crew of Girls Gone Wild, a San Francisco Italian restaurant where a lesbian worries she's not dressed up enough for her date, a CAKE party in New York, with women grinding each other's pelvises in time to pulsating dance rhythms, and outside a juice bar in Oakland where a beautiful high school student shares disappointment at her experiences with sex.

Levy cleverly leads us to explore the role models women aspire to emulate. We are not pursuing the confident, self-determined, powerful, free ideal the women's liberation movement would have dreamed for its daughters. Instead, our icons are porn stars and strippers and prostitutes. Paris Hilton and Jenna Jameson flaunt their successes in the pornography industry, and in doing so seem to earn our adulation.

Levy relates our embracing of this raunchy culture to unresolved tensions thirty years ago between the sexual revolution and the women's liberation movement, and amongst feminists; joy at discovering the delights of our clitoris conflicting with disgust at pornography's objectification of women. She creates a convincing argument by analyzing a diverse spectrum of material; presents a fascinating palette of interviews with revolutionary women's libbers, nouvelle raunchy feminists, and everyday women and men. Detailed facts and recurring names are sometimes cumbersome, albeit worth ploughing through for the `a-ha moments'.

The reality that we model ourselves on images whose "individuality is erased" is harsh, yet Levy's work is imbued with hope - hope that women can celebrate their uniqueness instead of their `hotness', explore their sexuality as delight rather than consume sex as currency, and succeed professionally because of their brilliant minds and personalities, not because of their brilliant bodies.--Megan Jones Ady

[close]

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | compare prices ($5.25)…

new topic
discuss this book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SUMMER CHALLENGE 2009	3799	4406	6 minutes ago
100+ Book Challenge: koralute's books of 2009	5	118	05/22/2009 06:51PM

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

Best Feminist Books

85 books | 125 voters

More lists...

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2,041)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only

09/27/07

Mike rated it:

bookshelves: feminism

I'll start with the weak parts. Throughout the book she takes a half-anecdote/interview half-detailed analysis approach. She's a journalist so the first part is understandable. There is one part of the book where she interviews Christie Hefner, daughter of Hugh, about her job as the CFO or something like that of Playboy (she's the one that runs the enterprise.) Christie has a really interesting response to one of Levy's questions. She says, "So I think people who choose to pose for the maga...more I'll start with the weak parts. Throughout the book she takes a half-anecdote/interview half-detailed analysis approach. She's a journalist so the first part is understandable. There is one part of the book where she interviews Christie Hefner, daughter of Hugh, about her job as the CFO or something like that of Playboy (she's the one that runs the enterprise.) Christie has a really interesting response to one of Levy's questions. She says, "So I think people who choose to pose for the magazine have a very definite idea of what they want to get out of it - and then they have a life and they may be an actress or a mother or a lawyer or an executive." Levy responds, "An actress or a mother sure, but a lawyer or an executive not necessarily. Putting your tush on display is still not the best way to make partner or impress the board." This is interesting and constitutes one of the serious weaknesses of the book.
I think Levy is guilty of going after the wrong force. Her book is called "Female Chauvinist Pigs" equating people like Christie Hefner with someone like Hugh, who admittedly only wanted to liberate men's sexuality. What Christie accomplishes by talking about the desires of women to feel sexy in that way, (she actually uses the example of a woman who was injured in a car accident and became paraplegic and posed for the magazine to regain her own sense of sexuality) is exactly what Levy advocates in the conclusion. The conclusion admits that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with posing for a magazine or stripping. The issue is when raunch culture elevates one type of sexuality to the norm and demands that people conform to that norm. It is true that Playboy does this through its photography so that people don't choose how to pose, but that isn't the focus of Levy's critique (if it was, it would have been awesome). She wants to call out people instead of structures. It's quite telling that she has more contempt for Christie, then the fact that the decision for posing for the magazine makes it impossible to join the board room or become partner. She seems to treat the latter as immutable, while the former is what constitutes blameworthiness.
Also there's a huge weakness, which is the entire fifth chapter. In that chapter she begins to talk about lesbian and trans culture. Her analysis of trans issues is actually pretty offensive. She sees the decision of FTM transpeople as part of the cultural shift away from pride in being a woman. She at a point admits a lack of clarity in understanding, yet still proceeds to judge an entire group of people. She appears to be fine with people that simply enjoy the fluid identity, but she has an issue if people opt for surgery. It's this sort of moralizing bullshit in terms of identity that really makes the book weak.

