Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Raunch Culture

By Ariel Levy

Today's young women seem to be outdoing the male chauvinist pigs of yesteryear, applauding the 'pornification' of other women, and themselves. This is a world where simulating sex for baying crowds of men on shows like Girls Gone Wild and going to lapdancing clubs - as patrons - is seen as a short cut to cool.

Ariel Levy says the joke's on the women if they think this is progress. She tears apart the myth of this new brand of 'empowered woman' and refuses a culture-wide obligation for women to act and look like porn stars. This terrifically witty and wickedly intelligent book makes the case that the rise of raunch does not represent how far women have come - it proves only how far women have left to go.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: May 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781471138140

Reviews for Female Chauvinist Pigs

[startwithgivens · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The introduction was strong and the conclusion was strong, but everything in between was hard to read. One of the biggest things I think this book was lacking was relatability. Most of the women used as examples were difficult to relate to, and a lot of this wasn't because they were abstract beings Levy had to pull from the woodwork, it was how they were described. I do feel like it was as unbiased as possible when clearly choosing a side of the argument from the gate, and possibly in doing so Levy distanced herself so much from the individuals she wrote about that they became more robotic.

In terms of recommending this book, I don't think it is awful despite my rating. I definitely learned some things from the book that I will likely not forget. However, I do believe there are much better books about feminism and "what we have decided the sex industry is," than the one I just completed.

[begivens · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The introduction was strong and the conclusion was strong, but everything in between was hard to read. One of the biggest things I think this book was lacking was relatability. Most of the women used as examples were difficult to relate to, and a lot of this wasn't because they were abstract beings Levy had to pull from the woodwork, it was how they were described. I do feel like it was as unbiased as possible when clearly choosing a side of the argument from the gate, and possibly in doing so Levy distanced herself so much from the individuals she wrote about that they became more robotic.

In terms of recommending this book, I don't think it is awful despite my rating. I definitely learned some things from the book that I will likely not forget. However, I do believe there are much better books about feminism and "what we have decided the sex industry is," than the one I just completed.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

adult nonfiction; sociology. This was a book club pick and I wasn't sure I'd like it, but it turned out to be interesting and thought-provoking. Levy expresses perfectly what we've all noticed (whether consciously or not) about 'raunch' culture and the seeming idolization of sluts, and her analysis is fairly thorough and most importantly, digestible.

[ceilidhann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Definitely a must read for any feminist, young or old.

The structure sort of comes undone in the final 50 pages or so but the book's a refreshing and often merciless expose of the rise of raunch culture, where Playboy bunnies, porn stars and pole dancing classes are seen as signs of a post-feminist liberated woman. Levy effectively dismantles the notion that these are good things and shows how they do more harm than good. It was also refreshing to see the chapter discussing the lesbian point of view and how such changes in culture have effected the gay community. There aren't a whole lot of feminist books out there doing that. The most interesting stuff came when Levy examined the rise of the feminist movement in the late 60s onwards and how it evolved into this new culture we see before us.

Raunch culture and this idea that selling yourself based on your sexuality is something that my mind's battled with since my adolescence and Levy manages to put into words what I spent a lot of my teen years trying to do. I'd love to see an updated version of this book, possibly covering the Disney franchise and their habit of selling sex to little girls in the safe form of silver rings and the child beauty pageants that scare me so much. I highly recommend this book (I'd also recommend Jessica Valenti's The Purity Myth - which tackles the abstinence movement Levy briefly touches upon in her own book - for some follow-up reading.)

[seven.stories.press · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Is it possible to agree with someone 110 percent? If so, that's how much I agree with Levy's perspective in this book.

