Ariel Levy's chapter "Pigs in Training" from her book Female Chauvinist Pigs has both strengths and weaknesses. As we discussed in class, Levy presents a very white, upper class, euro-centric, feminist view that can be frustrating and difficult to negotiate. Despite the inherent bias in Levy's arguments, I think it is important not to cast aside all of her views as irrelevant. Although it is sometimes unclear, the underlying message of this chapter addresses two very important issues: binary constructions and silencing. According to Levy, our culture perpetuates contradicting messages about sex: there is a discrepancy between what teenagers see and experience in their everyday lives and what they are taught in school. In our culture, sex is everywhere - TV shows, magazines, and movies to name a few. But in school, many teens are taught to "just say no," or in some cases, they aren't taught about sex at all.
In class, we have talked a lot about how our society has a tendency to see things as either right or wrong, black or white, normal or abnormal. Often, we fail to recognize, or talk about, anything in between. I think that Levy provides a strong example of this in her discussion of the (relatively) current political approach to sexual education. From Levy's standpoint, many conservatives promote abstinence-only programs, while many liberals promote a relaxed approach with little to no boundaries or limits. As Levy points out, "both of these approaches can ultimately have the same result: a silence about the complexities of desire, feminine desire in particular" (167). This notion of "silencing" has larger implications - when issues are silenced, people are silenced. If we don't talk about sex and sexuality open and honestly, we run the risk of perpetuating oppressive ideas and behavior.
I agree with Nora on this post. It is important to recognize Levy's shortcomings and build on them in the future. However, it would be foolish to disregard everything she says altogether. I believe Levy has a lot of points that should be considered, especially when she talks about the raunch culture and the shortcomings of sex education in schools.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Nora's idea about society's "tendency to see things as either right or wrong, black or white, normal or abnormal." We have seen this trend come up several times throughout the semester. However, the strongest example of this, in my opinion, is when we talk about intersexed individuals, and sexuality. Sometimes things are more complex than just "normal" or "abnormal". Instead, its just a different type of normal, or a different thing than is usually talked about. Hopefully in the future society can move away from this normal/abnormal binary.
Ariel Levy’s chapter “Pigs in Training” explores the phenomenon of silencing that frequently happens within our society today. Levy investigates how female sexuality goes largely ignored within our “raunch culture” and in doing so she challenges the reader to break this oppressive cycle. The notion of silencing is also a very prominent theme within Emilie Morgan’s article, “Don’t Call Me a Survivor.” I found this piece to be extremely disturbing, both in the author’s personal experiences with rape in addition to the reactions she received in response. When the author was raped for a second time at sixteen years old she remained silent due to her feelings of guilt. Morgan remembers, “I had fully internalized the view that a woman is somehow to blame if she is raped” (36), and as a result she never approached authorities about the incident.
ReplyDeleteToday’s society looks upon women with unjustified skepticism when faced with instances of sexual assault. When a friend fell victim to a sexual assault instance last year I was disgusted with the amount of comments I heard questioning the validity of her allegations or attempting to justify what had happened. What I found most surprising was the number of our own friends who seemed hesitant to sympathize over the situation – both guys and girls. This struck me as similar to Morgan’s first experience with rape. When her peers heard about what had occurred, rather than supporting Emily her classmates formed rash judgments and scrutinized the author’s every move. “To all the boys in school I was ‘experienced,’ and to all the girls I was cheap” (33). Upon reading the article, I was shocked to hear how quickly Emilie’s young classmates responded to the incident. As I thought more about her experience, however, I came to realize I shouldn’t have been surprised by how people reacted to the situation. It almost seems more unfathomable that women continue to be reacted to in the same way even as adults. Children are irrational and still inexperienced in many aspects of their young lives. Although this clearly does not justify the malicious and unmerited manner in which they treated Morgan, it helps explain how children could form uneducated opinions about sexual assault due to their lack of knowledge on the topic. The problem lies in that instead of trying to correct these misconceptions, popular culture continues to reinforce the notion that the woman is to blame. Morgan uses her writing to serve as a healing process for her suffering. Such types of personal accounts, along with Levy’s direct address to these issues helps raise awareness and hopefully begin to break this cycle.
Nora,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you in this post that issues and people being silenced is one of the worst things that can happen. Like you mention the roots of these issues can be traced back to gradeschool and parenting. I remember taking sex education classes and how nervous the teachers were. Nobody wants to talk about sex especially with adolescents. Maybe it isn't the responsibility of the school to teach children about sex. Maybe the responsibility should all be on the parents. Either way if the teachers and adults in our society don't properly educate us on the subject then like you said, there is the high risk of perpetuating oppressive ideas.