Today''s young women seem to be outdoing the male chauvinist pigs of yesteryear, applauding the ''pornification'' of other women, and themselves. This is a world where simulating sex for baying crowds of men on shows like Girls Gone Wild and going to lapdancing clubs - as patrons - is seen as a short cut to cool.

Ariel Levy says the joke''s on the women if they think this is progress. She tears apart the myth of this new brand of ''empowered woman'' and refuses a culture-wide obligation for women to act and look like porn stars. This terrifically witty and wickedly intelligent book makes the case that the rise of raunch does not represent how far women have come - it proves only how far women have left to go.