Ariel Levy

Female Chauvinist Pigs

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Author Ariel Levy and staff writer at The New Yorker joined us for a lecture on her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs. A bold, piercing examination of how twenty-first century American society perceives sex and women. The book cleverly leads us to explore the role models women aspire to emulate. Levy argues that rather than pursuing the …

Ariel LevyAuthor Ariel Levy and staff writer at The New Yorker joined us for a lecture on her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs. A bold, piercing examination of how twenty-first century American society perceives sex and women. The book cleverly leads us to explore the role models women aspire to emulate. Levy argues that rather than pursuing the confident, self-determined, powerful, free ideal the women’s liberation movement would have dreamed for its daughters, we have turned porn stars and strippers and prostitutes into icons. Asking “what does sexy mean today?”, Levy argues that the term is defined by a pervasive raunch culture wherein women make sex objects of other women and of ourselves. Levy was called “feminism’s newest and most provocative voice, brilliantly laying bare the contradictions and evasions and self-deceptions that pass for empowerment” by Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point.

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Links:

Ariel Levy’s website

Moderator: Heleen Mees

In collaboration with: J.M. Meulenhoff Publishers, Holland-America Friendship Foundaation, American Embassy The Hague, AEGON, Miinisterie van OC&W, Van den Berch van Heemstede Fonds

 

If you like our past program, take a look at our upcoming speakers.