Female Chauvinist Pigs - Has anyone read?

Female Chauvinist Pigs : Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture


Editorial Reviews

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)


Has anyone read this book or know a person who has?

Sounds good. I might have to pick that up.

Then we can have a book club

Cool, I'll be Oprah and you can be Stedman!

Book sounds interesting.


Can I be the Hermes guy?

Can i be Dr. Phil do the world a favor and get my mouth sown shut?

As a vicious feminist that also loves porn, I'd really really like to read this book.

Read against the cultural criticism of Paglia or Irigaray, this book might be both interesting and relevant. Having not had the opportunity to read it yet, it is my hope that the author takes into consideration Nietzsche's Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy, as I feel that this distinction best describes women's current cultural situation. As I have said before ad nauseam, we are standing at a socio-political/socio-economic crossroads.

Any individual who cares about women's issues should let his/her voice be heard before we are all silenced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camile_Paglia

I have read it. It is ... "breezy" in terms of being not terribly deep, but very interesting none the less.

The ideas she espouses have been around for a while, but have not taken up by the general media. Interestingly, the receptiveness of the audience and the content of her book have both arrived at the same point, at the same time. People are perhaps ready to hear these arguments now (for whatever reason that is).

I have always thought it odd the way kids today think porn is "cool."

I have met young women that don't think they are having good sex, unless they are imitating every cheap pose or degrading act you see in a men's magazine, not realising that those poses have nothing to do with their own sexual needs and everything to do with their boyfriends fantasies.

It's as if girls today have internalised male sexual fantasies to the point that they believe that they are their own, when you only have to go back in time 5 or 10 years to find the majority of women thinking those same acts are something that only a cheap hooker would perform.

The author doesn't point it out as far as I recall, but to me it's like a whole new "adoration of the penis" culture has arrived in the last few years. And that is pretty much the exact opposite of feminism.

I think this is a simplistc view of the very complex role of women in society today. There is so much more to the current expression of women's sexuality than a rebirth of the "adoration of the penis" culture.

Having said that, I do agree that what, to me, seemed a positive turn has regressed as far as how the youth of today is able to interpret and act on the culture we have spawned. Seemingly having been exposed to more, quicker, the girls of today seem a far cry from the strong women I know of my generation.

There is an interplay between the immaturity of these young people, a lack of general support and guidance and the blazing media consumer culture that has twisted the openness and freedom of yesterday.

Geez. I spun my own head around while writing this and may have agreed with you anyway

Well I was being simplistic I could probably post a few pages on my opinions on pornography and the penis culture, but there is only so much space on the forum (and only so much interest).

Oy, I am the epitome of the "Menis" generation.

Well some of those things that cheap hookers do are things that people have always done, they just have the decency to do it behind closed doors and not let all the world know about it.


I was speaking to a friend the other day about the sexual behavior of Women (because of this study) and how a lot of it seems to be not about them ejoyign their own sexuality or expanding their fantasies but exactly how you have stated it, they have internalised the fantasies of Men to the point of believing they are actually their own.

Many people, it seems to me, even when those people are of a sufficient intelligence, are content to be directed by the prevailing fashion --- even when that fashion would strike others of us as something irrelevant or, at worst, hostile to authentic passion and experience. And fashions --- in human interaction and expression --- are increasingly driven by marketing. And marketing must perforce rely on reductions of true experience toward (often garish) iconography, the better to capture the greatest amount of potential consumers in its mediated net.

Would that the subsets of this process (presenting in this case as the commodification of female sexual expression) were exclusively the results of some conspiracy or other instance of group-based planning; those agencies could, at least, be fought against as a distinct enemy. But while many groups will make use of these overarching forces (and will tend to purposefully amplify those forces' power and scope), ultimately we have (in so many cases) "met the enemy, and she is us."

Which, I insist, is not a defeatist view.

Resistance IS useful. But, I believe, only as an end in itself: nothing will be pervasively changed by my actions; the cycles will come and go, as always, the pendulum will continue to swing. But I need not surrender myself, ever; and my resistance may inspire others' resistance as well --- if such a thing is, to them, worth the effort.

