Very funny article: total confusion in the feminist camp over whether to regard sex as sexist, whether female sexual self-determination (good) is commodification and objectification (bad).

"... as we’re forced to wear those ears at hen’s nights"

Poor widdle 'empowered' girl. Diddums get forced then. By the nasty 'oppressive' men. Whoops, no man to blame.

Dr Ellis displays a disturbing inability to understand other people's arguments. Ariel Levy isn't one of those lightweight feminsts who just follows other people around applauding everything they do as evidence of free choice. Instead, she prefers to ask why they make the choices they do. In particular, she investigated dramatic changes in the way that many women choose to conduct their sex lives. She found that, rather than being liberating, post-feminist ideas about sex have replaced one stifling conformity with another.

Dr Ellis (unwittingly) demonstrates how this might work. She wasn't free to act or dress how she wanted and instead, succummed to peer pressure. It was no coincidence that all of the women at this strip show chose to act and dress in such similar ways.

Free choice means freedom to make a variety of choices.

I am anything but an uptight prude, but personally I think the playboy branding is awful. My wife finds it an anathema. To see it everywhere these days and having women and even young girls wearing it like it was cool fashion label is tremendously disappointing.

I do see your point about your mum getting an excuse to push beyond her normal comfort zone, however, I don't see how that connects back to playboy in any meaningful way. You can have the same feeling of sexual liberation and sexiness without all the terrible connotation of exists-for-pleasure, air-headed playboy bunny bimbos.

If you want a sexy theme, I don't understand why you wouldn't just pick a generic sexy or skimpy theme for a hen's night? Why specifically choose something as commercial and tacky as playboy?

I feel rather sorry for many women, particularly younger women. About the only thing they have left is their bodies.

Despite feminism, women rarely invent, develop or build anything. That is being done by men.

Despite feminism, the majority of women do not want to work (and I recently read a survey where 80% of women said they did not want to work beyond 50 years of age).

Feminism has also told women that marriage is bad and men are bad (or in feminist terms: - “Men are abusive”), and now nearly 25% of women don’t even have babies.

So what do women have left?

Nothing except their bodies, that so many want to flaunt.

Women's liberation was essentially to free women from being forced to comply with others expectations. What they do with it is up to them.

Trying to impose your values is no better than imposing male expectations.

Be careful what you wish for.