Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture

How women are represented

Ariel Levy:

Ariel Levy is a writer at the New Yorker magazine and is known for her famous published book- Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. The book critiques women in America objectified in sexualized highly to objectify another and are encouraged to objectify them as well. This is what Levy refers to as Raunch culture.

Her views/ messages on women may be understandable in music videos are they are meant to give certain messages to their audiences and people could agree/ disagree with Levy’s or the artists own views.

Iggy Azalea – Work 

Iggy Azalea is a singer/ artist and model from Australia, Mullumbimby. She moves to the United States at the age of sixteen in Miami, Florida. Iggy’s first recognition was on her two songs Two Times and Pu**y going viral on YouTube.

One of Iggy’s recent and very popular song ‘Work’ can have relevance’s to Levy’s message to the world of how women represent and objectify themselves.

How do Levy’s views be related to Iggy Azalea’s physicality and message?

Physicality of Iggy in her video changes through the story of her video. This can be during the beginning of her video as she is walking down a dirt road in expensive, stylish and revealing clothing. However the clothing she is wearing is described in Levy’s blog on her website with the short shorts and a small top, however I do not think that this is objectifying Iggy as Raunchy as it looks like a desert location, therefore being a hot environment and her costume looks like the modern fashion style for females who are in a modeling/ artist/ actress professions around the world and therefore may influence women in a wide age range category.

During the mid and end parts of this video Iggy seems to purposely represent and reveal more of her body to the audience according to the story of her video as well as showing off. Therefore I think that at this point Levy could be right with how women like to reveal themselves and pleasure men as Iggy begins to lap dance for a man character.  

In conclusion to the physicality of Iggy I think that the video should also be viewed from the perspective of Iggy’s story and what she is trying to tell her audience. As the song it is about what she has been through and how she’s made it to where she is now, therefore she may have done what is included in the video.

I think that in the lyrics of her video she may be relating to Levy’s point at some parts. As Iggy talks about ‘Valley girls’ committing adultery for valuable possessions, when she says, ‘What do you call that, head over heels.’ She is also referring to when women feel love/ passion when they are in love and could be a stereotype for certain females. There are certain shots which show off Iggy’s physical appearance such as her wearing tight and revealing clothes, there are camera angles to show certain aspects of her body.

Iggy also seems to be showing dominance by the way she is alone through most of the video, doing her own things and making it towards her dreams, as she is accompanied by two friends as they steal a car from a man and drive into Hollywood making to her dreams. The way she walks when she is alone, during the first parts of the video, she has her own style, with confidence, straight posture with large strides. Once she arrives she repeats this model walk along the signature floor.