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Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Raunch Culture

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Author: Ariel Levy
Publisher: Pocket Books
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

10 reviews
Sales Rank: 9478

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.7

ISBN: 1416526382
EAN: 9781416526384
ASIN: 1416526382

Publication Date: June 19, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW and IN STOCK - dispatched within 48 hours from the UK

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Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Sisters are doing it to themselves March 10, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Few things in life bug me more than twentysomething women sneering at feminism. Because they're usually doing it over a glass of wine in the pub, on their way home from work, and looking forward to a bit of strings-free 'how's your father' at the weekend. We ought to run some kind of boot camp where they can all go live as fifties housewives for a fortnight, and THEN decide if feminists were all dungaree-wearing, moustachioed lesbians who did nothing but sit about braiding their leg hair. Hello, girls? That job you've got, that pub you're sitting in, the university you went to, the contraception in your purse... in a world where feminism never happened, you'd be home every night baking apple pie and starching your husband's underpants.

But even more galling are the 'new feminists', or female chauvinist pigs as Ariel Levy calls them. Under the magic umbrella of feminism, any kind of behaviour (yes, really, ANY kind) can become 'empowering', that catch-all word that's somehow come to mean you can make shedloads of money out of it. This is the 'new' feminism, and anyone who doesn't actually think it's that cool for women to sell their bodies needs to get with the programme, grandma. Yes, that's right, it's actually 'feminism' in action on those 'music' videos and late-night TV 'programmes' that your boyfriend is probably sorta partial to. That's funny because it used to be degradation, but the adult industry has got one mother of a marketing programme going on. As Levy points out in this well-paced readable book, young women today are afflicted with Uncle Tom syndrome, joining their male friends in the strip clubs and sex shops, and idolising adult stars like Jenna Jameson. Levy reminds us that women like Jameson, glamorous as they might be, are actually prostitutes. No girl in a million years would want to emulate a crack-addled backstreet whore, but plenty of them want to live as brainless blow-up dolls for some reason. Men have once again sold us an image of ourselves, and we women are falling over each other (and maybe pushing and shoving a bit) to buy it.

Levy writes smoothly and well in a poppy, fairly lightweight style with some useful statistics (most sobering of all the high percentage of childhood abuse victims working in the adult industry, including Jameson herself). Your blood may boil at some points on reading this, but she's always level-headed and measured in her assessment of the situation. Levy herself is strikingly attractive (although admittedly not blonde, nor sporting mammary glands the size of basketballs) so the naysayers arguing that it's all sour grapes need to wake up and smell the... KY, or whatever. I have an 8 year old daughter and this is not the world I want her to grow up in. Buy this, read it, pass it around to your friends (male and female) and maybe get a bit of consciousness-raising going on like it's 1970 again. I hope Levy's working on a sequel though, because oops she somehow forgot to present a single, solitary idea about how to actually change any of this. So just read it as a straightforward, entertaining 'state of the nation' style book... and then maybe cancel that brazilian after all, if it's actually really painful and you're only doing it for your boyfriend's sake. One small step for womankind...

4 out of 5 stars

An excellent call for sanity February 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I found myself reading parts of this book aloud to friends - it is clever and funny on top of its razor-edge insight. Levy's language is simple but evocative, full of witty descriptions of products, behaviours and ideas that desperately deserve the mocking.

It doesn't contain a clear agenda for improvement, which is a mild disappointment. I hope that not too many readers end the book feeling powerless to be agents of change.

5 out of 5 stars

Powerful stuff January 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Ever felt there was something slightly 'off' with the way female sexual bravado, and even promiscuity, is held up as empowering, and even 'feminist'?

This book is brilliantly argued and hugely important for all women to read. Not only that but it is so entertaining and snappy, it can be read in a couple of sittings. If you are interested in modern feminism, but are put off by the hundreds of scary academic looking books, then this is the book for you. And this is meant as a compliment to the author.

I think if every women and girl read this, we would all be alot closer to TRUE empowerment and liberation (not just sexual), and therefor real happiness.

5 out of 5 stars

Essential August 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I wrote a review stright after reading this book, but somehow it didn't make it on. However even though a few months have passed I still think this is one of the best books on any subject ever written. The flow, tone, balance and research is impeccable. Levy puts just enough of herself into it to make you feel like it is personable but not too much. On the subject matter itself - What a voice in the wilderness. When all you see around you are young girls wanting to grow up to be Page 3 models and lap dancers this is an essential and timely book. What I really loved is Levy's pointing out that the appearance of being sexually available is not the same as being sexually empowered.
The only thing lacking for me was an international flavour. How does the same phenomenon play out in the UK for example with Page 3 culture and laddettes? Overall, outstanding.

4 out of 5 stars

It asks some questions but some of the important ones are excluded. August 1, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful

Generally speaking I thought this book was like a breath of fresh air. It is a no holes barred book and cuts to the chase, and even in several incidents uses languages which some feminists would find insulting. Just the day before yesterday I was walking in a nearby town and I was passed by a young woman wearing shorts the length of knickers and literally showing half of her gluteals. I thought that this book asks some tough questions even of feminists. However, one question it did not ask was too what extent are women influenced by the media? This is one of the most insulting things in my opinion about feminism, and I expected Levy to answer it. The fact that we are all programmed and not capable of independent thought, bars any woman who dresses like this from criticism.

I like the fact that the author mentions the history of second wave feminism. The era between the 1960s and 1990s, and how some of todays notions of female empowerment contradict the ideals of second wave feminism. Even so called Third Wave feminists. Whilst, the author criticises women who wear shorts so short they could be knickers and low cut tops. She also criticises women who dress and act like men. My questions to her would be with which women does she have the most sympathy, and which type is most threatening to the male patriarchy and why. Why when there is far more encouragement from the press and media is there not more encouragement for women to dress in male like tracksuits and act like men in a boardroom? Is the media encouraging one in hope to get rid of the other and if so why? The author in my opinion did not answer this question.

Despite this I give the book a high rating. It starts to ask some of the questions some feminists and other people want asked. I like the way it compares feminism of the 1960s and 1970s to modern day culture. The situation in the school is quite enlightening. Especially the part which involves the teachers trying to implement some sort of restrictions on what children can wear to school is very enlightening. I also would like to have read more history about feminism throughout the world. The fact that this book in it's entirety concerns feminism in the U.S.A, and nowhere else in the world. Ignores the history of feminism in other countries.