Female Chauvinist Pigs By Ariel Levy Summary

Does Gender Really Matter? The articles, “Female Chauvinist Pigs” by Ariel Levy and “Parents Keep Child’s Identity Secret” by Jayme Poisson both discuss living outside the gender norms. Writer, Jayme Poisson, discusses in her article about parents keeping their child’s gender a secret. The parents, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, allow their children to choose the clothing they would like to dress in, as well as the toys they play with. Witterick and Stocker have three children, Jazz, Kio, and Storm; Jazz and Kio are both male and Storm’s gender is unknown. Poisson’s article discusses how raising their children this way will affect them in the long run through bullying and harsh judgement. Author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy, brings

Witterick and Stocker chose to raise their kids this way, therefore, this is the only way these boys and Storm know how to live. Their children were not discouraged when they chose to play with “girl toys”, instead, they were accepted. They did not base their decisions on whether or not the toys should be played with by only boys or only girls. Female Chauvinist Pigs show similar behavior but they act this way to work their way up in the world. “What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious” (366). Witterick and Stocker completely support their children’s decisions and allow them to make most decisions on their own. The article “Female Chauvenist Pigs,” discusses how women, in today’s society, participate in “raunch culture”. “[Raunch is] in fashion, and it is something traditionally appealed exclusively to men and actively offended women, so producing it or participating in it is a way both to flaunt your coolness and to mark yourself as different, tougher, looser, funnier - a new sort of loophole woman who is ‘not like other women,’ who is instead ‘like a man’” (Levy, 269). A Female Chauvinist Pig (FCP) is the type of woman that will do whatever she can to work her way to the top. Although, I don’t believe in women objectifying themselves and I feel there are other ways of for women to work their way up to be recognized without participating in raunch culture and degrading themselves, people have to do what they have to do to provide for their families and put food on the table. “As if women taking off their clothes is disgusting and degrading. Not being able to feed your kids, that’s disgusting and degrading!” (267). Raunch culture is very “in” right now. We live in a man’s world and an FCP plays along as the man. An FCP is not the one on the pole, she’s the one out with a group of men getting danced on by