Analysis Of 'Female Chauvinist Pigs' By Adrienne Rich

Although the United States is established on the idea of equality, women continue to be oppressed and face inequality. In Adrienne Rich’s commencement speech, “What Does a Woman Need to Know”, she talks about what women should understand, in order to prosper in the “real world.” The same perception occurs in an excerpt of Ariel Levy’s book “ Female Chauvinist Pigs”; Levy grabs your attention about how women have learned to adapt to male qualities in order to succeed in their prestige. Both authors show us that in order to liberate women who are oppressed by men, we must defeat the system that produced the oppression that is still being built to keep women down. In Adrienne Rich’s commencement speech, “What Does a Woman Need to Know”, she
talks to the graduates of the class of 1979 about the many privileges they have that are being neglected and are often taken for granted. Rich specifically points out a women’s fore sister who did not have the privileges women have today but have gotten devalued and were often weakened in the male supremacies. Of the many privileges women have today is the capability to being literate. Rich argues in her commencement speech, “What Does a Woman Need to Know”, that, “ Sixty percent of the worlds illiterates are women. The number of illiterate men in the world rose by eight million, number of illiterate women rose by forty million, and the number of illiterate women is still increasing” (Rich, pg. 76). Rich reminds the graduates of how essential women’s privileges are and the significance of the women who have paved the way for us in order for women to succeed. Women have the chance to moving on and becoming equal to men, but they are the ones who are holding themselves back. Women should not neglect the complications their fore sisters went through to battle oppression and getting the education they can acquire to becoming a strong dominate woman. A woman will not fully understand her own identity unless she was taught about the origins and traditions of the women who came before them and who have paved the road for the women today. It is imperative for a woman to identify her background history in order to comprehend who she is as a woman. If women deny the knowledge of their background roots and history, then they will never have the knowledge of their history and will leave a woman to standing powerless. Adrienne Rich feels that lack of such awareness of a women’s history would result in women living weak and will get exposed to fantasies that the male domination develops. This will not end oppression and our society will continue to be powered by men. There are many stereotypes about the traditional roles of women that are often abused in society and in the household of a woman.
Rich states, “As a woman, you have been viewed and still are being viewed as existing, not in your own right, but in the service of men” (Rich, pg. 76). Women today are often viewed as being weaker than men since a woman’s duty is to take care of the environment for her husband and children. Rich believes that most women will then lose their outsider’s eye, which is a way for a woman to remembering she is not in power. For instance when a women gets caught up with her house chores and children, she tends to ignore empowering herself. However, Rich feels that women should carry an outsider’s vision to develop as independent women and to increase more understanding of themselves, as well as the world around
them.
Similarly, women are thought of as not having the assets and advantages that men have in order to attempt in fields that have typically been dominated by men.
A major problem in society is that men are often in power, leaving a woman to feeling weak and not taken seriously. Men will continue to dominate as a male society, unless women take action to ending this oppression. When the action is taken, only then can a woman increase the knowledge she needs to become empowering and to make a significant change in society. Rich’s message had an important meaning to the 1979 Smith College graduates, and Rich’s meaningful words will continue to hold significance to women in the future.
In an excerpt of Ariel Levy’s book “ Female Chauvinist Pigs”, Levy discusses the escalation of the raunch culture, which is a culture that encourages sexual illustrations of women that are fortified by women themselves and how women think they have succeeded by using their appearances and stripping to liberalize a woman. Women are still not free to be themselves, instead they are distressed to act like a manto feel included in this male dominated world. The raunch culture is so interesting to women because sexual illustrations of women captures the boy’s attention which will make a woman feel accepted by a
man.
Levy speculates that Female Chauvinist Pigs, a woman functioning with a male mindset, assumes that the male scrutiny infuses a raunch culture, which leads them to eagerly contribute in self-objectification, deceitfully thinking that it is a method of empowerment and liberation. Despite many women saying that they feel empowered and liberated by parts of raunch culture, according to Levy, doing all this stripping and sexual illustrations will not route to liberation, rather it will route to oppression. All these sexual illustrations will leave a man to objectify a woman as a sexual object.
Not only are adults affected by this raunch culture, however it also extends to our young teenage girls who are also aimed, who believe that illustrating your body will make men accept you. The disaster of feminism is the cause of this raunch culture, since it is sought to make women just like men. Unfortunately, raunch culture is everywhere in our society today and continues to rise. Our society is at a point where we are deteriorating as a whole and as a society there should be some alterations for change, such as committing yourself to sexual integrity.
Ariel Levy looks at a trend that is appropriate for her argument about how women today have adapted to masculine characteristics in order to be accepted and get into professions they wanted to get into which is, “tomming”. “There are parallels in the ways we can think about the limits of what can be gained by ‘acting like’ an exalted group or reifying the stereotypes attributed to a subordinate group” (Levy, pg. 273-274). The trend of “tomming” continues today because female chauvinist pigs have used their accomplishment by imitating masculine qualities.
If women continue to imitate these masculine characteristics, there will never be a day in which feminine characteristics holds power. Likewise, if women do not gain knowledge of their background history and know how to identify themselves they will not have the capability to succeeding in the real world and women will continue to get oppressed by men.