by Ariel Levy
First published 2005
Ariel Levy investigates a troubling shift in contemporary feminism. She discovers the Female Chauvinist Pig, a new type of woman who adopts the Playboy bunny as her symbol and treats casual sex like competitive sport. These women strip for Girls Gone Wild cameras and celebrate raunch culture as empowerment. Levy interviews college students who flash during spring break and teenagers who idolize Paris Hilton. She explores a world where music videos showcase pole dancers, porn star memoirs top bestseller lists, and Olympic athletes pose for Playboy. The author meets powerful women in corporate and entertainment industries who defend creating this culture. She traces these trends to unresolved tensions between the women's movement and sexual revolution. Levy argues that what appears as liberating rebellion actually represents limiting conformity. She demonstrates that the rise of raunch culture reveals how much progress women still need to make rather than celebrating how far they have come.
Genres: gender-studies, feminism, social-issues, non-fiction
Vibes: critical, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
256 pages · Kindle Edition · Free Press
Content warnings: sexism