Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Raunch Culture [Paperback]

Does it concern you that vacuous it-girls are held up as role models for young women? If the answer is yes, then this is the book for you.

Levy, like a lot of women, seems perplexed by the way that intelligent straight women are going to pole dancing clubs for kicks and that women who essentially feign desire for a living are used as a symbol of female sexual liberation.

The book primarily explores American culture, but don't be put off by this, many of the points she makes are relevant to all women. There are chapters about 'Sex in the City', CAKE parties, the lesbian phenomenon 'bois' (the 'bois' interviewed seem particualrly scathing about other women), Playboy and teaching abstinence to American school kids. There is also a handy and very readable chapter about the feminist movement in New York over the past 40 years.

Levy's arguments always seem balanced and reasonable (although she gets her point across), so don't expect a 200 page feminist rant.

The book does contain a high sexual content so might be one to avoid if you are easily offended.

Provocative, challenging, accessible. I'm so gald that someone has had the courage to write this book. Highly recommended.

Sex sells and Ariel Levy reckons it has sold the women's liberation movement out to the consumer ethos of patriarchy. Identifying pornography as integral to popular American culture, Levy suggests it has deprived women of the things they deserve, "freedom and power." She is not against some aspects of the new sexuality but argues that sexual freedom is only one specific kind of power. It is not the most important and - in believing that it is - women "are selling themselves unbelievably short".

Her scorn is reserved for those Female Chauvinist Pigs who have bought into the system as actors, producers, entrepreneurs and have self identified as part of a culture she despises. She notes, for example, that Playboy is a company run largely by women. She points to the crucial role of Sheila Nevins at HBO whose attitude was expressed in her comment, "Why is it that women will still go after women taking their clothes off and not after all the injustices in the workplace?". If unity is strength the feminist movement is undeniably weak.

Levy suggests that women, like porn star Jenna Jameson, who regularly removes her clothing, are "not sexually uninhibited (but) sexually damaged." Jameson herself admits she can't watch her own sex scenes. There are plenty of people who do, including more and more females. Jameson defends herself by saying "it's one of the few jobs for women where you can get to a certain level, look around and feel so powerful, not just in the work environment but as a sexual being."

That's the problem. Are feminine values properly encapsulated in their ability to have unfettered sex in the way in which, historically so it has been alleged, men have been able? Is that the kind of model which feminists should admire, condemn, or observe without comment? Levy does not think it should pass without comment. Her most frequent complaint is that a new generation of women have forsaken questions of women's identity and tried, as Christina Aguilera's mother said, "to change society so that a woman can do whatever men do". For Levy this is a betrayal of feminism not its fulfilment.

Many second wave feminists appear to disagree with her and the reason becomes clear in a brief but illuminating survey of political dissent in the late sixties and early seventies. Many groups felt they were part of a revolutionary process which would replace capitalism with humanistic values. Included in these values was the the advancement of "women's sexual pleasure and satisfaction". Yet while "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm" was a best seller, the objective of the simultaneous orgasm never happened and many "liberated" women assumed the male psyche was programmed to rape. This internal conflict has remained unresolved and provides one reason for the rise of raunch culture.

Levy understands that many young women believe raunch culture is for them. As one female said, "I always tell people, if I had a twenty-three inch waist and a great body, I would pose in Playboy. You know all those guys are sitting there staring at you, awe-ing at you. That must be power." For Levy, it's not - it's tomming. Levy devotes a chapter to womyn and bois, a discussion of lesbian culture in New York and San Francisco, much of it based on non committal sex. How much of it is real and how much a sign of immaturity is summarised by the female who commented, "I keep trying to grow up but it never seems to happen."

Levy's book centres on the United States and she is highly critical of sex education. That criticism can be transferred with equal applicability to the United Kingdom. Governments have failed to understand that "sex education" consists of two distinct parts. The first is biology and the second is relationships. Until that is addressed unwanted pregnancies will continue and females will make the same mistakes as previous generations.

Feminists who claim women are programmed to conform and incapable of independent thought devalue the female sex. Either women have the intelligence to resist media depictions of how females should act or they are incredibility shallow. Levy seems to think they are shallow because they are programmed. I suggest the problem lies within the female psyche, not the social construction of femininity. Whether anyone (especially males) can understand either is moot.

Things are changing. Playboy is making heavy losses, pornography has reached saturation point. The eroticism of the naked female has long since disappeared and feminism is dead in the water. Would I let my daughter read this book? She's a person in her own right and has a mind of her own - besides which she's already read it and thought it was excellent. So do I. Have I created a clone or has she made me a feminist? Five stars for a great book.

This is truly a good book - I recommend it - it was all I hoped it would be. Let’s face it there are aspects of this world that are a mess and one such section - feminism, sex, dating, media portrayals of women and sex, pornography, teenage pregnancy, - is openly analysed by the author. The book is a good smooth read as well as being very informative. Well done.