Book Review: Female Chauvinist Pigs (Ariel Levy)

Sex sells, and the vast majority of female celebrities (the charming young generation who can't take a few cents out of their extensive paychecks to buy some undies) know; they follow this unwritten creed of the adverstising and beauty industry as a mantra. In a culture where females as young as ten twirl a stripper pole as a baton of empowerment, how thin is the line between women’s liberation and carefully-disguised exploitation? Ariel Levy explores this and other issues in her first book, Female Chauvinist Pigs. In Levy’s study to determine whether porn stars, strippers, and swingers really are unshackled from the binds of culture, or just creating a new, equally limiting, culture, she examines everything from lesbian sex parties to ‘Girls Gone Wild’ casting ploys. In her interviews with everyone from self-proclaimed liberated ‘bois’ to Christie Hefner herself, Levy quickly uncovers the destructive irony hidden in raunch culture, where women aren’t pushed around by men anymore, they’re pushing each other themselves. Female Chauvinist Pigs is as darkly humorous as it is terrifying, an essential read for any female (or any man) who dares to call herself empowered in this sex-saturated world.

Sexual "Education" part III

Since it's apparent that teens are having sex, they should know how to protect against those unwanted babies and diseases by some way other than abstinence. Write to your congressman, the head of your school district, principal, whoever and tell them how you feel! Request sexual education programs that focus of protection and contraceptions. Only by telling those with authority can things get changed.

Also, wear a condom.

Sexual "Education" part II

There are obvious and many flaws with abstinence only education.

The first one being that it doesn't work. Over 50% of high schoolers have had sexual activity by the time they graduate. 3 million teenagers contract STDs per year. These statistics clearly show that teenagers are still having sex and will continue to have sex regardless of how they are taught. The stats also show that teens are going to contract STDs if they aren't taught how to protect against them in a way other than abstinence. Abstinence only education isn't work and will never work because teens will always have sex since it is part of growing up and becoming healthy adults, so they might as well be taught how to do it safely.

The second problem is that most people don't want abstinence only education in our schools. 70% of people oppose funding earmarked solely for abstinence-only education. 84% of people believe that teenagers should be given information about how to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease. If such a vast amount of people do not want abstinence only education, it should be taken out of our schools.

The third is that no teenager is going to listen to their "old and uptight" health teacher telling them not to have sex because "they should wait until they're married" when their boy/girlfriend is asking them to have sex NOW. Peer pressure is part of the teenage world, it is not going to go away any time soon. Teenage boys especially are not going to want to wait until they get married to have sex when they want to get laid today. Teenage girls are not going to want to wait until they get married to have sex when they want to get laid now, either!

Sex is an important part of growing up, and quite frankly, some of us teens don't want to wait to get it!! And If teens are going to be having sex despite abstinence only education anyways, shouldn't there be a different type of education?

Sexual "Education" part I

"Sex is bad. You'll get pregnant. You might get an STD...but you'll definitely get pregnant." Who hasn't heard this mantra in every health class or sex ed lecture? Have you ever heard a teacher go in-depth about birth control or protection? Didn't think so.

"Sexual 'Education'" will be posted in three installments. One to talk about what the abstinence only education is, one to mention the obvious problems, and the final to talk about solutions.

In 1996, the federal government passed a welfare reform addition called Title V. This program gives funding to educational facilities using sexual education. Title V's extremly specific requirements include:

• Has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
• Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children and that mutually faithful sex within a marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity;
• Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
• Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society.

A program called "Sex Respect" emphasizes abstinence, does not discuss issues such as masturbation or homosexuality, and rejects contraception as something that does not work. The program is designed to teach students self-respect and the advantages of discipline, and it extols the psychological and physical health benefits of sex within loving, committed marital relationships.

All the programs stress that sex should only be used in a "loving and monogamous" marriage. They all stress that the only way to protect against unwanted babies and unwanted diseases is to not have sex at all. This is a problem.

prəˈmiskyoōəs girl.

Emily's latest post got me thinking, as she describes a woman who wears sexy, revealing clothing as a "slut."

"Slut" is a negative term for a sexually promiscuous woman. In my virginal opinion, there's nothing wrong with having numerous partners as long as one takes the proper precautions against pregnancy and STDs, and accepts the consequences when she is responsible.

I also don't think there's anything wrong with wearing "sexy" clothes once the girl becomes a teenager. Why does the
"my body, my choice" reproductive rights mantra not apply to an Abercrombie denim miniskirt?

It's interesting how the word "slut" has morphed into such an ugly term. I think it's time for women, sluts or not, to reclaim these "bad" words and turn into positives.

SlutWear Brand Clothing Inc.

The American mall is any teenage guy's paradise. All he has to do is pick a spot to sit and he can see all the boobs, butts, and belly button rings he wants.

SlutWear is the latest fashion trend. Every American alive who has stepped into any well trafficked public place can recognize it. It is most well known for its wide necklines that swoop from the tip of the shoulder to the lowest point right between the breasts and low riding pants that show the top of their trademark thong. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the average girl's closet is over 60% purchased from SlutWear Brand Clothing Inc. Mine included. So what's the problem? So what if girls want to show off their budding features that they have so recently acquired? It's fashion! Fashion is about moving forward an leaving prudish and "old" ideas behind, right?

Well, the answer to that is yes and no. Fashion is about moving forward and leaving prudish ideas behind. If we didn't, American women would still be wearing prairie dresses and bonnets. Thanks to changes in fashion, women now have a wide array of choices and can make decisions for themselves about what they want to wear each day and for whatever purpose. ...Sort of. It's the part about "making decisions for themselves" that we start to get in trouble with this definition of fashion. Fashion is also about conforming to the widely accepted idea of what is "supposed" to be worn and why the average girl "needs" to dress that way. Common thinking that has been birthed from the loins of fashion is "I need to get that because if I don't wear THAT, what everyone else is wearing, then I'm not pretty or sexy." Do you see the skewed thinking in this? There's no real need to dress in such clothing or to apply to societies standards. One of the critical parts of feminism (in my mind anyway) is being who you are and thinking for yourself! The only need in regards to fashion is dressing the way that expresses your individuality and personal sexuality, not to express impersonal and overt sex like everyone else.

At this point in most commentaries about slutty clothing, you'd expect me to go on about how it's the media twisting the minds of women, how men are making us dress this way to satisfy their sex crazed minds, blah blah blah... But it is the WOMEN OF OUR OWN SOCIETY who are fueling this trend, WOMEN who are the CEOs of SlutWear Brand, WOMEN who are behind the counters selling SlutWear by the bags. So I ask: Women, why?

Good News! (And flavored water...)

The Aurora city council has officially decided to let Planned Parenthood open its doors! Huzzah!

In other news, I love it when my beverage of choice supports my feminist agendas.
(From the back of a bottle of the orange-flavored VitaminWater:)
"ah, orange juice commericals. funny stuff. mom cheerily prepares breakfast while the rest of her family sleeps. sure, this could happen. but every morning? please. maybe if mom were heavily medicated..."
Good stuff.