Now I'll go to the strength. When she does analysis, it's downright amazing. In chapter six she does this in depth analysis on Sex and the City talking about the commodification of sex and how that constructs people to look at sex as a status symbol instead of as a fulfilling experience that one comes into with desires. She quotes Carrie as saying, "she usually 'couldn't help but wonder; what was going on in the head of the man she was seeing and rarely evaluated her own happiness as such." That's perfect, because it gets to the basis of the problem of sex as she articulates it. The issue is when we have a standard and evaluate ourselves to the standard without considered what our own internal desires are. She says that sex is such a unique experience that there's no way the raunch standard fits everyone, but people play into it because of its commodification and current status as a status symbol and even power symbol. That was only one of the examples, but I really liked that one so I chose it. Each chapter had analysis and anecdotes, but the analysis is where the book is at its best.(less)

Like this review? yes (10 people liked it)

add a comment

11/10/07

Zinta rated it:

What is a female chauvinist pig (FCP)? "If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves."

Levy observes the mainstreaming of raunch, and women, including feminists, falling obediently into line promoting it. "But I could never make the argument add up in my head," she writes. "How is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexua...more What is a female chauvinist pig (FCP)? "If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves."

Levy observes the mainstreaming of raunch, and women, including feminists, falling obediently into line promoting it. "But I could never make the argument add up in my head," she writes. "How is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish *good* for women?"

Somewhere along the developmental line of women's liberation, as we fought for equal rights and opportunities, we achieved much in some areas while failing in the area of female sexuality. It is where we are, perhaps, most vulnerable and needy for approval of the opposite gender. And so, it appears, our line has become - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Levy interviews various porn stars such as Jenna Jameson to dig into the motivation behind the act. And act it is. When these women describe what they do, not once, Levy observes, do they use the word "pleasure." The predominant descriptive word, in fact, is "pain." The reason for doing their work? "Because I was paid to."

If feminism was meant to be, among other things, an arena in which to develop a heightened sense of connection for a woman to her own body, the rise of raunch is built around male rather than female fantasy, the predominant theme being one of subjugation of the woman rather than her pleasure. As long as women emulate men in and outside of the boardroom in how they express their strength, their smarts, and their sexuality, they are still making a statement that to be a woman is to be inferior.

Levy explores the culture of raunch among youth, those scantily clad young women dressed in, as Levy calls it, "the slut uniform." When asked, it is not promiscuity they crave, but acceptance. One female teen expresses it this way: "To dress the skankiest, that would be the one way we compete... I wanted guys to want me, to want to hook up with me, I guess, even though I *didn't* want to hook up with them."

This same attitude appears among sex workers. "The cultural dominance of the porn-star fantasy is that it defies control. Porn stars are quite firmly under various controls. Most obviously, they are under corporate control. Sex workers are *workers.* They are having sex because they are paid to, not because they are in the mood to. The best erotic models, then, would seem to be the women who get the most pleasure out of sex, not the women who get the most money for it."

Levy explores the theory that most sex workers are victims of sexual abuse and finds basis for the estimates that as many as 90 percent have suffered sexual trauma, two-thirds suffer from post-traumatic stress, a number twice as high as Vietnam vets. "There is something twisted about using a predominantly sexually traumatized group of people as our erotic role models." Jenna Jameson writes, "To this day, I still can't watch my own sex scenes." In describing what she does, Jameson desscribes sex: "It was a weapon I could exploit mercilessly."

Levy concludes that the raunch culture is not a pursuit of female sexuality, but an abandonment of it.

"The proposition that having the most simplistic, plastic stereotypes of female sexuality constantly reiterated throughout our culture somehow proves that we are sexually liberated and personally empowered has been offered to us, and we have accepted it. It's time to stop nodding and smiling uncomfortably as we ignore the crazy feeling in our heads and admit that the emperor has no clothes."

