Isn’t it a challenge for women to empower themselves in capitalist society without succumbing to the raunch culture which rooted deeply in the world where monetary values determine almost everything? The question isn’t whether or not the desire to appear sexy is contradictory to the drive towards gender equality but rather what exactly is sexy and how do gender equality is actually defined. There is a thin line separating the differences between gender equality and sexual liberation.
There are generally 3 waves of feminism which progress over time, the first wave started in the mid nineteenth century in Europe and America. It concerned large amount of egalitarian and radical issues including the demands for equal rights, educational and legal reform, abolition of slavery, and the right to vote. This period represents the female struggle under the patriarchal society where women were denied the basic rights to live. Not to mention the sexuality and pleasures issues, birth control and reproductive rights are barely existent. Women and children under the notion of marriage are basically the property of men.
In the1960s, in France women needed their husband’s permission to open a bank account, trousers were forbidden to wear and birth control was illegal. Women fought for the basic human rights and social justices throughout the early 1920s to the mid 1960s. It is not until the 1960s or the Mai 1968 movement in France where the second wave of feminism started to set in motion. The population is largely consist of the “baby boom” generation where the reproductive issues occur after World War II. Women were prescribed to have children in order to control the fertility rate which put them under the submissive position. However with the second wave of feminism the trend started to subside, changing the attitudes towards women. Women gained more gender equality and sexual freedom with the availability of contraception (legalised in 1967 under la Loi Neuwirth) and abortion (legalised in 1975 under la Loi Veil). This multifarious dimensions of feminisms are reflected in the highly diverse philosophies, practices and politics embraced by what has been identified as the feminist second wave.
Then there is the third wave of feminism that largely concern popular media, it is the contemporary version of feminism develop from the early 1980s to the present. Women in this movement are involved in modern series of ideas and lived experiences that predominantly deal with the youth. Popular culture that are disseminated through multi channels of media shaped women attitudes towards the idea of feminism. This view of post-feminism becomes especially contested because it sometimes “refers to the challenges of current feminism theory and practices as informed by poststructuralist, postmodernist, and multiculturalist modes of analysis.” However, the distribution of media through mainstream medium were being exploited and manipulated which bring up the feminist controversies over sexuality in the contemporary era.
Although the notion of feminist waves is useful it is also contentious and the idea of a feminist third wave is especially complex and problematic, the plurality of visions, ideas and — is especially relevant to, and alive within, contemporary youth.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” as Simone de Beauvoir has stated in Le Deuxième Sexe, a book focuses on the treatment of women throughout history. It is considered to be a very influential work of feminist in the era where France is experiencing the second-wave feminism. Simone de Beauvoir is an existentialist and feminist who examined women’s second-state status and their roles in the society. While some feminists reject the idea of joining force with the male counterparts, Simone de Beauvoir believed that feminists should not totally denied being in the man’s world. But rather joining them in organizing the power and creating work. From her point of view, the work of feminism was to transform the society and women’s place in it. Simone de Beauvoir tried to free women from the deterministic understanding of their roles in society. It was evident that women are different from men because of the way they we taught and how they socialized. In 1968, women are merely a part of the movement that mostly led by heterosexual male who are determine to make changes in the society and demand for the rights.
According to Ariel Levy, the author of Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of the Raunch Culture, the modern world is driven by the sexualized culture in which promote objectifying representation of women. The acceptance raunch culture encourage women to be objectified, not only by on another but also by themselves. The sexiness is depicted as overtly sexual revelation with as little clothes as possible. Some may see this culture as a sexual liberation where women are entitled to to do everything. However, the raunch culture portrays women into submission as sexual beings which undermine the drive toward gender equality. Especially in nowadays society where the monetary value is considered to be one of the most influential factors in determining people’s thoughts and actions. The overtly sexualized media promotes the raunch culture which is the product of capitalism where women were commodified for financial purposes. The objectifying of female sexuality is not only done to women by the male counterparts but also by women themselves. The feminist movement started to shift after the second wave where women demand for basic right.
