Raunch Culture -- we can’t hide from it because it’s everywhere we turn. It’s heartbreaking that after two feminist movements some women still feel the need to undress to be considered successful.
Have women lost all that they’ve gained over the last century? Are we taking a step backward in the feminist movement? But one of the most intriguing questions is: why do women still believe that they need to shed their clothes in order to feel as if they have made it in today’s world. Look at Amanda Beard. Beard is an Olympic swimmer who won her first gold medal at the mere age of fourteen, the second-youngest Olympic medalist in American swimming history. Unfortunately, this accomplishment is one that is easily forgotten when looking at her nude pictures -- Beard chose to strip down for Playboy in 2007. Don’t get me wrong, Beard is a beautiful and talented woman, and I’m sure that many people enjoy looking at her naked. But when I see these pictures the first thing on my mind is not swimming, it’s sex. That’s all men and women see when looking at Beard in her birthday suit.
Ariel Levy, who wrote the brutally honest Female Chauvinist Pigs, describes Raunch Culture as women who make sex objects of other women as well as themselves. Amanda Beard represents the quintessential chauvinist pig, no doubt about it. Instead of being a swimmer, she trades her identity in for sex, something that many women do today. Beard tosses in the towel and gets naked and for what, exactly? A sense of power? A sense of freedom? She has got to be crazy if that’s what she thinks she is getting by taking her clothes off. The only thing Beard will get for taking her clothes off is money. She will not get dignity or respect, power or freedom. Women will not move toward equality by undressing for the camera, it will only set them back.
When I first decided to write this paper on Amanda Beard I thought it would be a good idea to get some background information about her. I typed her name into the Google search engine and was disgusted with what I found. I practically had to go onto the second page to find a website where she was mentioned as a swimmer and not a nude model. The first hits that came up all had to do with Playboy or some picture of Beard when she was butt naked.
Beard is an athlete who many swimmers dream to be like; she is admired for all of her hard work. Her accomplishments are those that some people work toward their entire life and yet never achieve. Beard participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2004 Summer Olympics, and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In total, Beard captured seven medals, her most recent in the 2004 games. In 2003, Beard held the number - one world ranking in the 200-meter breaststroke. Her talent and athleticism are undeniable. However, that’s not the talent she is flaunting these days; she’d much rather flaunt her smokin’ body than her Olympic medals. The sad thing is, Beard is masking her achievements and selling herself as someone entirely different, someone who stands for sex and male pleasure rather than Olympic success.
Are strong, successful women athletes unfeminine? Some people today will still answer yes. Some women athletes feel as if sports aren’t feminine, that they are manly when participating in athletics. Maybe taking her clothes off was an outlet for Amanda Beard, a way to make her feel more like a woman. And if that’s true, then it is very depressing. Women should feel comfortable in their own skin, as comfortable as men do. And someone as beautiful and accomplished as Amanda Beard should not feel the need to take her clothes off to think of herself as feminine and powerful. If Beard did this to feel powerful, she has made a huge mistake. Having people pay attention to you and ogle your body does not give you control; you’ve only become an object to them. And that is precisely what happens to Amanda Beard. When people see the pictures of Beard most are not going to say, “Oh, that’s Amanda Beard, the Olympic swimmer.” She’s hardly recognizable. They’re more likely going to say, “ Wow, she’s hot, I’d do her.” Or, “Damn, look at her tits, her body is bangin’.” In fact, one most likely won’t even be able to tell she’s a swimmer; most people probably won’t even be able to tell who she is, that is, besides a pretty face and a nice rack. Why would someone want to be recognized for their body over their talents? It’s unfathomable.
I really don’t understand why women still need to take off their clothes in public or in pages of magazines to feel feminine or feel accepted. We don’t need to be naked to please the public or the opposite sex. We should be most concerned with accepting and loving ourselves. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Ariel Levy explains it this way: “The collective effects of these pictures of hot (and in most cases, wet) girls with thighs parted, tiny, porn patches of pubic hair, and coy, naughty-girl pouts made it almost impossible to keep sight of the women’s awesome physical gifts. But then again, that may have been the whole point: Bimbos enjoy a higher standing in our culture than Olympians right now. Perhaps the athletes felt they were trading up (Levy, 20).” Women should not trade in their talents to do something that does not require talent. We should be embracing who we are instead of changing ourselves to merely fit in. Amanda Beard should be embracing her gold medal, not her breasts.
When I think of power the first thing that comes to mind is definitely not a woman posing for Playboy. But according to Levy that’s what many women today think: “ 'Who doesn’t want to be looked at as a sex symbol?' said Shaina.' I always tell people, if I had a twenty-three inch waist and a great body, I would pose in Playboy. You know all those guys are sitting there staring at you, awe-ing at you. That must be power (Levy,103).'” How does stripping down for a magazine give a women power? If anything it’s demeaning -- you’ve merely become an object, you are no longer a person, you’re solely sex. People will look at the women, like Beard, in these pictures as objects, not as people. And it’s for damn sure that men aren’t taking off their clothes in order to feel powerful. “It is true that women are catching up with men in the historically masculine department of sexual opportunism; trying to get the best and the most for ourselves in that arena as we are everywhere else. But it’s not true that men parade around in their skivvies as a means to attaining power, at least not men in the mainstream heterosexual American culture-they don’t have to (Levy, 32).” Power is not achieved through nudity and power is definitely not when someone looks at you for pleasure and forgets who you are twenty seconds later.
Exposing your most personal parts also leaves nothing to the imagination. Beard’s breasts and vagina and everything else are exposed; she really puts herself out there and there’s no surprise element; guys can see it all. And the thing is, she’s not putting herself out there as a swimmer, but as a hot body. If Beard is posing because she wants to and not because she is power crazy then that’s a decision she has made, a decision that has more negative impacts than she could have ever imagined. A lot of people love being in the spotlight. But there is a drastic difference between having the spotlight on you in a pool and having a spotlight on you when you’re in the nude. I wish Beard embraced her breaststroke accomplishments over her magazine covers, that she lived as who she was rather than as people wanted her to live. Beard should stand up and show off her Olympic medals; those mean so much more than breasts.
Beard has without a doubt fallen into Raunch Culture, fallen into the idea that women are more accepted with their clothes off than on. But how exactly do women expect to achieve equality by continuing to take their clothes off? Women who pose nude in order to be accepted will not help the feminist movement, they will only hurt it; we will simply be reassuring men that women are sexual objects. Amanda Beard, along with other women, need to throw their clothes back on, and work on achieving power and equality in a way that does not involve nudity. We need to move forward in the feminist movement -- and with our clothes on.
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