Levy mentions "many letters from men confirming my gut feeling that reducing sexuality to a commercial formula is no better for them than for us." One can only hope so. But, either way, it is time for women to get back to being strong and competent, confidant and fully sensual. Now, that's revolutionary. And sexy.

(less)

Like this review? yes (7 people liked it)

1 comment

03/08/07

Larissa rated it:

bookshelves: 2007, americana, non-fiction

Read in March, 2007

Ever since I heard--or rather, speculated on--the premise of this book, I wanted to support it. Wanted to get behind the woman who was willing to lay bare all the ways in which females so often 'ruined it for the rest of us.' And yet, Levy takes this theme very close to my heart and makes it almost impossible to take her seriously as anything short of a prudish, porn-hating, sexually reticent sapphist.

It's not that her discussion shoulnd't include interviews with women who proudly s...more Ever since I heard--or rather, speculated on--the premise of this book, I wanted to support it. Wanted to get behind the woman who was willing to lay bare all the ways in which females so often 'ruined it for the rest of us.' And yet, Levy takes this theme very close to my heart and makes it almost impossible to take her seriously as anything short of a prudish, porn-hating, sexually reticent sapphist.

It's not that her discussion shoulnd't include interviews with women who proudly sport Playboy bunnies, who flash 'Girls Gone Wild!' cameras after the promise of a trucker hat, who have moved to the top of the corporate world by producing programs on the "ultimate fantasy" of being a porn star. Because it should. And Levy does make some insightful points about the common equation of exhibitionist sexuality with power, as well as the manner in which women who want to set themselves above the tradtional lot and reception of their gender mask themselves in a sort of faux masculinity, deeming their traits--their favored traits--as somehow 'male.' The problem is that she consistently (and unncessisarily) stacks the deck--interviews only people who are going to reinforce her vision of naieve girls commodifying themselves or foolishly contrary women who advertise their 'empowerment' whilst selling their 'sisters' down the river. She interviews porn stars who were raped, beaten, and abused prior to choosing their profession. She interviews Adam Corolla. And with the expected sound bytes from such individuals, who can argue with her point: women are still living in a degraded patriarchal society and they are bringing it on themselves.

What makes this assertion truly problematic is that Levy has no solution for this problem, no interviews with--or even speculations on--what a strong, healthily-sexual woman looks like. Presumably she thinks that she herself as above and outside, a paragon of liberated and feministic sexuality (although she occasionally admits to falling prey to the temptation of buying into masculine privlege), but she never actaully explains what qualities she has that others lack, or how she's managed to escape the vortex of 'raunch.' Instead, there she stands, on the sidelines, turning up her nose at the poor self-degraders, the prissed out, self-righteous lesbian that no doubt many people expected her to be.

It is, then, the final irony that Ariel Levy lets not a single sequined, tube-topped interview go by without first decribing--in great detail--the young women's hair color, innocent lips, curvaceous figure, glowing skin. Perhaps such characterizations are intended to draw our attention to the sad irony: the inherent beauty and innocence of girls and women who think of themselves as nothing more than flesh and display. But closer observation reveals nothing more or less than ogling--the visual consumptions of a woman who likes to watch, likes to critique, but doesn't have a single answer. (less)

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

3 comments

01/01/08

Cori rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Women who don't get other women.

From my blog:

Let me start out by saying this is definitely not something I would normally pick up, and I'm feeling a little weird writing a review of a book so overtly about sex. But over the last few years I've become fascinated with teenage girl culture (I attribute this to working with the high school youth group at my church). Watching these girls navigate the murky waters between girlhood and womanhood has been so interesting to watch. While the majority of my girls have left th...more From my blog:

Let me start out by saying this is definitely not something I would normally pick up, and I'm feeling a little weird writing a review of a book so overtly about sex. But over the last few years I've become fascinated with teenage girl culture (I attribute this to working with the high school youth group at my church). Watching these girls navigate the murky waters between girlhood and womanhood has been so interesting to watch. While the majority of my girls have left the youth group to become nice, normal college students, there are a few who have completely rebelled and embraced this "slut-it-up" mentality that I just don't understand. When did acting like a stripper become cool?