[carebear36 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There are things I liked about this book and things I did not like.Overall, it was a quick and easy read. The reason for this is that the majority of the text is comprised of cultural/media examples and ancecdotes/interviews of female chauvinist pigs. While these were interesting, they showed limited viewpoints as Levy only included stories that supported her claim. Also, ironically Levy felt the need to describe the interviewees' looks as an introduction to their answers, usually including descriptors of attractiveness. This did not seem to mesh with Levy's overall point and often made her seem judgemental in the overt slut-shaming language that often comes up in the book.Another drawback to this book was Levy's misunderstood and often offensive views of trans and queer culture. At one point she states, "The confusing thing, of course, is why somebody would need serious surgery and testosterone to modify their gender if gender is supposed to be so fluid in the first place" (127). Here Levy seems to have misunderstood the distinction between sex and gender, but such remarks undermine the issues people in the trans community face. Levy appears dismissive of such issues.While I agreed with Levy's overall message that women should focus more on their own sexuality and sexual pleasure rather than their sexual performance for men, nowhere in the text is an example of healthy female sexuality provided. By giving a one-sided account of FCP, Levy's own goal seems unattainable as at no point is a good role model given.This sounds like a pretty negative review, but there really were some very good points in the book. The analysis was strong and often very interesting such as her critique of Sex and the City. I think this is an important book, especially for people just getting into gender studies. The message was a very important one that should be taken seriously. I also enjoyed the mix of media and history throughout the text. Overall, this was a good read.

[ariahfine-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Levy does a great job of exposing and critiquing the dangers of our current culture's view of the "liberated" woman. She challenges directly, and I believe accurately, this myth that things like Playboy and likes are some how testimony to women's liberation. Her critique is not just against the men who run or benefit from these degrading institutions, but also at the women who falsely see these things as liberating rather then degrading (like wearing a Playboy logo on their shirt).
It's definitely an interesting read if your looking for a hard hitting intellectual critique of a raunch culture.

[Mediaevalgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very insightful, if somewhat dated. It's amazing how far we've come in the 10 years since this was published. A good read nonetheless, and one to reflect on.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This brief book covers a lot of ground: a capsule history of the feminist movement; a dissection of the Playboy universe; the rise of pornography as a defining cultural ideal; and more. Levy is persuasive, perhaps most persuasive when she points out the intersection of consumption and sex and the way it limits and distorts our ideas about gender equality, sexuality, and values.

[kidsisyphus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[Did you know that Barbie dolls are modeled after a German adult, quasi-sex doll named Bild Lilli? How do you like that, America?! You sick fuck!:]

Levy’s argument can be summed up in one sentence: “Rauch culture is not essentially progressive, it is essentially commercial.” I enjoy her analysis, but wish she wasn’t so persistently anecdotal. And I wish I had possessed the willpower to stop looking at her picture in the back of the book…the steely eyes, the soft lips ever-so-slightly parted as if she’s about to tell me something, the self-assured unkemptness of her hair. Feminists are hot.

[melissamcb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book had a very interesting premise--that many women today are making sex objects of themselves and this other women. I thought she made a lot of good points and I actually saw my younger self who wanted to be seen as one of the boys. I liked what she had to say about that: "But if you are the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is that women are inferior, you haven't made any progress." As a mother of a tween, the chapter on teenagers was very disturbing to me but important to know what kinds of things are going on. My main criticism with the book is that I didn't come away with an understanding of what a strong, sexual woman who isn't a female chauvinist pig looks like. She didn't interview women on the end of the scale.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This doesn't offer any answers, just questions and the questions are pretty disturbing. This book was read while a man justifies a t-shirt that says "no+rhyphonol=yes" with a "not intended for ugly feminists"; where a book for children depicts a tomboy princess realising that dressing up is the way to win the boy; and where an orthodox Jewish girls school is picketed by ultra-orthodox men because the girls are "too distracting", and those were just what made it's way onto my twitter stream during the day I was reading this short collection of essays on women today. It's a scary read. Women are trying harder and harder to be men, rather than women, and are finding the task impossible. The behaviour many are emulating are teenage boys but they're failing to become adults, thus undermining the entire feminist agenda. Women's roles have become more constrained, more trivialised and this book asks many of the deep questions about why and how we've accepted this from the constant battering of our psyches by media.

