note

raunch culture and the pornification of america:
-- stripper aerobics classes
-- prevalence of "brazilian" waxing
-- prevalence of thongs and other fashion that was formerly reserved for strippers / sex workers
-- playboy bunny symbol adopted by women
-- porn stars moving into "mainstream" interviews and music videos
-- pop stars openly displaying accepting Girls Gone Wild / etc
-- incorporation of "girls gone wild" into the vernacular
-- the "man show" and the rise of maxim, fhm, stuff

-- charlie's angels remake: "its stars, who kept talking about 'strong women' and 'empowerment,' were dressed in alternating soft-port styles-- as massage parlor geishas, dominatrixes, yodeling Heidis in alpine bustiers. in the sequel, they were required to perform stripteases for a mission.

chapter 1:
joe francis, founder of GGW, "these flashing girls are like the seventies feminists burning their bras."

"it sounds like a fantasy world dreamed up by teenage boys. a world of sun and san where frozen daiquiris flow from faucets and any hot girl you see will peel off her bikini top, lift up her skirt...all you have to do is ask. it's no surprise that there's a male audience for this, but what's strange is that the women who populate this alternate reality are not strippers or paid performers, they are middle-class college kids on vacation-- they are mainstream. and really, their reality is not all that unusual. people on spring break are obviously young, and horn was right to call the flashing a rite of passage. but it is an initiation into something ongoing rather than a one-shot deal, more like having a first beer than a bat mitzvah.... girls gone wild is not extraordinary, it's emblematic.

-- the influence of jenna jameson
-- female olympic athletes appeared naked or next to naked in playboy and FHM. positions photographed are referred to "presenting" when seen in the animal kingdom. "the collective effect of these pictures of hot (and, in most cases, wet) girls with thighs parted, tiny, porny patches of pubic hair, and coy, naughty-girl pouts made it almost impossible to keep sight of the women's awesome physical gifts. but then, that may have been the point: bimbos enjoy a higher standing in our culture than olympians right now. perhaps the athletes felt they were trading up."

-- strippers not symbolize sexual liberation despite the fact that it is thei job to *fake* arousal.
-- the bachelor, who wants to marry a millionaire?, joe millionaire, etc = "harem-themed?"
-- may 2004 FHM: cast members of the apprentice appeared in underwear for free.
-- rise of plastic surgeries including "vaginoplasty"

"this is our establishment, these are our role models, this is high fashion and low culture, this is athletics and politics, this is television and publishing and pop music and medicine and--good news!- being a part of it makes you a strong, powerful woman. because we have determined that all empowered women must be overtly and publicly sexual, and because the only sign of sexuality we seem to be able to recognize is a direct allusion to red-light entertainment, we have laced the sleazy energy and aesthetic of a topless club or a penthouse shoot throughout our entire culture."

"...everyone who is sexually liberated ought to be imitating strippers and porn stars."

porn used to be something someone had to recover from. ex: vanessa williams as miss america and her nude photos in penthouse.

now, consider that no one really knew who paris hilton was until her sex tape started to circulate. now she's one of the most recognizable and marketable female celebrities.

interesting irony: divorce rate in bible belt is roughly 50% higher than the rest of the country. in conservative greater atlanta, 58% of voters cast their ballot for bush and desperate housewives was the number one show. playboy is far more popular in conservative wyoming than in liberal new york.

important to note: "raunch culture is not essentially progressive, it is essentially commercial. by going to strip clubs and flashing on spring break and ogling our olympians in playboy, it's not as though we are embracing something liberal-- this isn't Free Love. 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.

"...our interest is in the appearance of sexiness, not the existence of sexual pleasure. before paris hilton we had britney spears and jessica simson to drool over: two shiny, waxy blondes who used to tell us over and over again that sex was something they sang about, not something they actually engaged in."

christie hefner-- "a lot of women read the magazine. this is proof that the post-sexual revolution, post-women's movement generation that is now out there in their late twenties and early thirties-- and then it continues with the generation behind them, too--has just a more grown-up, comfortable, natural attitude about sex and sexines that is more in line with where guys were a couple generations before. the rabbit head symbolizes sexy fun, a little bit of rebelliousness, the same way a navel ring does... or low-rider jeans! it's an obvious 'I'm taking control of how I look and the statement I'm making' as opposed to 'I'm embarrassed about it' or 'I'm uncomfortable with it.' a little bit of that in-your-face... but in a fun way...'frisky' is a good word."

hugh hefner and clashes with feminism:
"the rabbit, the bunny, in america has a sexual meaning, and I chose it because it's a freh anima, shy, vivacious, jumping--sexy. first it smells you, then it escapes, then it comes back, and you feel like caressing it, laying with it. a girl resembles a bunny. joyful, joking. consider the kind of girl that we made popular: the playmate of the month. she is never ophisticated, a girl you cannot really have. she is a young, healthy, simple girl-- the girl next door... we are not intereste in the mysterious, difficult woman, the femme fatale, who wears elegant underwear, with lace, and she is sad, and somehow mentally filthy. the playboy girl has no lace, no underwear, she is naked, well-washed with soap and water, and she is happy."
1967 to italian journalist oriana fallaci

"the playboy girls have a very high morality. if they accept a date, they lose their job. private detectives find out if they accept a date. women were meant to be ornamental entertainment, not partners in wildness, and their complicity-- their obedience-- was policed accordingly in the playboy empire.... 'I wouldn't like my daughter to have a promiscuous life. I would not like my daughter to be immoral.'"

