Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture

Review

Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture presents a very interesting and poignant thesis – that American women have applied the freedoms granted to them by the feminist and Free Love movements to presenting themselves as “caricatures of female hotness” (198 ) in the interest of both fitting in with and better appealing to men. There is certainly plenty of evidence available to support her claim, and I doubt anyone would dispute that there are women who willingly objectify themselves for a myriad of individual reasons.

However, Levy does not present the objective analysis necessary for a true sociological investigation. She comes off as highly critical of the women she interviews who embody the ideals embraced by third-wave/sex-positive feminism, frequently taking a black-and-white stance on an issue that exists in multiple shades of gray. Feminist pioneers banded together at the grassroots level to overthrow the prevailing patriarchal system, thus granting women the freedom to live their lives as equal to men. How women today elect to use the liberties they’ve been given is their prerogative – some may find empowerment by working on their doctorate, others by auditioning to appear in a Playboy centerfold. The ultimate goal of feminism was to allow women to choose their OWN paths through life, completely unencumbered by masculine expectations. Any woman now who decides it is best for her to conform to what she believes men want or believes she can find strength in a career as an exotic dancer is doing so by her own free will. The long-term repercussions these choices have on society, however, remain to be seen. Perhaps it will lead to a complete unraveling of what the early feminists had envisioned, or perhaps it will result in Americans rethinking how objectifying women and men alike may negatively impact their community.

Levy implies that women who have twisted the traditional trappings of male chauvinism into a method of seeking strength have defected from the cause, “actively striv[ing] for the love of [their] oppressor[s]” (105). Some certainly do, as is evidenced in the bevy of interviews Levy conducts and includes in the book. But she supports her perspective solely based on these talks. For a work of sociology, there is a remarkable lack of statistical data to back up her arguments, so it is unclear just how prevalent specific mindsets truely are. By using the interviews as her sole source of primary information, Levy can skew all her research to support her opinions rather than offering a comparatively more objective, balanced package.

How many women are motivated to indulge themselves in raunch culture in order to attract or blend in with men? How many do it because they genuinely find it appealing or empowering? And, most importantly, how many women, no matter their motivation, even participate in any of the aspects of raunch culture to begin with? For those who do, what do they consider their boundaries? Without numbers to back up these important questions, it is impossible to discern how widespread this phenomenon is. Levy does bring up many excellent points, like how women who express the freedom bestowed upon them by the feminist movement by participating in Girls Gone Wild video shoots or patronizing strip clubs are, in fact, perpetuating the objectification of females regardless of whether or not they fully understand everything that concept entails. But she portrays them as almost uniformly insecure victims of mass media who shirk the opportunities they have been given in favor of capitulating towards slavering male attitudes, when the reality likely contains far more variables than can even be listed here. It’s a complicated, controversial subject with a number of facets either underexplored or completely ignored, not the simplistic portrait Levy paints.

Bibliographical Information

Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free Press, 2005.

Further Reading

Though focusing on the impact that sex in the media has on adolescent and teenage girls, Carol Platt Liebau’s Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (And America, Too!) takes the same stance on third-wave feminism as Levy does in Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Liebau, however, lends more credence to her arguments by using statistical data rather than relying on nothing but interviews. She is also considerably more conservative in her views than Levy as well, occasionally veering off into tangents railing against sex education in public schools and even the feminist movement in general. It is not an objective study by any means, as the title suggests, but the statistics regarding underage girls and their changing perspectives on sexuality and what constitutes empowerment provide for some interesting reading that may offer clues as to what the next generation may contribute to American culture as a whole.

~Riot

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Review

The best part of Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is that, in spite of being an insightful, thorough, and exhaustive sociological study, it retains considerable amounts of accessibility for those of us not trained in the field. An extension of his 1995 essay published in Journal of Democracy, the book pools together statistics and observations not only by fellow sociologists, but political scientists, journalists, pollsters, and community organizers as a means of expounding upon and supporting his thesis.

And his main thesis is certainly an interesting one. Putnam draws from his myriad of sources to portray how civic and community involvement has declined steadily in the years since World War II, and how Americans are generally turning more inward when it comes to situations of collectivism. He argues that increased work hours, excessive television viewing, and the advant of the internet have all contributed to what is sometimes wrongly percieved as political or communal apathy. The motivating factor here is neither ennui nor ignorace, but rather a shift in resources available. Tech-savvy members of Generations X and Y take to the internet to express their concerns, whereas their parents attended protests and rallies or participated in boycotts. In this, the increase in mass media helps as much as it hinders. While it helps spread awareness of social, economic, or political issues, it has a tendency to halt the actual physical activity sometimes needed to promote real change. An interesting catch-22.

A chart on page 354 makes note of an interesting shift. From the mid-1960′s, American tolerance for racial integration, civil liberties, and gender equality all escalated. Strangely enough, it also coincides with the beginning of the breakdown in formal and informal social circles. It’s odd and seemingly contradictory observations such as this that make Bowling Alone a worthwhile read. However, most of the general statements and statistics presented - for example, that more sociable individuals tend to be more active in their communities – are logical and obvious supports to the main ideas.

What impressed me the most, however, was how Putnam relates the information he has collected not as a criticism, but as a challenge. It would be easy to fall into a pseudointellectual, muckraking quagmire and dismiss Americans as boorish and lazy because of the decline of memberships in sociopolitical interest groups, but it would also be quite false. The concluding chapter presents possible goals for 2010 – one decade after the book’s initial publication – that Americans can strive to achieve in order to better foster a sense of community. Putnam seeks to build up motivation for a more connected society rather than cut down those who have done little, which is almost always a better method of inspiring others. If the rest of the book is incomprehensible (and it shouldn’t be), then at least peruse this chapter for ideas on getting involved in your community and fostering healthy relationships with your neighbors.

Bibliographical Information

Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, Limited, 2001.

Further Reading

David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney’s The Lonely Crowd is a far more complicated read that I couldn’t always follow due to my lack of a background in pure sociology, but in spite of its age much of what the authors foresaw eventually came to fruitition in Bowling Alone. It’s a great glimpse back into where we once were as a society, and how the actions of the past have come to have an effect on the present. Likewise, if you want to delve even further back into our history as Americans, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is frequently cited by Putnam as an excellent example of our society’s collectivist roots as they existed almost sixty years after emancipation from Britain. I remember reading, discussing, and enjoying it quite a bit in my high school history class. Oddly enough, I don’t think it is on the required reading list at most high schools, but it really ought to.

~Riot