Essay on Female Chauvinist Pigs

Ariel Levy, a staff writer at the New Yorker, and author of the article “Female Chauvinist Pig” has brought up a very interesting topic about Raunch Culture. Now, what particularly is raunch culture? Raunch culture, in my own words, I can say is defined as a culture which allows a woman to participate in male-dominant cultures of raunch that deals a lot with sex in a way that is meant to be funny. Women who participate in this culture have to reject some of the things women are known to do, which they consider “girly-girl”. Although some things that they wear or do are considered “girly-girl”, women still have to embrace, acknowledge and accept certain male stereotypes in order to participate in raunch culture.

The excerpt from Leslie Bell’s “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom” explains the reality of how the expectation of sexual exploration for women in their twenties plays a reverse role on their behaviors and actually limits them. Bell thus groups female attitudes and behaviors in regards to their interaction with sexuality and relationships. She categorizes women into one of three: the sexual woman, the relational woman, and the desiring woman. Although this could result in a possible loss of individualism by grouping women and their experiences into three groups, and Bell acknowledges this, but insists that it provides an opportunity to study how women can share the same behaviors in a sexually confusing era.

In the book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture ch.6 "shopping for sex" by Ariel Levy, critiques the highly sexualized American culture in which women are objectified, objectify one another, and are encouraged to objectify themselves. Levy refers to this as "raunch culture". There is no denying that raunch culture is everywhere today. Music videos, advertisements and even children products are more often targeted as ‘sexy’ because, let’s face it, sex sells. Ariel Levy explores and discusses how this culture has risen and how the second-wave feminist struggle has appropriated into the war cry that sex and stripping now means liberalisation for women. Levy sets out to ascertain why raunch culture is so appealing to women, particularly young, educated women and more concerning, young teenage girls, some as young as twelve, who strive to embody the raunch culture by wearing make-up and snapping g-strings at boys. Levy discovers that raunch and sexual appeal have become separated from the act of sex itself. Levy also details the history and battles of the second-wave feminist movement and key activists. Women have finally broken through the barriers and have presumably gained gender equality. The problem is, as Levy suggests, that women are still not free to act as ‘women’ or as themselves but they are now pressured to act as ‘men’ so they will be

on the oppression of women and facilitation of rape culture and violence. The question is not if pornography is virtuous. The question is if government has the ability to regulate and control pornographic material, or if that regulation through law pushed through by Radical feminists is against one’s individual sphere of liberty like liberals and liberal feminists would agree.

Worlds that are similar; Oryx and Crake and 50 Shades of Grey In Oryx and Crake, the fiction is based on a speculative idea in which the world is based on the assumption of the future our past events have led up to. The author, Margaret Atwood touches on a number of complex problems such as human sexuality and the fact that it is quite critical in the center of the problems of society. In her body of works, she also writes about animal extinction, biotechnology, climate changes, and slavery in which are all topics that modern society is facing as well.

Additionally, Penny’s discussion on many feminist issues in the lens of neoliberalism is refreshing and thought-provoking. The way Penny explores what neoliberalism and market-driven society has done to sex, love, and intimacy is captivating. The way the market teaches young women to be sexual objects is not a new discussion, and Penny does address it alongside the Internet, but Penny has more nuanced thoughts; she writes, “the social cost of actually having sex, rather than merely appearing to want to have it, is what damages women; sexual control, not sex itself, is what harms all of us” (110). There is a defined line for women in society; women can want sex and appear sexually attractive, but once they take control and have sex, there is an issue because the control has been taken from the power-holder. The market is the instigator in sexual control. Further, Penny argues the cycle does not end there: “as all human affect collapses

Sexuality is a particularly perplexing topic for young women. Bell notes that “Their (women’s) twenties ought to be a decade of freedom and exploration. But… I have found them to be more confused than ever about not only how to get what they want, but what they want.” (Bell 26) Yes, they are young and has so many opportunities in front of them. Yes, most of them have a college degree and are highly educated. Yes, there are too many choices and they are condemned whichever way they choose.

