Female Chauvinist Pigs

Starred review from August 1, 2005
What does "sexy" mean today? Levy, smartly expanding on reporting for an article in New York
magazine, argues that the term is defined by a pervasive "raunch culture" wherein women "make sex objects of other women and of ourselves." The voracious search for what's sexy, she writes, has reincarnated a day when Playboy Bunnies (and airbrushed and surgically altered nudity) epitomized female beauty. It has elevated porn above sexual pleasure. Most insidiously, it has usurped the keywords of the women's movement ("liberation," "empowerment") to serve as "buzzwords" for a female sexuality that denies passion (in all its forms) and embraces consumerism. To understand how this happened, Levy examines the women's movement, identifying the "residue" of divisive, unresolved issues about women's relationship to men and sex. The resulting raunch feminism, she writes, is "a garbled attempt at continuing the work of the women's movement" and asks, "how is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish good
for women? Why is laboring to look like Pamela Anderson empowering?" Levy's insightful reporting and analysis chill the hype of what's hot. It will create many "aha!" moments for readers who have been wondering how porn got to be pop and why "feminism" is such a dirty word.

Starred review from August 1, 2005
With the rise of such magazines as " Maxim" and " FHM" and the popular video series " Girls Gone Wild" , raunch culture has never been more mainstream. The reason, Levy posits, is because women are getting in on the act and participating in their own exploitation. Levy takes a hard look at this new pop-culture phenomenon to see how smart, intelligent women buy into sexual stereotypes. She tags along for a night of " Girls Gone Wild" filming during which college girls strip down, fool around with each other, and regret it all in the morning. Talented female athletes, actresses, and musicians feel the need to strip down to almost nothing and pose provocatively for men's magazines. Levy notes how the anti-woman attitude has even invaded lesbian culture as sexually adventurous lesbians refer to themselves as 'bois' and resist the attempts of "femmes" to get them to settle down. Even the very traits associated with women are considered inferior as many women attempt to "just be one of the guys." A piercing look at how women are sabotaging their own attempts to be seen as equals by going about the quest the wrong way, Levy's engrossing book should be required reading for young women. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2005
Female Chauvinist Pigs (FCPs), according to "New York" magazine columnist Levy, come in two species: the woman "open to a certain sort of attention" and her foul-mouthed female fan, willing and able to objectify "like a man." Though the reductive thesis imposes obvious limits, Levy nonetheless fortifies this original work with the boggling evidence of raunch culture's ubiquity. Defending their work variously as liberating, ironic, and humorous, influential triumvirate Christie Hefner ("Playboy"), Sheila Nevins (HBO), and Jennifer Heftler (former producer of Comedy Central's "The Man Show") appear unreflective as they call the (compromising) hot shots. Community anecdotes also abound as lesbians (butch and boi) disparage their femme girlfriends or the straight dupes of the "Girls Gone Wild" juggernaut flash for a branded hat. Levy suggests that the motivation behind all this pole dancing and pose striking is fear of an uptight planet; she blames antiporn feminists like the late Andrea Dworkin and Elizabeth MacKinnon for this development. Her insights into preteens' confusion between feeling sexual attraction and simply desiring attention reinforce her argument for rehabilitation of comprehensive sex-ed programs. Levy's witty style entertains even as the facts disturb. Recommended for all public libraries. [See "Fall Editors' Picks," "LJ" 9/1/05. -Ed.] -Elizabeth Kennedy, Oakland, CA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.