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Hen’s night bunny feminism

By Katie Ellis - posted Monday, 15 February 2010


But my cousins, aunties, friends and total strangers seemed to think mum looked great and she posed for a thousand photos before making a quick getaway leaving everyone wanting more. I’ll admit it took me a little while to accept my mother wearing sexualised clothing but I came around. I started to see how blurring the boundaries between everyday women and strippers could be empowering. For a woman who has been expected to behave in a certain way all her life this was a revolutionary act. It was her choice, she was in charge, and people were looking at her because she wanted them to.

Levy attributes the rise of raunch culture to a division within the feminist movement of the 1970s when so called “anti-porn” feminists were at loggerheads with “pro-sex” feminists. These labels are not as relevant today because female interest in sex is well asserted however the legacy of the man hating caricature of the woman’s movement has remained. Playboy bunny merchandising has grown out of a rejection of this caricature with women keen to assert their own interest in sex, men and looking desirable. Perhaps in this way the Playboy bunny has become representative of sexual self-determination - a core feminist belief.

So if the Playboy bunny can represent both core feminist beliefs and the same old female objectification what can we as politicised women make of this contradiction and the hen’s night in general?

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It’s important to stay aware of the commodified and depoliticised nature of bunny feminism as we’re forced to wear those ears at hen’s nights. Equally, we must acknowledge the revolutionary ways Playboy offers women an entry to the core feminist ideal of sexual self determination.

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About the Author

Dr Katie Ellis, the authorDisabling Diversity, received a PhD in communications – disability and media – from Murdoch University in 2005 and has recently returned there to lecture in the School of Media Communication and Culture. Previously, Katie worked in disability support at The University of Western Australia. Katie also works as a freelance writer and journalist for Quenda Communications.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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