"I do not look for equality between man and woman. I like innocent, affectionate, faithful girls. socially, mentally, I enjoy more being with men. when I want to speak, to think, I stay with men."

regarding uncle tom's cabin:
"...the converse strategy [from george harris] for coping with race in Stowe's text is the one that has become notorious, and it is, of course, the one exhibited by uncle tom. tom, remember, is a creation of stowe's who so thoroughly accepts his oppression as a slave, he renders the standard appurtenances of enslavement unnecessary. when a slave trader transports him for sale, tom can be left unshackled; there is no chance he will run away because he has so completely internalized the system of which he is a victim. he believes that he really is property, so to run away would be to rob his owner, a crime he wouldn't dream of committing."

"consequently, tom is thought of by his masters-- and by stowe herself-- as 'steady,' 'honest,' 'sensible,' and 'pious.' not only does tom submit to the system that oppresses him, he actively strives for the love of his oppressor, and oves him in return. george shelby, the man tom has served since his birth, is too ashamed to say good-bye to tom after he literally sels him down the river, thus separating tom from his wife, children, and home, and condemning him to a bleack and lethally brutal future. yet tom's wistful parting words as he is carted off to the auction block are, 'give my love to mas'r george.'"

"uncle tom has taken on a meaning very different from the one stowe intended. an uncle tom is a person who deliberately upholds the stereotypes assigned to his or her marginalized group in the interest of getting ahead with the dominant group."

james baldwin wrote, "we take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequesathed us at our birth; and yet t is precisely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed." the cage in which we "find ourselves bound, first without, then within," is the "nature of our categorization." we are defined and ultimately defin ourselves, baldwin argued, by the cultural meaning assigned to our broadest human details-- blackness, whiteness, maleness, femaleness, and so on.

"... there are parallels in the was we can think about the limits of what can be gained by 'acting like' an exalted group or reifying the stereotypes attributed to a subordinate group. these are the two strategies an FCP uses to deal with her femaleness: either acting like a cartoon man--who drools over strippers, says things like "check out that ass," and brags about having the "biggest cock in the building"-- or acting like a cartoon woman, who has big cartoon breasts, wears little cartoon outfits, and can only express her sexuality by spinning around a pole."

camille paglia regarding critics of her controversial views on date rape:
"they have this stupid, pathetic, completely removed-from-reality view of things that they've gotten from these academics who are totally off the wall, totally removed. whereas my views on sex are coming from the fact that I am a football fan and I am a rock fan. rock and football are revealing something true and permanent and eternal about male energy and sexuality. they are revealing the fact that womn, in fact, like the idea of flaunting, strutting, wild masculine energy. the people who criticize me, these establishment feminists, these white upper-middle-class feminists in new york, especially, who think of themselves as so literate, the kind of music they like, is, like suzanne vega-- you know, women's music."

levy's counter: "reducing 'women's music' to something soft and neutered, something guaranteed to make her--female!--interviewer say 'yuck,' is a manipulative little move. it's a way for paglia to separate herself from the human characteristics she finds most unattractive-- weakness, effeteness, pusillanimity-- and to make these things 'permanently and eternally' female. (which, by the way, paglia is.)"

"paglia's equation of al things aggressive, arrogant, adventurous, and libidinous with masculinity, and her relegation of everything whiney, wimpy, needy, and complacent to femininity, is, among other things, dopey. we have to wonder why a oman as crackling smart as camille paglia would be so unsophisticated in her conception of gender. we have to wonder why a woman as thoughtful as sheila nevins-- a woman whose entire career is based on the intrepid exploration of complex stories-- would have a knee-jerk reaction to a question that positioned her as a member of the female gender...
... instead of trying to reform other people's-- or her own-- perception of femininity, the Female Chauvinist Pig likes to position herself as something outside the normal bounds of womanhood. if defending her own little patch of turf requires denigrating other women--reducing them to 'yuck' as paglia does or airheads who prioritize manicures, or, judith regan's favorite, 'pussies'-- so be it."