[appliquetion · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing... I think the author summed it up when she said:"This is not a book about the sex industry; it is a book about what we have decided the sex industry means....how we held it up, cleaned it off, and distorted it." (Ariel Levy, excerpt from book page 198)What is feminism to you? How does it equate to our existence as a woman? Why do we strive so hard to be "manly" in our daily activities? How did sexuality become feminism? When did Porn Stars become the Cool Role Models? Why are our kids driven to look sexually "hot", when half of them don't know what sex is all about?All these questions are looked at in this witty book written by Ariel Levy. She takes the reader inside behind the scenes to talk to the people who are putting out the images we are all striving to be like. You get a view into the inner sanctums of playboy, girls gone wild, CAKE, old school feminist,Strippers, Porn Stars, Teenagers, Lesbians and much much more. If you think you know feminism and how it equates into a woman's sexuality or just curious about it all, this book is a must read for you.I have to admit, I have never been stopped and asked by so many strangers "what is that book about" as I have been with this one. It is guaranteed to cause a sensation just from the cover alone. I loved the witty tone it had as the author explained some of the really absurd norms we have these days. I found each chapter a pleasure to read and Ariel posed a tons of questions which set me to pondering the reason behind all the madness these days. One question she did not really address is "why is this happening". We see a big jump from conservative feminism to raunchy feminism; she show a great picture of what it was and what it is now but no history on the between time; how we changed over to what it is. I enjoyed the section she had on the teenage girls and was pleased to a section from a boys perspective. What the male interviewee said made a lot of sense. As I read the statements from the women who were interviewed I couldn't help but wonder why they needed to be so "manly" in their behaviors, why do they feel they need this trade off. I found the book to be a very informative book and will recommend it to may of my friends.

[dele2451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author poses some interesting questions about whether a woman's ability to "act like a man" is really the definition of gender equality. Levy also offers a viable hypothesis on why exhibitionism, promiscuity and other "Girls Gone Wild" behaviors are so popular with today's generation. I appreciated the background FCP provided on key players in the feminist movement and somes of the segment on Hugh Hefner made me laugh and cringe almost simultaneously. I would recommend this book to both men and women--especially those who are raising daughters today. This is one book that would be guaranteed to spark discussion in any university class examining gender roles in modern society.

[beequiet · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I must say I feel like Ariel Levy missed the point somewhat in Female Chauvinist Pigs. It is her aim to state that the new wave of feminism i completely deluded, that such people are stating that we can find empowerment through the Playboy logo and flashing out nether regions. I find it interesting though that although I have come into contact with such people in my life, and plenty of them, non of them have really classed themselves as feminists. Now I know that there are some splinter groups, I know that they exist, but most people involved in saying that we need to depart (at least in some ways) from traditional second-wave feminism, but in a thoughtful manner. One point really struck me, when Levy declared that porn stars are "giving up the most private part of their being for public consumption". Are they? Because the impression that I got was that they are having sex on camera, and that this needn't mean them bearing their soul. Yes it would feel that way for some (no doubt Ms. Levy included) but it needn't be the same for everyone.This is where I stand, that Levy makes some interesting sounding arguments, but often based on false premises. I have only covered one are of this book, and I would hate to suggest that I disagree with everything she says, as I do not. I think there is a problem with women sometimes waving a banner of feminism without realising some of their actions compromise their situation. However overall I found Ariel Levy's arguments flawed and based upon her own normative judgements.

[gurgleburp · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't really get into the fact that this book was written from the perspective of a conventional feminist - however, the author did ask some good questions about the commercialization of sex and managed to admit, at least once, that she has no problem with sex workers themselves. Why is it that the sex industry revolves around one specific image instead of marketing people of all shapes and sizes? Would that not be a more accurate definition of "adult" entertainment? People seem to forget that, at the end of the day, they have the freedom to choose what they purchase for pleasure. If everyone exclusively spent money on their true fetish, the entire face of the sex industry would have to alter drastically to turn a profit. Additionally, I think that the author was spot on when she made the point that people who are too young to understand their own sexual desire are often forced to imbibe the values that the media feeds them for breakfast. In the past two decades, such messages ubiquitously pertain to sex. what's really sad about this is the fact that teenagers have no reference or counterpoint to provide the insight that they need to figure themselves out. Having worked in the sex industry, I can agree with Levy that many women defend what they do as an act of righteousness and empowerment - these are the same women who pettily base their self worth off of how much money they make and allow crude remarks from patrons to insult them for weeks. This seems to be the whole reason that Levy wrote this book, and with this in mind, I think she did a good job at exposing how misguided these women really are. This was definitely worth the time that it took it read the entire thing.

