Female Chauvinist Pigs

Do you ever read a book and spend the whole time wishing you had written it? Yeah, hot damn do I wish I was Ariel Levy. This book is a funny, smart, nuanced, and culturally aware look at how “girl power” has gone very, very wrong. This book is everything a sex-positive feminist (which is certainly how I identify) could want for help responding to people who want to know why the Pussycat Dolls aren't a good example of female empowerment. As Levy so eloquently says, “Raunch culture isn't about opening our minds to the possibilities and mysteries of sexuality. It's about endlessly reiterating one particular–and particularly commercial–shorthand for sexiness.” The only point where I felt she needed to tread more carefully was her discussion of porn stars. I don't think trotting out the old speculation that many of them may have suffered from sexual abuse is doing anyone any good. On that, she should have stuck with confirmable facts, like the disturbing one that although Jenna Jameson considers herself powerful, she still can't watch any of her own scenes. I finished this in two days, and would recommend it to anyone interested in a more in-depth analysis of the pop culture we ingest daily.