Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
By Ariel Levy
Schwartz Publishing, 2005, $29.95
Why is it that 30 years ago women were picketing Playboy magazine in the name of women's liberation, yet now many are wearing the magazine's bunny logo and claiming it is also a "liberated" act? Ariel Levy noticed this phenomenon called "raunch culture" and, in Female Chauvinist Pigs, asks why the culture has shifted so drastically in such a short period of time.
In her quest to find answers, she asked both men and women editors of magazines that promote this new culture. She was told that this new form of sexual culture proved that the "feminist project" had already been achieved. If powerful men were male-chauvinist pigs who saw women as "pieces of meat", then rich women in positions of power would outdo them! They would be female-chauvinist pigs — women who make sex objects of other women.
Levy questions how resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism banished is good for women. How does imitating a porn star or stripper render women sexually liberated?
Paris Hilton is today at the epicentre of the raunch culture. Two sexually explicit videos of her found their way onto an internet porn site. This, along with her reality TV show, The Simple Life, made her the most marketable female celebrity in the US. Her amateur pornography hasn't made her an outcast, but a star.
Levy believes that "raunch culture" is essentially commercial. It is purely about the appearance of sexiness — not the actual experience. Levy takes exception to the argument that the only alternative to enjoying Playboy or getting implants etc., is being "uncomfortable" and "embarrassed" about your sexuality. "Raunch culture, then, isn't an entertainment option, it's a litmus test of female uptightness", she argues. She quotes Paris herself as saying she does not really enjoy sex.
Levy asks why can't women be sexy and in control without being commodified. She argues that women have accepted the myth that sexiness is divorced from the everyday experience of being ourselves. She then turns her attention to the previous generation of feminists to find that the "empowerment" promised by raunch culture pales into insignificance in comparison to the real empowerment promised by the feminism of the '60s and '70s.
Levy interviewed Erica Jong, one of the best known sex-positive feminists, who told her that although she supports women being sexually liberated, women ought not to kid themselves that this culture is liberation. "Let's not confuse that with real power. I don't like to see women fooled."
Levy interviews a range of US teenagers who are clearly having a difficult time learning to recognise their own sexual desire amongst the cultural pressure to "seem" sexy. Whereas older women were around for the women's liberation movement, many young women only have the here and now — where 16-year-olds get breast implants, porn stars are topping the best seller lists, and strippers are mainstream.
Levy looks also at the successful TV show Sex and the City, which she believes, articulates many of the corruptions of feminism. She argues that this show divides human behaviour into "like a man" or "like a woman" rather than the egalitarianism and satisfaction that was feminism's initial promise.
Levy's book is a timely and thorough exploration of a phenomenon that is affecting millions of women, and men, in Western nations. What Levy doesn't explore is the potential for a "new wave" of female rebellion — when the implants and stripping classes fail to deliver liberation or satisfaction as they surely will fail to do.