Raunch Culture

There's been lots in the papers over the past few weeks regarding Ariel Levy's book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture in for instance, The Guardian and The Daily Mail. So is raunch culture liberating women or actually destroying them? I'm favouring the latter position. In the Mail article the writer notes the grooming of young children, dressing them in clothes which imply a level of maturity which they don't possess. I think it's particuarly worrying when you look at some of the clothes now on sale in children's shops, clothes which are little imitations of what their 'yummy-mummys' are wearing. I remember the uproar in the papers about a year ago about thongs which were aimed at young girls. I think that kind of thing is disgusting. I don't believe in little girls wearing short skirts and high heels. Dress-up in the your home, fair enough, but to walk through the street in?!

Back to the notion that raunch culture is in fact destroying women, I think Levy is correct in implying so. I hate the current over abundance of women with huge fake tits, blonde extensions, all-year tan and such. I was thinking about the different waves of feminism the other day and I was thinking about the argument that the UK hasn't seen a third wave yet and I thought wouldn't it be lovely to have a third wave which centered around academia and such, but getting slightly off topic (perhaps I'll come back to that idea another post), I do think it's terrible the way these women feel a need to look a certain way and to be construed as sex objects for men. I really do think a women with brains is far sexier and I would love there to be a counter-revolution against this raunch culture where we reclaim the position as intelligent women and give younger generations worthy role-models. I'm getting slightly vague and confusing again I think. Should learn to argue coherently.