Female Chauvinist Pigs - Levy's Critique of Raunch Culture

Levy's Critique of Raunch Culture

Citing examples ranging from the fad of Playboy Bunny merchandise for women to the moral panic of rainbow parties, Levy argues that American mass culture has framed the game so perversely that young women now strive to be the "hottest" and "sexiest" girl they know rather than the most accomplished. Despite the fact that raunch culture is focused on the sex appeal of women, it is solely image-based: "It's about inauthenticity and the idea that women should be constantly exploding in little bursts of exhibitionism. It's an idea that female sexuality should be about performance and not about pleasure." Levy argues that in a raunch culture, many women engage in performances of sexuality that are not expressions of their individual sexuality, but are designed for the pleasure of the male observer(s) – or appear as though they are trying to be pleasurable sex objects. Levy describes “hotness” as the degree to which someone is trying to be sexually attractive, regardless of how conventionally attractive they actually are.

Further, Levy theorizes that many women internalize the objectifying male gaze that permeates a raunch culture, leading them to participate in self-objectification quite willingly, falsely believing that it is a form of female empowerment and sexual liberation. Despite accounts of numerous women stating that they feel empowered and liberated by aspects of raunch culture, according to Levy there is nothing to support the “conception of raunch culture as a path to liberation rather than oppression.” Others, such as Susan Brownmiller, a well-known American feminist, journalist, author, and activist, share this opinion.

Although raunch originated in the male domain, Levy claims that it “no longer makes sense to blame men.” Central to Levy’s analysis of raunch culture is the concept of “Female Chauvinist Pigs”: women who sexually objectify other women and themselves. According to Levy, there are two strategies a Female Chauvinist Pig (FCP) employs to “deal with her femaleness”. In the first strategy, an FCP distinguishes herself from women who she deems excessively feminine (“girly-girls”), while simultaneously objectifying such women (e.g., going to strip clubs, reading Playboy, and talking about porn stars). Women may employ this strategy as an attempt to attain the elevated status of the dominant group (cisgendered men) and overcome their oppression by acting like male chauvinists. In the second strategy, an FCP objectifies herself through her choice of apparel and expression of stereotypes of female sexuality. This strategy may also be employed as an attempt to gain status, through embodying what society portrays as the ideal object of male desire.

Levy criticizes what she refers to as "lipstick feminists" and "loophole women". According to Levy, lipstick feminists believe, for example, that stripping is empowering for women and that putting on a show to attract men, for instance through makeup, clothing, or girl-on-girl physical contact, is not contrary to the goals and ideals of feminism. Levy disagrees with this view, criticizing such lipstick feminists as those involved in the CAKE organization, which provides sexually oriented entertainment for women. Levy quotes from the CAKE website: "The new sexual revolution is where sexual equality and feminism finally meet."

On the other end of the spectrum, Levy takes issue with women who make their way in a man's world by playing by men's rules. Sometimes, she argues, these women even make their fame and fortune by objectifying other women; for example, Levy finds it interesting that the Playboy organization was run by a woman, Christie Hefner, Hugh Hefner's daughter. Levy addresses women who succeed in male-dominated fields on their own merit, but shy away from feminism, saying: "But if you are the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is that women are inferior, you haven't made any progress."

Levy proposes the following as a solution: "Ending raunch culture will require citizens to scrutinise the way they regard gender. Objectification is rooted in disrespect, condescending views of the opposite gender, and power struggles. When men realise that they have the capability to fundamentally respect women, and women realise that they have the power to present themselves as empowered, fully capable people, raunch culture may moan its last and final faked orgasm."