[schatzi_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I think part of the problem was the author's writing style; she either needed a better editor or to learn how to correctly use a semi-colon. There were numerous comma splices littering each chapter, and those are like nails on a chalkboard to me. Every time I came across one, I cringed a little inside.If I dismiss my grammar stickler tendencies, this book still felt sloppy to me. The author brought up some good points, but the book lacked an overall cohesion to it. Instead, it felt like the author was rambling about topics that were related to one another, but she forgot to detail just how they were connected. I was more than a little put-off by the author's treatment of the transgendered. Although I did agree with how the "raunch culture" has pervaded the lesbian community, she seemed dismissive of female-to-male (FTM) individuals. There are genuinely people who were born with the "wrong plumbing;" they don't want to BE men, they feel that they ARE men. I wish that the author had been more sensitive to that fact.And for pointing out the problems in our society, which I agree do exist, the author offers precious little in way of solutions. She does make some good points throughout the book, but I'd like to think that many Americans are already aware of them. I suppose that I was expecting more ideas and discussion-inspiring points.

[macii_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

January 14-22, 2007I saw an interview ith Ariel Levy on The Colber Report. The premise of her book sounded noteworthy--Feminism has brought with it a backlash of women who strive to be like porn stars. Yes, women are now sexually liberated, but why do you want to emulate someone who fakes an orgasm. This was not what the sexual revolution was about.As I read this book, I asked myself the question, what will I want to impart to my daughter about womanhood and her sexuality? Using this book as a premise left me hanging.Her descriptions of some sexually liberated women are VERY frightening and the culture of lesbianism, especially in New York and San Fransisco, is disturbing.Levy's chapter "Pigs in Training" scares me for our young women. She describes the culture of young teens who intentionally dress like hoes, the more hoe-like you can dress, the better. Being sexy is a popularity status. Girls are having sex, not for the enjoyment of it, but because it was just something you needed to do. The enjoyment of sex and the, for lack of a better word, "specialness" of sex is lost on them.Levy points to a quote by Paris Hilton to describe this phenomenon: "my boyfriends always tell me I'm not sexual. Sexy, but not sexual." Levy states, "Sexyness is no longer just about being arousing or alluring, it's about being worthwhile."The premise of the idea of Female Chauvinist Pigs has to do with the women who, in trying to make it in a man's world, act like men. They go to strip clubs, buy into the culture of stupid women, and generally look down on the girly-girls and strippers. These are the Female Chauvinist Pigs. On the other hand you have women who, in their sexual liberation, think it is liberating to be porn stars. Why can't we as women be successful by being women?A point that I found interesting in her discourses on the problems with Absinence-Only Sex Education is that we tell kids that sex is something special and it should be saved for marriage. What are kids supposed to think about that when there is a 50% divorce rate? Our words and actions aren't aligning.Ariel Levy's depictions of a sex-saturated culture were troublesome because the fact of the matter is that this is where we really are as a society. All I could do was realize more and more that we are all in need of a Savior. We are in need of Jesus Christ to cover us and heal us.Most of the time, I felt as if Ariel Levy was rambling on and on as if going somewhere with her point but she never got anywhere. She could never definitively prove to me that her conclusions were right--and I was never sure as to what her conclusions were. Her last portion, titled Conclusion, was short and left me feeling no better.Here's what I've determined about my experience of reading this book; her arguments are devoid of scripture. The culture she describes does not rely on God's Word to show us how to behave, nor does it rely on the grace Jesus Christ provides for each and every one of us who accepts Him. God created us male and female, and we are different, and it is beautiful.I finally answered my question, what will I want to impart to my daughter about womanhood and her sexuality, and the answer lies within scripture. A wonderful book to help us understand womanhood and a worthwhile read is Elizabeth Elliot's Let Me Be A Woman.Female Chauvinist Pigs is a scary rambling that goes nowhere. Don't waste your time.

[thedefinitefraggle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Snappy writing, but really problematic, especially the stuff on transmen and butches. That isn't to say that there isn't something worth looking at there, but it came off as a little transphobic to me. Levy is dead-on in that our culture is shoving harmful stuff at women while calling it "empowering," but her analysis felt a little superficial at times.

[jonathon3hodge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books of theory I have read in the last decade. Levy situates the contradictory experience of young women being sold the myth of liberation and empowerment through the commodification of their bodies and ideals. Awesome

[kristinmm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very thought provoking book. Interesting to see how the author ties past feminist movements to the explanation of why many of my peers objectify themselves and each other today. Having grown up in this culture and seen first hand how many young women act, I agree with the author on many of her points and am also amazed that so many young women act this way. I'm not totally untouched by the raunch culture - in fact I own Jenna Jameson's autobiography, but that's more out of morbid curiosity than the idea that she's some kind of role model. Having two teenage sisters, I worry how this kind of society affects them and will recommend reading this book to them so they can see where it's coming from.