Ever since the1980s the third wave of feminism has evolved into a new form in attempt to bring forth the ideas of gender equality and sexual liberation. Third wave feminism respects the right of women to decide for themselves how to negotiate the often contradictory desires for both gender equality and sexual pleasure. According to Snyder-Hall, the author of Third-Wave Feminism and the Defense of ‘Choice,’ being inclusive, pluralistic, and non-judgmental, demonstrate the respect for pluralism and self-determination. This is what make the third wave feminism different and more complex from the first two waves. Some people regard what the achievements contributed to the society by feminist movement as the reflection of how far we’ve come, but some may see it as how far we have left to go. This matter is purely subjective, it is thrust upon how each individual view the progress of the movement. Tracing back to how feminist movement has brought women the rights in reproduction and the rights in workplace, the society has seemingly reached the point where basic rights were offered to women. However, with the new raunch culture, all the contributions that were made over the course of decades might bring it all the to the time where women were seen strictly as sexual objects. As Ariel Levy has stated, “but raunch feminism is not only a rebellion. It is also a garbled attempt at continuing the work of the women’s movement.”
“Raunch” culture as defined by Ariel Levy in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of the Raunch Culture, is the overtly sexualization of women. In her book she criticizes raunch culture as the trend that market objectification as liberation, with the media and entertainment industry, popular culture features women in provocative clothing or lack thereof. Celebrities outfits were traced with sexual innuendos that endorse the hyper-sexualization. Not only the pictures of women in little to none clothing are featured in magazine like Maxim, FHM, and Playboy. The celebrities also adopt the raunch culture with open arms. Famous celebrities like Britney Spears was becoming increasingly popular and increasingly unclothed and to the extreme of pornography. This proves how “sex sells,” with the undeniable number to prove. According to Levy the net result of these adventures in entertainment industry, specifically the amateur pornography of Paris Hilton. She became one of the most recognizable and marketable female celebrity in the country after the leak of her sex tape. Sex appeal has become the source of income for many female celebrities, the whole industry is evolved around the idea of sexiness. There is no doubt how these key figures influence young women to express their sexuality more openly and outrageously, this form of sexual liberation is merely the setback to what feminism has accomplished.
The real question is whether the the overexposure of female body is accounted as a form sexual expression that associated with the liberation of female sexuality or is it an encouragement of the idea that the only value of women is shown as sex objects through the eyes of the public. These choices that women have create the controversy between the desires to be sexy and the drive towards gender equality. The conflict between the quest for gender equality and the desire for sexual pleasure has long been a challenge for feminism. Feminist movement has long been under debate of differentiating between escaping gender oppression as a path toward gender equality. She others in the modern society may see the it as a movement that open up new opportunities for sexual pleasure and empowerment. But with the raunch culture, sexual expression is take to an extreme, women relationship with their desires constructed by the society is a real challenge for feminism.
Coming from the New Left and inspired by Marxist forms of analysis, radical feminists viewed society as structured by a sex/class system and assumed that because of their position in the patriarchal order women share a common experience of oppression that could become the basis for solidarity. This bring forth the issues of oppression that were confined under the social norms in which women experienced. The dominant ideas of women as sexual objects. While it is true that during the mid nineteenth century women’s struggles under patriarchal social are prominent with the laws, regulations and cultural norms that prevent women for having the rights to vote or the access to contraception. The movement started to shift under the third-wave feminism, it accepts the reality that multiple definitions of feminism exist simultaneously. While women have numerous roles in the society, being housewife and mother are seemingly the responsibility that women are entitled to since birth. But to be fair women are more than capable and eligible to pursue the life outside of the household as traditionally pursued by men. As Linda Hirshman states in her book ‘Get To Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World,’ that “by any measure, a life of housework and child care does not meet [the] standards for a good human life.”. This suggests that there is more to life than just following the gender binary roles. However, women in nowadays society seem to take the notion of feminism to the extreme. Following the raunch culture mentioned in the book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy, she states that the trend does not allow women to fully express their sexuality as women believed. Instead it promotes the objectification of women, orbiting around the male pleasure. Women were commodified into sexual beings, not on their own terms but entirely up to the societal norms.