Female Chauvinist Pigs : Women And The Rise Of Raunch Culture

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.

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.

Whilst many disagreements have arisen in feminist discourse over the years, none has been quite as prevalent or divisive as the issue of the commodification of sexuality. There are two central groups in feminist ideology that are divided on this issue, liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is influenced by the ideas and values of liberalism. Thus, these feminists share a contractarian view which places an emphasis on a woman’s ability to make choices for herself and that the selling of one’s sexuality is merely an expression of that choice. Paradoxically, radical feminists believe that because women live in a patriarchal society, the commodification of sexuality can never be a choice or a form of expression. Rather, forms of sexual commodification such as pornography and prostitution just enforce male oppression. This essay will explore these two ideological positions in regard to their divergent definitions of human nature and freedom which has created a division within feminism about the commodification of sexuality.

Media influence has caused beauty to evolve into ideals that can’t actually be attained. In addition to this, women are objectified and seen as sex objects, being sexualized by men without consequence due to the normalcy the media has created for genders. In fact, men are even encouraged to sexualize women. During her TEDTalk, Kilbourne presented a photo of an adolescent boy wearing a shirt that stated “pimp squad,” showing how our society is comfortable with men sexualizing women from a very young age. In contrast, women are labeled as sluts or whores without even engaging in sexual activity. I, for example, have been called a slut for wearing leggings, merely talking to a guy, and even wearing shorts— in the summer.

In the 21st century, the U.S culture teaches women to accept violence. Young ladies are told about dress codes to not distract boys from their education. Young ladies are also taught that they are not allowed to show their skin because it's inappropriate and it shows “too much”. Examples of rape culture are sexual jokes, blaming the

If a trend is not popular, the media will not expose it. Raunch culture was a popular trend, and women of all ages followed it. If one was to see a fifty year old lady wearing revealing jeans it would be considered uncouth. Likewise, the media implied that dressing raunchy was acceptable. Levy describes, "I'd walk down the street and see teens and young women- and the occasional wild fifty year old wearing jeans cut so low they exposed what came to be known as butt cleavage" (143). Although raunch culture was a solid trend, Levy disagrees with the media and feels that women should uphold a certain standard. In the essay, she claims "I'd graduated from Wesleyan University, a place where you could pretty much get expelled for saying "girl" instead of women" (144). Levy emphasizes the importance of a woman and that women should carry themselves with high standards. According to Levy, the raunch trend was exploiting women’s sexuality. On the contrary, some women may have questioned raunch culture the way Levy did. However, the media would simply state that it is feminism and it was acceptable to be raunchy. In Levy’s essay it claims, "This new raunch culture didn't mark the death of feminism, they told me it was evidence that the feminist project had already been achieved. We've earned the right to look at playboy; we were empowered enough to get Brazilian bikini waxes" (144). The media was able to manipulate the

Starting off by addressing the noticeable prevalence of “[b]lack men...surrounded by dozens of black and Latina women dressed in bathing suits...in strip clubs, some at the pool, at the beach, or in hotel rooms” (Perry 1), Perry attempts to parallel such imagery with pornography and female objectification. By painting such an explicit, arousing picture in the minds of the audience, she immediately explains the effects of “pornography [being] increasingly mainstreamed” (1). She relates this phenomenon almost as a causation, and underlies her implicit position that pop culture is

During the early 1800s into the nineteenth century it was believed that men and women came from two separate spheres. These spheres influenced the way gender roles were shaped and perceived. Suggesting that women belonged in the household, apart of the private sphere and men belonged in the economic world, apart of the public sphere. Men and women were understood to be polar opposites and because of this, women were oppressed. Female sexuality was defined as “passionlessness,” and only for the purpose of reproduction. We learn that women were considered “voracious” for expressing their sexuality however, men were encouraged to express their sexuality as part of maintaining power, prestige, and masculinity. (Cott, 1978, 222). Men

“Rape is as American as apple pie,” says blogger Jessica Valenti. She and other feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is almost invisible. According to feminists, films, magazines, fashion, books, music, and humor cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited.(Kitchens, 2015)

In the article “Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture” by Ariel Levy, she accuses

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010714208/OVIC?u=scot67242&xid=d9cbf746. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published as "Feminism, Consumerism, & the Sexualization of Girls,", 2 Mar. 2007.

Anne McClintock’s “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap”, focuses a lot of attention on how from the beginning of history, women have been denied some of the basic rights and freedoms that have been essential to the way that men live. Starting back from the times where they couldn’t vote and when women were basically seen as property when wedded. Women today and even in the earlier days could not express their sexuality and could not show that they were sexual beings. Anne McClintock gives the idea that women should be able to have the things that men have and they should be able to express it in the same way as men. In this essay, I will analyze how Anne McClintock views pornography as a form of pleasure that is mostly consumed by men and how women are incorporated into the employment of the industry and even in the home setting.

This binary relationship manifests itself in Levy’s work in another way, as well. Toward the very end of the book Levy claims she has no complaint against women who do gain genuine sexual pleasure from “their vaginas waxed, their breasts enlarged” (Levy, 198). On one hand, Levy recognizes that sexuality is personal and that everyone’s own experiences and preferences are unique. Yet at the same time, by drawing the line between “authentic” and “fake”, she must impersonally interpret these experiences in order to classify them as “problematic”. This desire to judge yet not judge women’s sexual nature represents an underlying tension within the book that threatens to unravel her arguments.

The persistence of these problematic ideas within western popular culture has transformed black beauty standards in ways that empowers, but also, subverts black women back into these dominant narratives surrounding their buttocks. This is commonly displayed by popular R&B artist Beyoncé, who uses her large backside to market her performances and shows in order to increase her audience, and thus, her revenue. While some may argue that this may be counterproductive when challenging these westernized subjugations as it once again commodifies the black body, these sexualized articulations attempt to “serve as both economic and symbolic markers of black femininity that define her image,” Aisha Durham writes in her article, “Beyoncé, Southern Booty,

The sexualization of young girls and women in society is a prevalent theme in mass media. Presently, the sexualization of females is commonly seen in various consumer items like clothes, dolls, and even in Disney movies, according to “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful” article. The author says that sexualization occurs when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified- made into a thing for others’ sexual use; and sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person (AboutKidsHealth).” Furthermore, the author provides statistics on how girls are being sexualized by the products they see and use