Ariel Levy, who considers herself a feminist, tries to uncover why many of us, as American women, have embraced this raunchy culture: stripper classes at the gym, New York Times best sellers by porn stars, all sorts of waxing and implants and dye jobs, etc. She says, "If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chaunvinst Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves."

What is it about strippers and porn stars that have American women fascinated? Levy interviewed a number of women (and younger girls) who find "adult culture" fascinating and empowering. But Levy makes the point that these things aren't necessarily empowering. Many of her interviewees though that by watching porn and going to strip clubs they were able to run with the boys. But how is it empowering, in a female sense, to be one of the guys? And other women thought strippers are ultimate sexual fantasy -- but it's their job to fake arousal. How is that empowering -- or even sexy at all?

Levy is concerned that we've taken something so individual and personal -- our own desires and needs -- and bottled them up into a neat little package of what is "sexy." It doesn't matter what we each, individually, find sexy. It's all about big boobs, short skirts, and putting out.

One thing that I thought was missing from Levy's book was parental responsibility. Not once did she question, "who would let her daughter leave the house wearing that?" Parents weren't mentioned at all. I think it's a parental responsibility to help educate daughters. I also think society needs to step up and stop sexualizing young girls. Perhaps we should rethink thongs for ten-year-olds.

Anyway, I think Levy sums up her book nicely: ""How is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish good for women? Why is laboring to look like Pamela Anderson empowering? And how is imitating a stripper or a porn star--a woman whose job is to imitate arousal in the first place -- going to render us sexually liberated? 'Raunchy' and 'liberated' are not synonyms. It is worth asking ourselves if this bawdy world of boobs and gams we have resurrected reflects how far we've come, or how far we have left to go."

My Rating: 7 out of 10 for helping put words to something I've been seeing for years. Still, could have used some solutions instead of just pointing out where women have gone wrong.
(less)

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

add a comment

11/08/07

Ngaire rated it:

Saw Ariel Levy on The Colbert Report, and thought she sounded really bright. She has several really important things to say in this book, and it's a good, easy read. Firstly, she notes how stripping and pornography, formerly on the fringes of society, have been mainstreamed to the point where middle class suburban women take poledancing courses at the gym. She takes issue with the idea that this acceptance of objectifying women is in any way healthy. There's a whole generation of women who a...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

07/19/07

Shannon rated it:

(review of isbn 0743249895)

bookshelves: non-fiction, sexuality

Read in July, 2006

recommends it for: Feminists

FCP is very easy to read. She selects provocative topics such as: Girls Gone Wild, Sex in the City, “Bois” in San Francisco, Playboy, The Man Show, a supposedly feminist organization called CAKE, Jenna Jameson’s bio, and a crop of incidents of teens giving BJs on the school bus. She also offers a comprehensive history of the feminist movement that is quite informative for a “beginner.”

Her whole shtick is an attack on “raunch” culture a la Paris Hilton and stripper/porn ...more FCP is very easy to read. She selects provocative topics such as: Girls Gone Wild, Sex in the City, “Bois” in San Francisco, Playboy, The Man Show, a supposedly feminist organization called CAKE, Jenna Jameson’s bio, and a crop of incidents of teens giving BJs on the school bus. She also offers a comprehensive history of the feminist movement that is quite informative for a “beginner.”

Her whole shtick is an attack on “raunch” culture a la Paris Hilton and stripper/porn star idolization. She complains that too many women are acting like men, objectifying themselves and other women.

Her riskiest pursuit is comparing this phenomenon to the racial dynamic in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”:

“…there are parallels in the ways we can think about the limits of what can be gained by “acting like” an exalted group or reifying the stereotypes attributed to a subordinate group…In doing so, you may be getting ahead in some way…but you are simultaneously reifying the system that traps you.”

