Ariel Levy

Ariel Levy (born October 17, 1974) is a contributing editor at "New York" magazine and author of the book "". Her work has appeared in "The Washington Post", "Vogue", "Slate", "Men's Journal" and "Blender".

Early life

Levy was raised in Larchmont, New York, and attended Wesleyan University in the 1990s. She says that her experiences at Wesleyan, which had "co-ed showers, on principle", strongly influenced her views regarding modern sexuality. After leaving Wesleyan, she was briefly employed by Planned Parenthood, but claims that she was fired because she is "an extremely poor typist". [http://www.ariellevy.net/author.html] She was hired by "New York" magazine shortly thereafter.

Writings

Levy has explored issues regarding American drug use, gender roles, lesbian culture (Levy herself is a lesbian),citation |title=The Lesbian Bride’s Handbook |first=Ariel |last=Levy |url=http://nymag.com/news/features/2007/sexandlove/30920/ |periodical=New York |date=April 30, 2007 |accessdate=2007-11-03] and the pop culture popularity of U.S. staples such as "Sex and the City" and Gwen Stefani. Some of these articles allude to Levy's personal thoughts on the status of modern feminism.

Levy criticized the pornographic video series "Girls Gone Wild" after she followed its camera crew for three days, interviewed both the makers of the series and the women who appeared on the videos, and commented on the series' concept and the alleged debauchery she was witnessing. For many of the girls Levy spoke with, "bawdy" and "liberated" were synonymous; for them, "Girls Gone Wild" was only one example of something that was happening across popular culture.

Levy's experiences amid "Girls Gone Wild" appear again in "Female Chauvinist Pigs", in which she attempts to explain "why young women today are embracing raunchy aspects of our culture that would likely have caused their feminist foremothers to vomit." In today's culture, Levy writes, the idea of a woman participating in a wet T-shirt contest or being comfortable watching explicit pornography has become a symbol of feminist strength; she says that she was surprised at how many people, both men and women, working for programs such as "Girls Gone Wild" told her that this new "raunchy" culture marked not the "downfall" of feminism but its "triumph", because it proved that U.S. women have become strong enough to express their sexuality publicly.

Levy argues for understanding of why some women have resurrected stereotypes of women's sexuality that the original feminists fought to break free of. "It is worth asking ourselves," she writes, "if this bawdy world of boobs and gams we have resurrected reflects how far we've come, or how far we have left to go."

Bibliography

"New York" magazine:
* [http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymag/author_252/ New York Magazine -- The Ariel Levy Archive] "Blender":
*"Queen of the Boob Tube"
*"The Coronation of Gwen Stefani"

"Slate":
*" [http://www.slate.com/id/2113722/ Lipstick Lesbians] "
*" [http://www.slate.com/id/2097485/ Dispatches from Girls Gone Wild] "

*""

ee also

*Pamela Paul
*Porn creep
*"Pornified"
*Sexualization
*Third-wave feminism

References

External links

* [http://www.ariellevy.net/ Official site]
* [http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymag/author_252/ New York Magazine -- The Ariel Levy Archive]
* [http://slate.com/id/2097485/entry/2097496 Dispatches from Girls Gone Wild]