A must-read for every self-respecting lady, Female Chauvinist Pigs exposes the uncomfortable position of the female in our media culture, says Julia Rebaudo
This is no feminist tome requiring copious cups of tea and a two-week holiday to work your way through. This is a short, sharp shock to the system that you’ll read in a couple of days – you can’t put it down for too long. It’s just too relevant, to the point and hits quite a few nails on the head along the way.
American journalist Ariel Levy is writing about what she calls ‘raunch culture’. Self-explanatory, but just to be clear she’s talking about the apparently unstoppable rise of stereotyped female sexuality in the media and in our everyday lives.
Raunchiness in the form of pop stars and actresses stripping for movies, magazines and videos; mini-skirts and boob jobs; glamour models and porn stars – all of which has become so much the norm that most people, both men and women, seem pretty much agreed on the contemporary definition of what is ‘sexy’ and ‘desirable’.
While many claim wearing short skirts and pole-dancing is a sign of how empowered women of today are – indulging their sexuality and feeling good about themselves in the process – Levy is quick to point out all that is happening is women are conforming to one particular way of expressing and displaying their sexuality, and one that’s been developed by men.
Levy argues that women who bare their breasts for reality TV, snog their girlfriends in nightclubs, take pole-dancing lessons and go under the knife are still just playing the game, they haven’t transcended anything.
And the women who don’t do any of this ‘girly-girly’ stuff, but still condone the behaviour – happy to look at porn mags with their boyfriends, visit strip clubs, edit mens’ magazine and direct porn movies – are no better than the men they hang out with, in fact they’re just female chauvinist pigs. Not to condone all this flaunting of "tits 'n' ass" would be to disassociate themselves from what is sexy and desirable, thus making them thoroughly unsexy and undesirable. And nobody wants that.
So what’s the solution? Where can the fully evolved woman with feminist values take her stance on this? She certainly doesn’t want to be labelled a female chauvinist pig for her tolerance of sexy music videos, strip clubs and soft porn. But is complete intolerance the only authentic approach? That’s a hard line for any woman to take – being human we are intrinsically caught up in desiring and wanting to be desired. Denying that is a tough option.
Unfortunately Levy doesn’t really offer any solutions. Instead she suggests authenticity and non-betrayal of feminist values lies in being tuned in to your own sexuality and desires. She rightly bemoans the fact that young girls, dressed to kill, are only interested in inciting desire in the opposite sex, in appearing sexy. They’re not really very interested in their own desire and sexuality.
The tension is perfectly summed up by Paris Hilton supposedly being told that she comes as across as really sexy but in reality is utterly unsexual. That may be a bit of a useful soundbite but there is an important nugget of truth in there – that raunch culture is all about appearance, about simulating sexiness. And this is something intrinsically tied up with the ills of our media-dominated society, where appearance is everything. If Posh and Becks look happy in the pictures then they must be. If a model or actress is snapped looking gorgeous and sexy then she must be, and by extension she must be happy, and thus someone to aspire to.
So, despite Levy’s lack of direction, it seems the lesson is simple, and extends beyond raunch culture to media culture as a whole – less on appearance, more on real living. For the confused feminist, I guess we can just start by trying to, in the words of many, "Keep it real!".
Female Chauvinist Pigs:Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy is published by Pocket Books and available to buy on Amazon
