Re: Female Chauvinist Pigs (DFertig)

Sex equals money. Levy focuses heavily on this idea in her chapter entitled “Raunch Culture”. In an age in which people will do just about anything while under the spell of the almighty dollar, it should come as no surprise that pornography is a multibillion dollar a year business. As Levy points out, women appear in Playboy, pornographic films, and agree to be in a harem not because they are making some sort of statement about their sexual freedom, but because they are paid to. The business of sex has become one of the most profitable industries in America, and unless men and women alike decide to stop paying to see some skin, then raunch culture will continue to thrive.
On a more specific level, I would disagree with Levy about her opinion of female athletes appearing in Playboy, FHM, Maxim and the like. While some might argue that such portrayals of these extremely accomplished athletes diminishes the value of their successes on the field, I would make the claim that it makes them Renaissance women of sorts. Female athletes have historically been stereotyped as overly masculine and unattractive. The athletes, such as Marion Jones, who participated in nearly nude photo shoots were doing a service to all female athletes by showing the world that along with the likes of Tom Brady and Andy Roddick, female athletes can be both beautiful and talented.