Empowerment and Objectification

I recently finished Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs. I found it interesting, but I also came to the conclusion that I am torn on several issues she discussed. Among Levy’s targeted “Raunch Culture,” that she highlights are pornography, Girls Gone Wild, bikini waxes, skimpy clothing, and thongs. She criticizes society for taking good feminist ideals of the past and running off into an oversexualized culture that lives under the guise of “empowered women” who are sexually liberated.

First I will address the topic I agree with…that the Girls Gone Wild craze is much less empowerment of women and much more objectification of them. Sexual freedom is wonderful, and I do not believe that women should be ashamed of their bodies or their sexuality. However, the line is crossed somewhere when women fail to respect themselves and instead drunkenly flash cameras in order to achieve some false sense of being sexy. Those girls are not empowering themselves to be equal to men. Men are not flashing cameras in a drunken college spring break trip. Instead they are sitting back and ordering videos of silly barely-legal-girls doing so. And I certainly can see how it would be a slap in the face to women who marched for equality in the 60’s to see that what they fought for ended up being for girls to lose control of their inhibitions and show off their bodies purely for the pleasure of men.

Pornography, however, is a little more complicated of an issue in my mind. I don’t think the idea of pornography is anything wrong. Porn is not women displaying their bodies for a man to get off on, it’s an art form designed to assist or provide arousal, for men and women. That in it of itself is not a bad thing. Of course, the industry has taken a very dirty turn, and the women who are offering their bodies are underpaid and subjected to rape and other forms of violence. And a great deal of porn which promotes violence towards women in the bedroom as well as a strict pattern of male dominance/female submission does exist. But to me, the pornography industry is salvageable. It is an issue which needs to be addressed. But I think women would get a lot farther in that issue if they focus on promoting women-friendly porn rather than insinuating that the entire industry is guilty of objectifying women.

Now on to the other topics, which are even less black and white. Levy writes with a negative connotation about bikini waxes, breast implants, thongs, pole dancing, and many other issues regarding sexuality. Her point is valid in ways but I think a bit extremist as well. Women do these things to seem sexier. Is there anything wrong with wanting to be sexy? Yes and no. No, in that wanting to arouse your partner is normal and very justified. But yes, in that we must acknowledge that the association between these events and the idea of “sexy” is a direct result of patriarchy. Why would women want breast implants? Certainly not just because it seems fun. Instead, it is because we have somehow come to view big breasts as desirable and sexual, and anything else as lacking in those areas. And, as Levy also points out, there is a danger in somehow insinuating that these topics are a necessary part of being sexy. We have begun to somehow link “sexy” and “slutty.”

This is where Levy and I differ, however. She seems to think that we need to acknowledge that sluttiness is not providing us with true sexuality, and that it makes women feel as though they have to measure up to certain ideals of “raunch culture” in order to maintain sexuality. I, on the other hand, think that “slutty” is an unfair idea and needs to be done away with, along with “raunch” and everything associated with it. We don’t slap that label on men, so why should we slap it on women? Furthermore, Levy writes that our culture is often more about perceived sluttiness than actual sexual experience. That makes it more necessary to eliminate this stigma about sexualized women. If we do away with this idea of the slut then perhaps women won’t feel the need to measure up to it in order to be sexy. This would require men to make up their minds, however. They want to view strippers and promiscuous girls as sexy and physically attractive, but their sexual experiences make them undesirable. I have heard many men indicate that women who seem “easy” in a bar would be sexually unsatisfying. They want women who are somewhere in between prude and slut…women who can hold their own sexually but have not had so many sexual partners that they are considered “whores.” And since there is no line for where that idea becomes defined, it seems illogical to me to further the degrading images of “slut” and “whore.” I truly believe that if we could eliminate these stereotypes we would be in a much better place to bring sexy back to a place of choice. And that’s what it should be about….the choice of how to display your desires and how to arouse your partner. Not conforming to a cultural ideal of “sexy” that involves flashing your breasts on television and wearing practically nothing.

If it were up to me, women would all respect their bodies. Girls Gone Wild would not exist. Females in the pornography industry would ban together and, with the help of women everywhere, demand respect and proper treatment. Women would want to convey sexuality to those they directly wanted to arouse rather than to an audience of people they have no sexual connection with. Women would wax what they want to wax and wear what they want to wear, with no cultural pressure placed on their sexuality. But it isn’t up to me. Do I think girls flashing their breasts on Girls Gone Wild are empowered? Absolutely not. Do I think women with Brazilian waxes or who take pole dancing classes are sexually liberated? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on their reasoning behind why they are choosing to do so. But it isn’t my place to tell them that they are acting “slutty.” It isn’t anyone’s place. I do wish everyone would acknowledge their own reasoning and take control of their own sexuality. And I certainly agree with Levy that women need to understand that striving to please men and being sexually liberated are two very, very different things.

Next week I will delve deeper into Female Chauvinist Pigs by looking at a topic that I myself am partially guilty of….becoming a Female Chauvinist Pig.