Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

In Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy deconstructs the idea that sex always empowers women. She argues that the sexualization of women sets them back in terms of equality and that they only hurt themselves by using their bodies as bargaining chips. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll divide my review into the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good: Levy creates a compelling argument against overt female exhibitionism and sexuality.

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Should Girls Wear Makeup? And Why Not to Call Girls Pretty

Lately, I’ve encountered a lot of tweets/facebook statuses/social awareness messages like this one:

I stand behind the appliance of makeup 100%. Just kidding, I wouldn’t want to get shot by my mom…

Tweets like this one have some truth in them. Makeup serves plenty of purposes. Sometimes, it supplies females with a sense of confidence or attractiveness. The equipment of makeup can reveal signs of refinement or care toward one’s appearance, which is not altogether a negative thing. In fact, it seems like standard practice for women to wear makeup whenever they attend formal occasions like weddings, or even when they go to work. Wearing makeup does not make women stupid, nor does it make them shallow.

But, like all things, there comes a time when excess leads to error.