From Coddling to Raunch
Do you remember when a man unable to envision women in roles other than secretary, nurse, or housewife was routinely called a male chauvinist pig? Now that women possess titles such as CEO, judge, chief of police, general, secretary of state, governor, mayor, university president, prime minister, astronaut, scientist, and senator, and because even joking about women at the water cooler will enmesh a man in an EEOC proceeding and may even land him in jail, I thought that term had become a relic of an extinct era.
Until the past year, that is. Ariel Levy, a columnist with New York magazine, wrote a widely quoted and vaunted book called Female Chauvinist Pigs. Ms. Levy describes a recent social trend of bad, raunchy female behavior that contributes to the coarsening of society. While she makes some on-target observations, Levy inaccurately uses the term “chauvinist†to characterize female pigs. Writes Levy: “If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves.â€ÂÂ
The word chauvinism is derived from Chauvin, a soldier serving in Napoleon’s French army, who was known for his loud-mouthed patriotism. It has come to mean, in our times, the prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind. When men believed that women were naturally relegated and limited to menial tasks and giving birth, that was chauvinism. Female pigs, however, aren’t feeling or acting superior, and are not chauvinistic. They are self-loathing and insecure, and now are “out-raunching†men.
Prior to this article, I published eight pieces on MissBehaving women: “Exposing Women,†“If Women Were Happy,†“Miscreant Moms,†“Diana Bianchi Enters Victimhood,†“Schwarzenegger’s Miscreant Moms,†“Legal Prostitutes on Capitol Hill,†“Enabling Unfaithful Wives,†and “Debra LaFave Rewarded for Rape.†For the record, I do not believe women should have a higher standard of behavior than men; I also don’t believe they should have a lower one. That’s where Ms. Levy and I agree.
For example, in “Exposing Women,†I quoted articles from FoxNews.com and the Wall Street Journal about women going wild in their bachelorette parties and in their wedding-album photo shootsâ€â€Âexhibiting behavior that makes fratboys look tame. When the Wall Street Journal covers a story like this, on its front page, it’s already a rampant trend.
Why do I care if girls and women are MissBehaving pigs? Because they become girlfriends, sex partners, and mothersâ€â€Âand, consequently, will have the power to control the lives of men. In family courts and criminal courts, judgesâ€â€Âespecially male judgesâ€â€Âtend to give women passes, presuming them innocent while presuming men guilty: in divorce settlements, custody fights, rape accusations, and domestic-violence incidents. In case after case, a woman falsely accusing a man of rapeâ€â€Âeven admitting itâ€â€Âthereby committing a felony, is not prosecuted. Her MissBehaving is overlooked or ignored.
So, I ask you, Ms Levy: How is this raunchy female behavior rooted in a feeling of superiority to men? It isn’t. The source of escalating female raunch is the lack of self-respect from growing up coddled, spoiled, and feeling entitled to special privileges and deference. Girls are falsely taught that happiness comes from male attention, money, jewelry, clothes, and plastic surgeryâ€â€Âinstead of from hard-earned achievement. As adults, then, these females enjoy inequitable benefits from the EEOC, Roe v. Wade, VAWA, policemen, DAs, judges, and the mediaâ€â€Âeven though, as Ms. Levy illustrates, they are living and perpetuating a raunch culture. Why wouldn’t they MissBehave like pigs?
NoNonsense Bottom Line
I blame men for allowing women to take control of the gender agenda in this country. Enough is enough. Deference backfires every time. To use Ms. Levy’s characterization, I would say this: If women portray themselves as pieces of meat, we men are correct to agree with them. But, it doesn’t make us chauvinists, and it sure as hell doesn’t make them chauvinists.
About the Author
Marc H. Rudov is an internationally recognized author of 30+ articles and the book, The Man’s No-Nonsense Guide to Women: How to Succeed in Romance on Planet EarthTM (ISBN 0974501719).
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Rudov’s book, articles, blog, and podcasts are available at http://www.TheNoNonsenseMan.com/.
Copyright © 2006 by Marc H. Rudov. All rights reserved.