Whether if it’s in the form of conscience raising activism or trying to one up men by proving that certain activities don’t have to drip masculinity, a new wave of feminism is blooming. Author Ariel Levy was a witness to this but it seemed that what many considered liberating she considered bawdy, and the two were not synonymous in her book. I on the other hand, find this new wave to be an act of women reclaiming their sexuality as it’s so often determined by men on how we utilize it. This change is not pervasive or extreme but rather a breaking down of social constructs that were kept in power by the dominant group, men. Of course, there are those who only see this liberation as raunchy but it’s honestly a way for us to use our femininity to challenge objectification. It’s time to welcome acts of self-expression rather than internalizing

Rubin’s theory on sexuality completely transformed the way feminists in that period thought about the intersection of gender and sexuality. By declaring the necessity that sex must be its own category with its own theory, Rubin would forever change the face of sexual theory. They start out by examining the consequences of Victorian morality on

Despite the fact that many men continue to deny that women are objectified, being viewed as an object created solely as a means of pleasure for men is a reality for anyone who was born biologically female. Proving that women are considered less valuable than men is the statistic that women make only 70% of what men in a similar career earns (Ravelli & Webber 214). The sexaul double standard contributes to this idea as well which means that women who engage in sexual activities are “promiscuous” (Ravelli & Webber 237) or “whores” (Ravelli & Webber 237) while men who behave similarly are “Studs” (Ravelli & Webber 237) and women who do not engage in sexual activities are “virgins” (Ravelli & Webber 237) or “Madonna’s” (Ravelli & Webber 237). There are only two portrayals of women and both of these refer to her sexual activities. There are also outrageous definitions of beauty portrayed in the media to

Although the popular talk of women rights and freedom in the society does help women in certain degree to develop a sense of control and success in recent years, the topics of sex and relationships remain controversial and shameful to talk about. In “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, Leslie Bell discovers in her experiments and interviews that despite the choices of freedom and exploration modern women have, they are even more confused than before with too many choices. This confusion results in the problems of dealing with the connection between good sex and successful relationships. The cognitive consciousness of these women

This construction reinforces control over young women’s sexual expression. Faus highlights how it forces women to partake in this patriarchal culture where women’s bodies are under control

The Traffic in Women: The “Political economy” of sex by Gayle Rubin is an exploration of the origin of women’s oppression. Rubin’s main objective is to arrive at a more fully developed definition of the sex/gender system, otherwise referred to as “mode of reproduction” and/or “patriarchy”. She further develops her definition through the analysis of the work of Levi-Strauss and Freud from a marxist perspective. Rubin provides the following preliminary definition of the sex/gender system “A set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and in which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied.” (159) She attempts to add to her definition of the sex/gender system through the analysis of the overlapping work of Claude Levi- Strauss and Sigmund Freud. Despite implications with their work, Rubin believes that both Levi-Strauss and Freud provide conceptual tools in describing the sex/gender system. Rubin looks at a Marxist analysis of sex oppression, as well as, Engels theory of society which integrates both sex and sexuality. Furthermore she incorporates aspects of each theory addressed into her own working definition of the sex/gender system. By shifting between Marxist, structuralist and psychoanalyst explanations of sex oppression, Rubin is able to construct a multi-dimensional definition of the sex/gender system that is not only inclusive but also provides a basis of which to build from.

The most recent and current third wave of feminism began in the mid-90’s and has destabilized many past constructs including “universal womanhood,” gender, body, hetreronormativity, and sexuality. A peculiar and important point of the latest wave that

“In men, in general, sexual desire is inherent and spontaneous” whereas “in the other sex, the desire is dormant, if not non-existent, till excited” (457). Greg’s terminology is extremely power-laden. “Spontaneous” has the connotation of energy and activity, whereas “dormant” and “victim” imply inactivity. An important concept is the assumption that men, the “coarser sex,” act on women, the “weaker sex” (457).