Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Rauch Culture

Ariel Levy spends time examining how various women seek success in contemporary settings. Levy explains how far women will go to emulate stereotypically masculine traits in order to thrive and obtain status in their society in Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Rauch Culture. The author explores a variety of pop cultural spheres, such as Playboy, The Man Show, and the Howard Stem Show, as well as the circumstances in which "female chauvinist pigs" live and the power they wield over their communities. Based on Levy’s article, a female chauvinist pig takes time to grab one’s attention and does not let it go. In this case, the author draws an enormous curtain which veils the “female chauvinist pig” idea as exact explanation of how the world’s most intelligent women have managed to make unforgettable marks in the world.

Levy’s piece does not bring out the societal realities of the day merely through what it portrays about its subvert nature but because it says it from actuality. Women have stereotypically taken the personalities of their male counterparts, put them behind their mouths and have taken advantage of these opportunities to gain notoriety. They have become giants in societal games and have succeeded to change their areas of engagement.

Question: Explain how women take each other’s advantage in quest for social class based on Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Rauch Culture.

Levy uses the article to look at “female chauvinist pigs” as women in the society who delight in treating their fellows as objects of sex. They do this as a way of finding some extents of equality to men. For instance, Levy brings out the absurd side of this argument by key female television producers, executives from Playboy and young girls who strip naked in shows like Girls Gone Wild. According to Levy, women should not look at the rise of raunch culture as a representation of how far they have reached but as a roadmap of where they need to go. Business women in this chapter take advantage of the concepts of capitalism (anything can be reduced to a salable commodity) to reconcile among themselves then sell their fellow women as items. On the other hand, buy pornographic magazines and put on bunny symbols because of the cultural pressures they get from their fellows.

Bell Hooks’ The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators

Summary

Bell Hooks’ The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators is an essay that analyses the power in looking. Based on the storyline, an oppositional gaze an oppositional gaze is aimed at interpreting and analyzing how the society periodically goes through reconstruction based on its ideals. In The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, black females take advantage of the oppositional gaze to challenge their male counterparts. Bell Hooks brings out the extents to which black women were racially segregated in the societies of the United States of America. She claims that black women were not allowed to express themselves as the feminine characters of the United States of America and were not used in the various media streams. Ideal American women portrayed in television, film and other media streams had to be white, sexy nad submissive lovers to their male counterparts. Throughout the text, Bell Hooks brings out the fact that black women were undermined in the American society and perfection of womanhood was based on the skin color. However, she makes use of the oppositional gaze as an instrument of strengthening black women in these societies towards challenging the male gaze of their white counterparts. According to Bell, the white male gaze has a lot to blame based on the fact that it played a significant role in strengthening the extents of penetration of racial superiority, gender inequalities and supremacy of the white males in American societies.

Bell Hooks’ The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators plays a significant sociological role in bringing out the critical discussion of the spectator roles played by black females in comparison to their white counterparts in film industries. She uses this platform to bring out the fact that black women have the right to observe despite the long history of oppression in the United States. She explains that it is as a result of being denied the right to gaze that the blacks started developing a rebellious desire. She uses the phrase “the oppositional gaze” to define the rebellious act of looking. it is the oppositional gaze that gives the black female spectators the power of documenting the things they visualize and come up with individual dialogues using their own voices without representation.

Question: Explain the how women are deprived of social identity in Bell Hooks’ The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.

Bell Hooks’ The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators looks at women in American and media societies as oppressed figures who are subjects of their male counterparts. By comparing black male gaze and black female gaze, Hooks explicitly brings out the fact that while black men had the opportunity of exploiting their rights of observation in films and theater without facing punishment, their female counterparts were not allowed to enjoy this right. As a matter of fact, black men were allowed to engage in gender relationships using their phallocentric spaces of power. On other hand, black females did not even get a representation in theater. In instances of representation, they were only considered as objects of male gaze.

Women are deprived of social identity through the roles they play in film. Black women’s representation is only limited to offering service to males and white masters. However, these women tend to be rebellious of this fact through dismissing the fact that cinema should be used to portray their societal significance.

Fatema Merrnissi’s Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem

Summary

Fatema Mernissi’s Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem is a story meant to create an appreciation of the world’ cultural diversities. The society upholds varied misconceptions on their perception of Muslim women. For instance, Mernisi uses this platform to oppose the perception of Muslim women as being superior to their men using the harem.

A woman’s body size is used as an element of social classification in Fatema Merrnissi’s Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem. Different societies have varied preferences of their women’s physical outlook. In this case, the size of a woman’s body plays a critical role in determining her social fitness. For instance, Mernissi is ashamed by the judgment placed on her by the saleswoman in clothes stores. In the American society, size six is considered to be normal for women. The fact that Mernissi’s body is not of this size makes her a social misfit. On the other hand, Mernissi feels appreciated by her Islamic upbringing base on the fact that men in her society do not attribute a lot of weight on the size of a woman.



Question: Analyze how women are negatively affected by their body images using Fatema Merrnissi’s Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem

The society as portrayed by Fatema Merrnissi’s Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem imposes rigid and downright expectations on women. Women in this article are negatively perceived because of their body images. For instance, Mernissi fells like a social misfit in America where sixe six is recommended for women. A part from this, women are meant to conform to what their “beholders” want; this has a great negative effect on their self-esteem. Further, women are meant to conform with the prevailing “standards of beauty” as a way of gaining a sense of attraction to men. This has led to the emergence of women who lose weight to conform to these societal orientations. Mernisi regrets that such moves have skyrocketed eating disorders.



























Works Cited

Hooks, Bell. "The oppositional gaze: Black female spectators." The feminism and visual cultural reader (2003): 94-105.

Levy, Ariel. Female chauvinist pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. Simon and Schuster, 2006.

Mernissi, Fatema. "Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem." Scheherazade goes west: Different cultures, different harems (2001): 208-20.