She makes many other interesting and impressive points. Despite that, I didn’t read it 100% snowed by her ideas and command of language and argument. I couldn’t quite put my finger on the text’s flaws so I read some reviews and some of their points hit home.

Though her topics are varied and interesting, they are not synchronized as well as they could have been. One review complained that Levy seemed to have take a bunch of her editorials (she writes for New York magazine) and linked them together with a sentence or two. Another review commented that FCP was just a glorified college thesis.

Levy also interviews several young women and uses their testimonies as evidence to support her arguments, but true research and analysis requires more rigid statistical accumulation and Levy offers the reader none of that.

Other than that, I recommend the book to any female (and male) who thinks about our society and culture and examines the way in which it influences us. It is super easy to read and if anything, FCP is capable of raising people’s consciousness. I appraise her effort to revive feminist thought.
(less)

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

06/28/07

Missy Meegan rated it:

(review of isbn 0743249895)

bookshelves: goodreads

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: feminists and young women

Levy did an excellent job of describing the FCP ( the Female Chauvinst Pig) who at the same time disdains traditional girliness and femininity yet encourages and perpetuates the sexual objectivity of women. The FCP's ultimate goal is to " be like a man," even though that can mean, at times, giving into the same heteropatriarchal structures that lead to their own oppression.
Levy thouroughly deconstructs the "Girls Gone Wild" fad of women taking their tops off and (heter...more Levy did an excellent job of describing the FCP ( the Female Chauvinst Pig) who at the same time disdains traditional girliness and femininity yet encourages and perpetuates the sexual objectivity of women. The FCP's ultimate goal is to " be like a man," even though that can mean, at times, giving into the same heteropatriarchal structures that lead to their own oppression.
Levy thouroughly deconstructs the "Girls Gone Wild" fad of women taking their tops off and (hetero women) making out with other women and the recent phenomenon women dancing on stipper poles and claiming they like it because they find it liberating. She questions if this is the case. Do they really like it or does the so-called power the obtain from this action only come from the power one feels from the male gaze? Is objectification power? Is power from the male gaze really power at all? Is it really sex-positive if you are stripping for men or making out with other woman not for your own pleasure, but rather to seek male approval? What about creating positive approaches to expressing your sexuality that are not based on the cultural norms of the male gaze and doing, instead, what women feels best express their sexuality?

Her interviews with young ( teenage) women who described sex and " no big deal" or that they did it to "fit in better" really broke my heart. Their stories about how they didn't evne enjoy it brought me to tears. A lot of these girls were only having sex for attention or to be more popular, I would not consider them FCP's-- they just had low self-esteem and were trying to fit in better in a way that was only going to cause them problems.

Also, while her power analysis of the FCP was quite comprehensive, I am hesitant to full endorse her stance on it. I felt that her insistence on the oppression of women through displaying their sexuality in this fashion perpetued thr victimization of women through their sexual expression. Simply stated, if you want a man to pay attention to you or (:::gasp:::) you actually really like sex and how it makes you feel.. you don't fit in her analysis. An addition of a chapter on feminist erotics to balance out her anti-porn stance and sex-positive feminism would have made this monograph much more well rounded.

Though this was a good read, I felt like it made me ask more questions than answered them. Overall though, I would reccommend it. (less)

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

07/17/07

Asher Huey rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

I consider myself liberal and open-minded but over the past few years I have been shocked by how sexually charged society has become. It is a relief to read that there are like-minded people who agree. I've said for years that lipstick feminism is not feminism and this book clearly lays out that argument. By using their sexuality as power women have begun re-objectifying themselves and succumbing to the stereotypes they fought so hard to break away from.

Everyone should read this book...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

add a comment

07/01/07

Alyssa rated it:

(review of isbn 0743249895)

People have criticized this book in many ways, one of which is by saying that Ariel Levy suggests that girls or feminists can't be sexual beings or enjoy sex, but I saw it completely differently. Levy is saying that womyn and girls shouldn't be sexual for the sake of men or for the sake of our society, because being sexual has become about how womyn look through the eyes of men, or other womyn. Levy reminds us that being sexual should be about sexual pleasure for womyn, which girls gone wild, ...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

10/06/07

Tigertales rated it:

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!

