Read Recently: “Female Chauvinist Pigs” by Ariel Levy
Title: “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”
Author: Ariel Levy.
Synopsis: An exploration of the rise of “raunch culture” (think Girls Gone Wild and Baby-Ts with “I love blowjobs” printed on them) and how third wave feminism is mistakes it as “empowering to women.”
Backstory: Saw the author on Oprah. Found the book in a Philadelphia airport bookstore. I had 6 hours of airtime ahead of me and wasn’t in the mood for James Baldwin, the only book I had brought.
Notes: Bitch is the only magazine I read cover to cover. I read Bust in line at Whole Foods. I’m friends with their pop culture columnist. I have a yen for women’s issues. Sue me.
Verdict: Blink and this book will be gone. I finished it between take off and touch down and still had time for half of Cinderella Man. At times it’s a bit too breezy to sink in and Levy’s focus on entertainment and New York women smacks of her day job at New York Magazine. Overall though, she’s done her homework. The research is strong, the argument layed out in firm, even tones. The topic probably deserves a little fist-shaking, especially since it’s Levy’s generation deluding themselves into thinking that wearing a thong strikes a blow to the patriarchy. But Levy is too smart to shriek. Instead she lets this phony feminism hang itself. She doesn’t decry GGW as sexist trash or insist we should be reading Bella Abzug instead of watching Desperate Housewives. She says what all intelligent critics of their own kind say: We’ve sold ourselves short and we can do better.
Footnotes:
*Author’s Official Site.
*Levy reports on Girls Gone Wild for Slate.
*Levy on Oprah.