Female Chauvinist Pigs discussion group guide

I'm gonna get cracking on this discussion guide ASAP. Also, news flash, Jenna Jameson may be (one of?) the most popular/well-known porn star in the world, but she's not the only porn star in the world. I think that question goes to the heart of what I can't stand about the FCP argument--the judgment. We're asked to judge, and find wanting, all these women who've either made sex some part of their career, or just created sexual entertainment a la Sheila Nevins or Melinda Gallagher and Emily Kramer. I feel like Levy is asking us to judge them and find them FCPs, or shallow whores, really, there's not qualitative difference that I can see in the level of judgment and scorn amongst those terms, and I think the phrase and the ideology encompasses a lot more women than, say, girls who've been in GGW, or wanted to be. If "to be alive is to be sexual," I would hope we could strive for a broader definition of sexual freedom to encompass all the varied choices we have in how to express our sexuality. I'm not saying there aren't culturally sanctioned sexual roles for women, but I am saying that just because something is the culturally (male) approved version of sexuality that makes it automatically wrong.

Our sexual desires are so, so, so complex. If I've learned anything about myself while doing the writing and work I do, it's that. I don't think we can look at any person, male or female, and decide whether they are "liberated" or not, whether they are happy or not, whether they are sexually satisfied or not. How do we know? And when we do have their take on it, in the form of a NYT bestseller, is it fair to distort that person's voice completely?

I mean, what is the point of the question below if not to pit "you" (aka a real woman) vs a "stripper" (aka a filthy FCP sex worker)?

f. If someone told you that a thong is the same as the g-strings that strippers wear, would that stop you from wearing them?

It's great to know our feminist history, but a) it's 2006 and things are a lot different than they were 150 years ago and b) even back then we were dealing with the whole Madonna/whore dichotomy - see Victoria Woodhull. And yet the fear of sexual honesty and bluntness permeates everything. Cristina Page told me she "cringed" when she saw that I'd titled my column "I'm Pro-Choice and I Fuck."

And you know what? I am not saying I think we need to take away the magic, the poetry, the beauty and the intimacy of sex. But it's not an either/or proposition; it's not about bringing these topics into the public discussion at the expense of our highly personal sexual lives. It's about creating spaces for people to explore what it is that will liberate them. That is going to be different for every person. Some might find it in celibacy, or monogamy, or online porn, or cybersex, or spanking, or flirting, or bondage or whatever, and really I meant either/or for all of these things. These are such big categories too. I'm always fascinated by the people for whom sex isn't easy, isn' a simple, straightforward endeavor. Not everyone has a simple "type" or a single way they get off. Well, probably nobody does. We can be turned on by almost anything and I think to focus on whether someone has a stripper pole without looking at the broader context of their lives is inaccurate.

I know it seems like I keep harping on FCP, which I am, but only because it brings to light, for me, the large contradictions within feminism and within our current culture. I don't even know what having sex "like a man" means, whether for queers or straights.

To be totally fair, I'm sure Levy and I agree on some things. Here's an interesting Q&A with her at the Simon & Schuster site. I guess it's the level of coercion and lack of autonomy we disagree about. I think that plenty of women are channeling their sexuality into means that they desire, control, and create, not just the culturally pre-approved roles, not to mention that sometimes these two mesh. Here's an excerpt from the interview:


Q: Can raunch culture offer women a new kind of freedom?

A: If we were becoming a less restrictive society and letting women experiment with sexuality in all different ways that would be great; I'd be all for it. But that's not what's happening. One very particular and very commercial brand of sexual expression -- implants! Playboy! wet t-shirt contests! porn! -- seems to be the only thing that registers for us as hot. Is this really what turns us -- or men -- on the most? To find out, we would have to stop endlessly reiterating this fairly dull shorthand for sexiness. Any time you have a rigid role cut out for women, whether it's as an angel in the house or a table-dancing exhibitionist, it's problematic, it's limiting. It doesn't bring us any closer to the fundamental feminist project of allowing every woman to be her own, specific self.

Q: Why hasn't there been a backlash from prominent feminists about this trend towards raunch? A: It isn't that older feminists have been asleep on the job, it's that we've stopped listening to them. Part of this is generational. Many of the women with the greatest minds in the women's liberation movement of the 1970's are now in their sixties so they aren't necessarily up on hip hop or Paris Hilton or any of the other things that dominate pop culture today. (I don't think Betty Friedan would have felt particularly comfortable reporting on spring break with Girls Gone Wild, for example.) I'm thirty years old, so I grew up on this -- I'm fluent in raunch. I think that older feminists (my mother comes to mind) just find this trend incomprehensible, repellent. To me it feels familiar and mundane, which makes it much easier to get inside of and write about.

