Product Description

Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig -- the new brand of "empowered woman" who embraces "raunch culture" wherever she finds it. In her groundbreaking book, New York magazine writer Ariel Levy argues that, if male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making sex objects of other women -- and of themselves. Irresistibly witty and wickedly intelligent, Female Chauvinist Pigs makes the case that the rise of raunch does not represent how far women have come; it only proves how far they have left to go.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9130 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com
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

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What does sexy mean today? Levy, smartly expanding on reporting for an article in New York magazine, argues that the term is defined by a pervasive raunch culture wherein women make sex objects of other women and of ourselves. The voracious search for what's sexy, she writes, has reincarnated a day when Playboy Bunnies (and airbrushed and surgically altered nudity) epitomized female beauty. It has elevated porn above sexual pleasure. Most insidiously, it has usurped the keywords of the women's movement (liberation, empowerment) to serve as buzzwords for a female sexuality that denies passion (in all its forms) and embraces consumerism. To understand how this happened, Levy examines the women's movement, identifying the residue of divisive, unresolved issues about women's relationship to men and sex. The resulting raunch feminism, she writes, is a garbled attempt at continuing the work of the women's movement and asks, 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? Levy's insightful reporting and analysis chill the hype of what's hot. It will create many aha! moments for readers who have been wondering how porn got to be pop and why feminism is such a dirty word. (Sept. 13)

Copyright© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* With the rise of such magazines as Maxim and FHM and the popular video series Girls Gone Wild, raunch culture has never been more mainstream. The reason, Levy posits, is because women are getting in on the act and participating in their own exploitation. Levy takes a hard look at this new pop-culture phenomenon to see how smart, intelligent women buy into sexual stereotypes. She tags along for a night of Girls Gone Wild filming during which college girls strip down, fool around with each other, and regret it all in the morning. Talented female athletes, actresses, and musicians feel the need to strip down to almost nothing and pose provocatively for men's magazines. Levy notes how the anti-woman attitude has even invaded lesbian culture as sexually adventurous lesbians refer to themselves as 'bois' and resist the attempts of "femmes" to get them to settle down. Even the very traits associated with women are considered inferior as many women attempt to "just be one of the guys." A piercing look at how women are sabotaging their own attempts to be seen as equals by going about the quest the wrong way, Levy's engrossing book should be required reading for young women. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Looking for insight, Found it!
As a man, I was looking originally to find any insight into the female behavior I have seen in the mostly (but not exclusively) younger generation regarding sex. I definitely found what I was looking for in this book. Levy connects the dots to the feminist movements and gender role restriction/oppression and how some women continue by adopting the roles of men themselves. Great, fast read. I definitely recommend to all men.

Eye Opening...the women behind raunch culture.
Like most people in America, I once believed the male sex drive was the soul reason for our society's raunch culture, but Ariel Levy's book, Female Chauvinist Pigs forced me to look past the stereotypes and see that women are as much to blame for the rampant lewdness in pop culture as are men. From Levy's interviews with the female producers behind Girls Gone Wild and Playboy to would be strippers and Penthouse posers it becomes evident that women are not only conforming to stereotypical sexuality--they are inventing it, marketing it, and selling it. And the price men and women are paying for this canned version of sexuality is far too high.

In the words of Paris Hilton "[girls these days] are sexy but not sexual." Levy's book reveals the hook-up culture as a place where women are detached from their own sexuality. Instead of experiencing sex intimately, women in the hook-up culture use it to boost their ego or get what they want. They aspire to be sexually, "like a man" pursuing what turns them on and leaving relationships when the desire wanes--or having no relationship at all. Robert Jensen explores this topic further in his book Getting Off: Pornography and End of Masculinity.

Levy's book is a rebuttal to what the women behind the sex industry have been saying about raunch culture, that it is empowering, liberating and healthy for women. Levy explores the origins of today's trashiness as a confused byproduct of the sexual and feminist revolutions. How did women go from burning their bras to taking stripping lessons and having poles built into their bedrooms? Why is it healthy for women to imitate strippers--women whose job it is to fake arousal? And how is a stripper--a women who is essentially mute and void of humanity--an empowering role model? Meanwhile, women are loosing real power in politics and the workplace. Levy's book proves the work of feminism has yet to be accomplished. Truly empowered and liberating sexuality leaves room for individuality, not the plastic version the sex industry tries to sell us.

I gave Levy's book four stars because it truly opened my eyes to the raunch culture that surrounds me, its origins and the people behind it. This knowledge has empowered me to do what I can to change it. Now I completely detest seeing young girls wearing the playboy bunny charm even more than before because I realize these young girls are buying into an industry that will ultimately rob them of their unique voices and sexuality. Levy's writing style is easy to read and sometimes overly simplistic. The book would have been stronger if it was more intellectual (Levy tended to repeat a lot of dialogue from her interviews and I think this was mostly unnecessary). Statistics, more first hand interviews and an official study would have made for five stars. Nevertheless, it is a quick read and its message is easily understood.

A Fascinating Read
Levy is a brilliant writer with a colloquial style that makes her academic, and at times depressing, discussion of women and sex/porn/empowerment truly enlightening and fascinating.

Levy sets out to ask question regarding sex, sexuality, and empowerment in "post-feminism" America. Why is there a Girls Gone Wild, and what makes it appealing to women and men? Why is Paris Hilton a cultural icon? But Levy does not just ask poignant questions, she is also able to analyze and provide some answers. Levy balances her argument using tons of pop culture evidence and a good seasoning of historical feminist moments for understanding.

From teenaged girls to successful entrepreneurs, bois to female chauvinist pigs, Levy spans the scope of womanhood in America to discover what Americans label "sexy" and why? What does that definition mean for women and power? And are we really past the need for feminism as a movement?

This book is a must for anyone who wonders why they women engage in such acts of "sexiness" or how women can become so judgmental towards women who choose this style of expression. It is a MUST for women's studies courses. Highly recommend.