A Generation of Pimps and Whores: The Negativity Behind Raunch Culture

A Generation of Pimps and Whores: The Negativity Behind Raunch Culture

By Jack Ross

Raunch culture, we see it in action every day. From YouTube videos of women twerking to lewd performances on live television, it’s no secret that our society today has become overly sexualized when it comes to women. This overt display of sexuality in young women today stems from the belief in this “raunch culture,” which refers to the “over-sexualized culture of the United States, which not only objectifies women, but also encourages women to objectify themselves in the belief that this is a form of female empowerment” (Levy). Some feminists today have taken to using raunch culture as a way to fight back against the oppressive patriarchy currently in place by showing that men won’t be able to objectify them anymore, since they’ll be embracing their sexuality in a way that allows them to feel confident, effectively mistaking raunch for liberation. Ariel Levy, author of the book, Feminist Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, is in disagreement with this new wave of feminism. She is confused as to why women would want to “resurrect every stereotype that feminism endeavored to banish” and questions the effectiveness of a “bawdy world of boobs and gams” (Levy). When closely examining the details of raunch culture and what’s developed as a result of it, coming to a conclusion is easy. As levy suggests, raunch culture is in no way a positive movement and effects women negatively rather than positively.

Since the early 2000’s raunch culture has slowly been weeding it’s way into society. Ariel Levy states that “[she] first noticed it several years ago. I would turn on the television and find strippers in pasties explaining how best to lap dance a man to orgasm. I would flip the channel and see babes in tight, tiny uniforms bouncing up and down on trampolines. Brittany Spears was becoming increasingly popular and increasingly unclothed and her undulating body ultimately became so familiar to me I felt like we used to go out,” noting just what raunch culture was starting to do, put sexualized women everywhere (Levy). By discussing how prevalent raunch culture became seemingly overnight, she provides clarity into why the culture expanded so rapidly. People saw it everywhere and believed it was going to be an effective way of liberating themselves.  She later goes on to write about how her confusion with the entirety of the movement. She questions where the women of her childhood who were “burning their bras” went and why they’ve been replaced with those “getting implants and wearing the [Playboy] bunny logo as supposed symbols of liberation” (Levy). In doing this, she analyzes the motives behind raunch culture and attempts to understand what, if anything, raunch culture accomplishes. This analysis is central to her argument as throughout the entire piece she returns back to question of what benefits come out of raunch culture. She also brings up an important point in noting that this new “movement” is actually changing society when she states that, “what we once regarded as a kind of sexual expression we now view as sexuality” (Levy). Through her analysis of this rapidly growing change in culture, she makes it known that “raunchy and liberated are not synonyms” and that raunch culture is nothing but a step back for women everywhere.

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