And that will suffice. That'll do, pig.



Okay. Much more than my $.02L worth, and pretty damned reductive itself. But y'all caught me on a wool-gathering, word-chumming day...

Memory fades.

Hasn't this been happening for a long time? So that - from the perspective of society - this is the "normal" (althought not necessarily desirable) role for women?

When a group of human beings, who have been defined, limited, and largely controlled by others for a long time, achieve a measure of liberty and self-expression, isn't the first issue always, "Who are we, really?" and "How shall we reinvent our ideas and behavior?" I could be wrong, but I always thought that's what feminism was about.

I don't particularly care for the "Pamela Anderson" direction, but perhaps it's merely a more assertive female sexuality, a sometimes-misguided attempt to correlate the male and the female zeitgeist in a kind of Tootsie-like way.

Just a thought.

The entire Cosmopolitan magazine is chauvanistic.

Yeah. I was thinking of more extreme acts that just oral sex or whatever though, but perhaps you are right about those too.
I think this is true, at least in a general way.

It is of course kind of rude to tell someone that their fantasy is not their own, but someone elses. No one likes to be told what they think about something.

But historically, socially, long-view wise I think this is exactly what is happening.
I blame Christina Aguilera

This doesn't apply only to women. It's just as true of men... and not just about sex but ALL aspects of culture. People "want" what they are taught to believe they're supposed to want, which is complicated by the fact that it's a completely mixed message... over-sexualized everything, mixed with puritan guilt. Maybe women are just becoming more "equal" to men in this department where their sexuality is starting to have less to do with actual intimacy and more to do with bragging rights and a warped view of what "normal" experience is. Combine a climate where everything is sexualized for capitalist purposes with a culture where frank and honest sex education is repressed by religion and you get exactly what we have in the US... a land of very confused, ignorant, horny, guilty people who think everyone else's sex involves circus tricks that no one bothered to teach them.

I agree with this; the in-your-face tabloidization of magazines and celebrities with perfect bodies who give details about all the cosmetic products they use to get them looking so good doesn't help either. No wonder there's this whole subculture of "mia" and "ana" girls who actually support each other in unhealthy eating (or lack thereof) habits.

Magazines like Maxim and Stuff can have funny articles, but I've also met a ton of girls who boast that they read these magazines mostly to show that they're "one of the guys" too.

Girls read these magazines not because of the funny articles. They read them to see what "real" women should look like. Then they beat themselves up over it because they don't look like bikini goddesses. Listening to songs about bitches and ho's and shorties doesn't help either.

As one of those girls who happens to be in the 18-24 demographic, I'm not immune to all this garbage, but I do have an idea of how women should be, which is strong and cool and real, and has very little to do with Beyonce's song "Independent Woman."

Can one have it both ways? Can a woman go on a date and have the man pay for it? You can't wail on about how you're "one of the guys" and then expect them to open the door for you when you're wearing that tiny bit of fabric masquerading as a shirt.

I'm really, really disappointed with most of the girls in my generation. I think a lot of it has to do with oblivious parents and childhoods spent in front of the TV set.

This is exactly what I was thinking while reading the first few posts. You were describing male behavior to me. Learned behavior patterns that are a blend of cultural pressure (from other males, no less, equally as from how we *think* women want us to behave), mindlessness, and a pinch of whatever serves as the true self. That result is often appalling, but not always.

Memory said a mouthful. I am my own enemy, indeed.

I think you are giving the marketing/advertising industry too much credit. At best, they pick up nascent societal trends on their evil-culture-radar. You get to that here:



This is the push-me-pull-you of the individual mind working against and with larger society. I would be interested to know, specifically, which 'groups' you see 'making use of these overarching forces." That list would help me clarify my response.



How far will it swing before all progress toward equality is erased? I am not willing to relinquish the rights for which my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother have faught.

http://www.llamas.co.nz/_borders/push_me_pull_you.jpg

I completely agree with this Chip.

