Female Chauvinist Pigs

514 Words3 Pages
ENWR-105-BX 18 November 2013 In the essay “Female Chauvinist Pigs” by Ariel Levy, the author argues that women participate in practices that are responsible for their oppression. Levy’s argument is that women participate in “raunch culture” as means of embracing sexism and exploitation toward the idea of gaining empowerment. While some woman like Sheila Nevins, feel empowered and liberated by aspects of raunch culture, other woman like Tyra Banks, co-producer of ANTM, is discussed in “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas” by Jennifer Pozner using racist stereotypes in order to gain power. The judges in the show say they try and promote inclusive beauty standards actually reinforce racial stereotypes. Women are willing to participate in practices that oppress them because they want power. This paper will compare the practices that oppress women through media and raunch culture in correlation with factual evidence Levy has taken from historic studies. Through this careful examination the evidence will reveal how the idea of empowerment is complicated through racial and gender stereotypes of the female identity. Female Chauvinist Pigs, which complicate gender stereotypes, use raunch culture in order to gain empowerment. Female Chauvinist Pigs are women who sexually only objectify other women and themselves. Some women gain empowerment by disciplining oneself from women who are “girly girls”, while simultaneously objectifying such women like going to strip clubs and reading Playboy. Others gain empowerment by objectifying themselves through sexual appeal. Both are an attempt to gain status whether being through the attempt of acting like a male chauvinist or through embodying what society portrays as the ideal object of male desire. As an example, Camille Paglia, in an interview with spin magazine expresses “The people who criticize me, these
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