Pretty terrific analysis of the female contribution to "raunch culture." It's been frustrating to me, as a proponent of feminism (to the extent that it enables women to reconsider themselves as distinct individuals outside the bounds of traditional gender roles), to see so many women get on board with such demeaning activities as stripping, prostitution and the like. In facts, anecdotes and interviews, Levy addresses both the current shape of female raunchist, and reconstructs the hist...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

05/04/07

Richard rated it:

bookshelves: readfromlibrary

Read in January, 2007

Female Chauvinist Pigs was a difficult book for me to enjoy. Levy digs deep into our culture and finds a plethora of gender problems, and shows that feminism's relative successes in the job and education worlds have not translated to a healthy gender situation in America. These problems are fascinating, alternatingly intuitive and shocking, inspiring and lamentable. In the end, Levy doesn't propose any predictions, solutions, or unifying theories. The book ends as a laundry-list of the Chern...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

08/17/07

Supriya Gujral rated it:

(review of isbn 0743249895)

Read in April, 2006

A great analysis of modern American trends - this book is interesting in that it focuses on females who have been co-opted into "chauvinistic" behavior toward other women. It tries to answer questions such as - What is feminism to you? How does it equate to our existence as a woman? Why do we strive so hard to be "manly" in our daily activities? How did sexuality become feminism?

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

08/21/07

Leah rated it:

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: everybody

Ariel Levy articulates so many thought I've had about girls and women's use of hypersexuality as a means of "empowerment". She looks at everything from second wave feminism and the sexual revolution to Girls Gone Wild and strippercize classes. I want to give this book to every teenage girl I meet.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

09/15/07

Sarah rated it:

Read in January, 2007

This was a highly anticipated read for me. About post-feminist females seeking new-found feminism in strip clubs, pornography, and aligning with male chauvenists in a stumbling effort to restake themselves in the American culture. Ariel Levy hit the nail on the head with this one.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

12/21/07

courtney rated it:

really satisfying and interesting book. levy's tone throughout is light enough that you never feel defensive, but sharp enough that you recognize that there is something wrong. i appreciated the history and context for the rift between sexual revolution and feminism and how that rift deepened and how feminism became discredited in the push to "own" our bodies and do with them what we wish. what i think is interesting is that our society encourages girls to go wild, but then almost i...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

09/11/07

Zara Logue rated it:

Read in February, 2007

“Raunch culture is about creating a shorthand for sexuality.”

Levy points out that the future was left open after a coherent message of a united feminism failed to surface in the late ‘70’s as various contingents splintered off. Women in her generation grew up with mothers who took part in women’s lib and ended up taking their mother’s actions for granted, content to believe that the wave would swing forward with no action required. Initially, this premise was supported b...more “Raunch culture is about creating a shorthand for sexuality.”

Levy points out that the future was left open after a coherent message of a united feminism failed to surface in the late ‘70’s as various contingents splintered off. Women in her generation grew up with mothers who took part in women’s lib and ended up taking their mother’s actions for granted, content to believe that the wave would swing forward with no action required. Initially, this premise was supported by the rising numbers of women in higher-ranking jobs, more equity in pay, more women working in general. But it fell apart as the next generation took the helm, unsure of how they might fit the feminism of the past into their increasingly complex contemporary lives, lives influenced by media in a way their mothers never could have imagined.

I mostly agree with the argument Levy puts forward in her book: that what is missing in American women, and maybe in America as a whole, is idealism and the power to act on that idealism as a force against mainstream media images. We live in a culture where radical movements are quickly absorbed into the mainstream in order to pacify them. Instead, we’re content to reenact the images we see constantly in the media of celebrity, exhibitionism, and sexual behavior without sexual pleasure. Using current examples from our culture like Girls Gone Wild, teenage exhibitionism, historical feminism, and boi culture, Levy illustrates the issue from many angles. Women are denying themselves fulfillment in sexual, professional, and social realms by withholding from actions and behaviors that might present them as something less than the current ideal. And by doing so, they prevent other women, girls, and men from imagining and image of women any different from the one currently on display. The thing left out of the book, and the thing I think about often is: do any of us have the fortitude and vision to create a new image and what, exactly, does that look like?
(less)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

03/25/07

sylas rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: I would not recommend this book.