There are tons of cases like this where a media image or position, (in my view irresponsibly promoted), is quickly internalised by a generation of children and pops out later as the "norm."

This is a little off topic, but I remember in the 70's when there was a big debate about car advertisements showing cars racing around all the time (especialy racing in the city). There was a movement to ban these ads based on the idea that kids would get a warped idea about safe driving and perhaps take to racing cars on city streets (unheard of at the time). It was also considered that it was irresponsible to show people driving the product in a way that would require years of training to imitate safely.

Needless to say the car companies won that debate hands down. A generation later, we have a huge increase in aggressive driving, bad driving in general and the new phenomonon of "street racing." Of course growing up watching all those car commercials and action movies had *nothing* to do with it.

Not to say that there were not bad drivers in the 70's, but the increase in number and the way in which such "bad driving" has become todays norm is highly suspicious given that the media has been engaged in presenting this exact behaviour as "normal" during the exact period that the change has occured.

Hey, Babe. I agree with your view that marketing strategies necessitate focus on iconography over "being" (logo over product, image over content) in order to generate the most profit and that this has had an eroding effect on feminism. But I'd like to emphasize that this phenomenon isn't only detrimental to the ideals of feminists, but all cultures, religion, and even our sense of self. Our cultures, religions, and ideals have all become commodities because we have fallen into a system where desire has been crowned the ultimate achievement, weapon, and provider of society.

But where do you begin to gain back mental ground? School? The branding process has already infiltrated into our education systems. Somewhere in the last twenty years we've allowed marketers to convince us to believe we are dependent on them as they've sold our culture back to us. When a school needs a new program, the first question is, "How do we get sponsorship?" Sponsorship. Corporate sponsorship has become the assumed model for progress. Want to build a basketball court? Want to hold a concert? Want to be a star? Want to be a person? Sponsorship. That's a key word that defines the power structures we've come to accept since the 80's. When we get sponsorship, what we are doing in actuality is selling advertising space-- but the way marketers have redefined the power relationship is that we need sponsors so much that we will modify our integrity to better suit them, at risk of their wrath.

The only way to win (for a time) within this system is to redefine the cool, to rebrand feminism and sell it back to the youth. But, in my opinion, this will ultimately fail. The 30-somethings and above will always lament the loss of their own values when they look upon the youth and the youth will always be fighting against the norms established by their antecedents. Give it a few years and you'll be right back to the antithesis of the cool you're trying to brand today.

In my opinion, if you care about feminism(tm), the fight has become much larger than just your ideals, it is a fight for mental space. It is a fight against greed over intelligence ("If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?". It is a fight against corporations and their lobby groups exerting pressure on the government, to continue to exist with the same (or more) rights as human beings, and to have government agenda coincide with their own desires. It is a fight against this way of life that is subtly pushed on us at all times of the day and night in an ever more inescapable and suffocating flood of advertisements and marketing ploys and measures of success limited to a product's value in gold. It is a fight to be a self-reflective, intelligent human and not a christmas tree of commodity and ornamental objectification. In my opinion, a fight to rebrand feminism for today's youth is just not enough. It's only a temporary fight, one that will be capitalized by the Gaps and the Targets and the Pepsis with their strong, independent women campaigns drinking a strong new beverage, wearing heels that provide stronger support that will get you through today's battles. And it will be a good fight until it's passe in 15 minutes.
The process will only repeat itself unless social values at their deepest level are changed and we regain our mental space.

What were we talking about again? Oh right, cream pie. XD

And at worst they turn America into a nation of suburbanite wangstas. Have you seen MTV? I think you're giving the average youth too much credit. You're the exception, not the norm.

One of my favorite programs on defining and creating what's fashionable:

The Merchants of Cool

Regarding the idea that women are defining their sexuality based on what they think men want - how is this different than they have behaved throughout recorded history? For my own part, I don't think I could define my own sexuality any differently.