[debhall_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Felt like I learned a lot about what was going on with younger women.

[jonesjohnson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Like many others, I wanted to like this more. Maybe it is just that I am an attorney, so I see way too many women who feel they must act, look, and talk like men to get ahead. But I wanted an analysis of that macho bravado in the female. Instead, what I got was bois and girls, and very few women. Now, I am not a cloistered little nun. I knew what a boi was, thank you. I did not need an often erroneous dissertation on the LGBT community. I hope that some bright person of some persuasion sees this book in a store, buys it, and is dissapointed enough to do the subject justice. Show me how to integrate these girls gone wild into the worldplace. Show me how to rechannel their inappropriate measures of self-worth into something that transcends all the four letter words they can stand. Show me how to stop the next crop from going through this breast-flashing notch-carving phase at all. At the very least, show me the "rise of raunch culture" and not just its semi-current iteration. I really, really wanted to like this book. But I clearly do not.

[phantasma_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While this book was interesting, it was equally annoying. first of all, let me state that FTM transexuals are not "becoming" men, as Levy states. They ARE men, just with the wrong equipment. Levy completely devalues this and seems to feel it is another way women are feeling forced into being "like a man." This kind of faulty reasoning is commonplace in this book and caused me to want to throw it accross the room on more than one occasion. Yes, I think it's terrible that we're sexualizing our children. Yes, I think it's terrible that we're teaching abstinence-only sexual education without any information about birth control and protection from STDs. Yet Levy completely discounts personal choice in her discussion of these topics. She takes a men-as-enemy stance as often as not. EVERYONE has a choice. Even those girls who drank too much and were "convinced" to take their clothes off in front of cameras. They had a choice to drink and a choice to take the high road. No one would have faulted them. That they chose to get naked is their perogative. If they regret it later, then they have learned something. Please, they are NOT victims. Much of this book hit me as narrow-minded propaganda. And it had such potential.

[dday_70 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The author had some good ideas but they were far too unfocused to make this worth reading. Many of her observations were intriguing but she didn't really connect them to her thesis sufficiently. There were many times that I got frustrated reading the book, wanting Levy to take that extra step to make her book rise above just a collection of observations. Also, the individual chapters did not flow together well and the one about "bois" seemed particularly out of place. I would recommend Bitch Magazine for better analysis on this issue.

[xnikishax · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my opinion a must-read for every woman. I sometimes had the feeling the author wrote down my own thoughts.

[kaelirenee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The very strength of this book's thesis is what made the entire thing so frustrating. Levy has a great concept and great supports, but her writing and follow through sound more like arguments at a cocktail party-all a bit disjointed, poorly tied together.I wanted to like this book more. I wanted to recommend it to everyone-male, female, coworkers, parents-everyone. But I just can't. Maybe once it goes through another couple of drafts or gets filtered through a better writer, this book will cause the right kind of social change.

[paisley1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting, scary, and very true assesment of how "liberation" has gotten misconstrued in "Girls Gone Wild" culture, but the book doesn't offer any conclusions on how this shift can be combated. I feel like there's still a lot more to be said on the subject--this book is just an overview.

[claudiabowman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you're as gobsmacked as I am by the idea of 'Girls Gone Wild' as female empowerment or Paris Hilton as a role model for teens' sexual expression, this book will probably speak to you and frustrate you as much as it did me. It has some enlightening (and deeply disturbing) interviews with middle school and high school girls, singletons in NYC, and lesbians in California. I do find it genuinely upsetting that this air-brushed, overwaxed, silicone vacuousness is increasingly displayed as the only acceptable form of 'sexy' (esp because I don't think this is even truly what a good chunk of people consider desirable). I also find it really mind-blowing that, as is clear from the interviews, this conception of sexiness seems almost by definition divorced from any notion of sexual fufillment or even desire on the part of the women emulating it, and yet it is supposed to be 'empowering'. Attention ladies, if flashing your boobs at hooting frat boys for a camera crew makes you feel icky, bored, or contemptuous? Then you did not just find it 'liberating'. If that happens to be your thing, bully for you, but try to tell me it's feminist self-expression for everyone and I will try to restrain myself from poking your eyeballs out.

[safetygirl_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

must-read for every woman