While Levy's analysis of the ways in which some women participate in and uphold raunch culture is, at times, quite apt, this book as a whole brushes past the true root of the issue (patriarchy) and in doing so places blame at the wrong placemat. Rather than critiquing the dominant paradigm of power and control, or focusing on oppression, racism or class, Levy focuses on the ways in which women (and sometimes men, who she inacurately identifies as women) can harm other women by perpetuating raun...more While Levy's analysis of the ways in which some women participate in and uphold raunch culture is, at times, quite apt, this book as a whole brushes past the true root of the issue (patriarchy) and in doing so places blame at the wrong placemat. Rather than critiquing the dominant paradigm of power and control, or focusing on oppression, racism or class, Levy focuses on the ways in which women (and sometimes men, who she inacurately identifies as women) can harm other women by perpetuating raunch culture and "acting like men". Though I agree that women should be held accountable for their contributions to a system that perpetuates mysogyny (just as any person of any gender should be) and though I'm sure that it was Levy's intention to write a book that encourages such accountability, I don't believe that this book effectively calls women to action in this ragard. In fact, I think that this book -- when placed in the hands of the wrong person -- could prove dangerous.
In Levy's chapter "From Womyn to Bois", she discusses the ways in which female born gender variant people, female born genderqueers and transguys -- all of whom she describes as "bois" -- uphold and perpetuate raunch culture through their actions and behaviors. Levy uses female pronouns for all but one of the differently gendered people she refers to in this chapter (who she seems to have decided is trans enough to warrant appropriate gender pronouns) and belittles their experience in her description of them as promiscuous "lesbians" caught up in the "fad" of testosterone and top surgery. This is transphobia at its finest.
Levy's book seems based on very limited, few and far between interviews with randomly selected members of various communities (whose experience she proudly generalizes as indicative of all members of that community). Her research is, in this way, flawed and ineffectual. Her transphobia is frightening and hazardous.
This book is intended to be accessible to and appropriate for the average reader, which is why I take such great offense to her denegration of gender variant and trans identified folks. Hidden in amongst a proportedly feminist analysis in true hate-speech mired in disdain for queer culture. This is not a message I want distributed en masse throughout popular culture, for the aforementioned reasons.
(less)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

08/28/07

Sara Stepahin rated it:

Feminism is a tough subject and after reading some of the reviews of this book and this website, I actually feel like Levy was very bold in putting this out there. Anyway, it is an interesting look at the raunch culture that now gets past off as feminism (girls can do whatever they want now, like show their boobs on Girls Gone Wild or make out with their friends to get attention for the on looking guys. Levy discusses many of the women who think of this "freedom" as the new wave of fe...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

06/05/07

nicebutnubbly rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in January, 2007

An interesting look at "post-feminist" culture, from the point of view of a second-wave feminist. Makes some excellent points about the logical flaws of a female culture of sex and exhibitionism claiming to be empowering, but assumes that the reader is aware of the state of women's rights in general in America. The problem with post-feminist rhetoric, as I see it, is that the people spouting it really don't realize that serious gender inequities persist, and so aren't understanding how...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

06/03/07

Ashley rated it:

(review of isbn 0743249895)

Read in May, 2006

recommends it for: twentysomethings

I was taking a Women's Studies class in school and, what can I say, this book touched a nerve. Like Ms. Levy, I do not like the incorrect assumption that, by adopting a "Girls Gone Wild" mentality, young women are making a powerful, feminist statement.

This book tried to enforce the idea that feminists are not haters of sex-in fact, feminists are quite the opposite. However, what is considered "sexy" now does not promote positive feelings toward young women; this...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 102 103 next »

recent status updates | recommend it | blog it

combine
other editions (6)

More editions...

quotes from this book

"You think you're being brave, you think you're being sexy, you think you're transcending feminism. But that's bullshit. - Susan Brownmiller" More quotes...