"even if you are a woman who achieves the ultimate and becomes like a man you will still always be like a woman. and as long as womanhood is thought of as something to escape from, something less than manhood, you will be thought less of, too."

regarding "boi" lesbianism: "what's new is seeing these kid who really seem to be striving fo a certain kind of juenilia, not just masculinity. they really want to be kids. this hit me when I aw this girl--this boi, I guess-- barreling out of a store in chelsea in huge, oversize jeans, a backpack, and a baseball cap pulled down low. and she was running as if she were late for the school bus... her whole aura was so completely rough-and-tumble eight-year-old that I wouldn't have been surprised if she had a slingshot in one pocket and a frog in the other."

in 1939, new york city mayor fiorello la guardia insisted that the city's exotic dancers cover their genitals for the world's fair, and the thong was born to placate his decree while exposing the maximum amount of skin.

chapter 5

"these are not stories about girls getting what they want sexually, they are stories about girls gaining acclaim socially, for which their sexuality is a tool. while it would be 'weird' for a teen girl to pursue sexual gratification, it is crucial that she seem sexy--raunchy, willing, wild...."

"adolescents are not inventing this culture of exhibitionism and conformity with their own fledgling creative powers. teens are reflecting back our slobbering culture in miniature."

confusion of attention and affection. or attention and respect and value.

ex: "sex is something you did to fit in more than something you did for pleasure. 'it's an ego thing. we talk about it like at lunch on the patio; people think it's cool. it's competitive: who can hook up with the most guys and who can have sex, who can be the most... like my friend is having her eighteenth birthday party and she wants to have strippers there."

are girls focused more on what's expected of them than what they want?

we are pouring an enormous amount of money into abstinence-only education-- that is, sexual education that promote virginity and discredits or disregards contraception-- despite the fact that not a single study has shown this approach works. under the administration of george w. bush, annual funding of $168 million was allocated for fiscal year 2005 to three federal programs designed to promote abstinence-only education. (those are section 510 of the social security act, the teen pregnancy prevention section of the adolescent family life act, and the special projects of regional and national significance program.) in total, this country has spent nearly $1 billion on abstinence education since 1996.

alan guttmacher institute (AGI), a nonprofit organization that conducts research and policy analysis on worldwide reproductive health (and is quoted and respected by both liberal and conservative groups), japan and most western european countries have adolescent pregnancy rates of less than 40 per 1000 (uber-progressive holland shines with only 12 per 1000) numbers in australia, canada, and new zealand are between 40-69. in the united states, we have more than 80 per 1000.

henry j. kaiser family foundation: 25% of girls between 15 and 19 years old describe their first time as "voluntary but unwanted."

"... from the very beginning of their experiences as sexual beings they are conceiving of sex as a performance you give for attention, rather than as something thrilling and interesting you engage in because you want to."

Dilemmas of Desire by Deborah Tolman addresses "silent bodies" (ignoring any sexual arousal)-- didn't have to have sex to feel better, they first and foremost had to be allowed to have sexual feelings
"confused bodies" -- those who can't determine if the emotional wanting and physical excitement they experience is sexual (or anxiety / fear / antsiness)

those these girls didn't experience or had trouble recognizing sexual desire, some of them had experienced sex-- it was something that "just hapened" to many of them. like anne, some didn't really want to, but told their partners they did. others had silent mouths to match their silent bodies and said nothing. tolman points out that "not feeling sexual desire may put girls in danger and 'at risk.' when a girl does not know what her own feelings are, when she disconnects the apprehending psychic part of herself from what is happening in her own body, she then becomes especially vulnerable to the power of others' feelings." simply put, you have to know what you want in order to know what you don't want.

tolman isn't suggesting we should encourage teen girls to run out and have sex, she is saying that we should stop focusing all of our attention on sexual intercourse at the expense of educating our children about sexuality as a larger, more complex, more fundamental part of being human.

why would you take pleasure in seeing a person wear a compromising costume and watching the tedium of her life unfold? because you felt she deserved it. because it was somehow creepily satisfying to see her detached impersonation of wanting, and to see the men's 'desperate' response to it. frailey said she found this 'hilarious'
what is the joke?
the entertainment value has to come from people playing out their roles-- the "women are beautiful and the men are fools!" as sheila nevins put it-- but these roles are beyond reductive. "girls are just girls," frailey said. "now I'm like a guy!" annie felt, in a moment of sexual triumph. but who is this muthological guy we're all trying to b like? wh have we fallen sway to a kind of masculine mystique, determined that to be adventurous is to be like a man, and decided that the best thing we can possibly expect from women is hotness?

candida royalle "we've become a heavily sexualize culture, but it's consumerism and sex rolled into one. revolutionary movements tend to be co-opted-- swallowed up by the mainstream and turned into pop culture. it's a way of neutralizing it, when you think about it... it makes it all safe and palatable, it shuts up the radicals. once that happens, the real power is pretty much dissipated."

if we believed that we were sexy and funny and competent and smart, we would not nee to be like strippers or like men or like anyone other than our own specific, individual selves. that won't be easy, but ultimately it would be no more difficult than the kind of contortions FCPs are constantly performing in an effort to prove themselves. more importantly, the rewards would be the very things female chauvinist pigs want so desperately, the things women deserve: freedom and power.