And the one word that's bolded in the next answer:

"...sexual expression needs to be rooted in sexual feeling or it really isn't all that sexual."

I think this is perhaps one kind of ideal, but who can control it? Police it? Who'd want to? What about sexual expression being a mix of sexual feeling and all the other factors that go into every decision we make? To think sex will never be fraught with so many motivations, many of them not necessarily about arousal, is silly. I'm not saying just give up and give in and do what someone else wants you to do, just that it's more complicated and I think that it's not as dire as Levy paints it. Maybe teens now aren't being ironic in their actions, but they are experiencing their first taste of (erotic) power, and can learn from that - in both healthy and unhealthy ways, but we've all been there, done that to some extent. This is what Jill Soloway writes about in her book-the alluring, seductive power of female sexuality as well as the trouble it can get you into. It's a paradox and I think plenty of women play around with it, trying on various sexual roles, figuring out what works for them when.

Discussion Group Guide for Female Chauvinist Pigs

In Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy has uncovered and put a name to a disturbing new character in American culture: the female chauvinist pig (FCP), a woman who objectifies other women -- and sells herself out as well.

If male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, female chauvinist pigs of today are doing them one better. With a wink and nudge, they are welcoming back strippers, porn stars, and Playboy Bunnies as heroes of post-feminist culture.

FCPs are everywhere you look. These women are not on the outskirts, they're typical of a culture obsessed with Britney Spears, breast implants, and Brazilian bikini waxes. Levy coins the term "raunch culture" to define the spread of the aesthetics and values of a red light district into mainstream society and she argues that this trend has become so pervasive, we barely notice it in action.

1. In Chapter One, Ariel Levy lists several eye-opening examples of the prevalence of raunch in mainstream culture. What examples surprised you the most?

2. Who are the FCPs in your life? Do you see them among your peer group? In your daughter's peer group?

3. Are you an FCP? Ask yourself and/or members of your reading group the following to find out:

a. Have you ever worn a Playboy Bunny t-shirt?

b. Do you consider Jenna Jameson to be a liberated woman?

c. Have you ever taken a Cardio Striptease class?

d. Have you ever been to a strip club? Why did you go?

e. Have you ever flashed your breasts to strangers? Have you ever wanted to be one of the girls on "Girls Gone Wild"?

f. If someone told you that a thong is the same as the g-strings that strippers wear, would that stop you from wearing them?

g. Do you know anyone who has done any of these things?

h. Do you think raunch culture offers women a new kind of freedom?

4. Does the female chauvinist pig really reach parity with a man? Does this behavior make her an equal, or does it actually undermine her power?

5. Before reading Female Chauvinist Pigs, were you familiar with "bois" and women who try to "have sex like men"?

6. Do you believe all the women who embrace raunch culture are trying to be FCPs? Or is it a case of simply following the trends in fashion and media to conform with their peers?

7. Do you see a double standard in society when women embrace debasing sexual stereotypes to feel empowered yet men don't have to? When it comes to sex, do you think men and women are looking for different things? Do you think our culture still has a "slut/stud" double standard when it comes to promiscuity?

8. How much of the FCP is a sign that women are still judged more on their appearances than their accomplishments? Is it possible to raise young women's awareness of what's wrong with the whole raunch concept?

9. If you have a daughter, or if you did, what do/would you teach her about her sexuality? How much would you expect her to learn in school? What kind of message would you want to give your daughter about self presentation? Would you have specific rules about what she could and couldn't wear? And how would that differ from what you'd teach your son?

10. What do you think the feminist movement accomplished? In what ways, if any, is it relevant to your life? How are your views and experience of sexual freedom different from your mother's?

11. Do you think the phrase "like a man" is a compliment?

12. Who, do you believe, is responsible for the rise of the FCP? Is this a natural backlash among young women against the political correctness of the 1980s and 1990s?

13. How do you explain the apparent contradiction of the rise of raunch culture at the same time as the rise to political power of right-wing, evangelical conservatives? Is one phenomenon a reaction to the other, or is it simply coincidence?

14. You've read Levy's book and discussed the questions above. In the final analysis, is there anything in raunch culture for women who embrace raunch culture? Is it an inevitable part of the feminist journey -- the pendulum swinging one way before coming back the other -- or is the path of an FCP a dead end for women? Where does feminism go after flirting with the FCP identity?