Feminist Waves an Issue?

[Gayle]

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves of feminism are all represented in the book suggestions on this site. Do you see the generations working together to create equality? Some 2nd wave feminists criticize young feminists for focusing on trivial issues like slut-shaming rather than systemic inequality or being self-centered as in the TV series "Girls." Some young feminists say they're left out of established organizations or patronized. What's your observation? Favorite books by young feminists? I haven't found many during research for my book-in-progress about global young women's activism and I don't see many young authors in the suggestions.

[Savannah, Our Shared Shelf Moderator]

I am on the app, so this will be somewhat brief. I do not see "slut-shaming" as trivial. It is a huge issue. Men get praised by their friends for finally "scoring" some young tail and, as is shown on television and in real life, they are often applauded for being a player. But when woman decide to sleep with people more often than others, they are considered a slut, or a whore, and that is not a trivial thing. It is serious. It is hurtful, wrong, and frankly, it is no ones business but the girls in question. It is her body and she can do what she wishes to with it. Who she sleeps with should not be a problem to anyone, and no one has the right to judge. On a side note, this defensive post of woman who are free with their sexuality is coming from someone who believes in sex after marriage. So what your own personal beliefs are should not be used as an excuse for emotionally, verbally, and/or physically harming a man or woman for having sexual relations as they see fit.

[Akhénaton]

Excuse me, could you just explained what are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th wave of feminism you speak about ? I never heard someone speak about it and I kinda curious.

[xenu01]

Akhénaton wrote: "Excuse me, could you just explained what are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th wave of feminism you speak about ? I never heard someone speak about it and I kinda curious."

EDIT to note:
This is a very US centric view of feminism that I espouse below. Curious as to how non-USians view the 'waves' or if they do waves at all!

I was just having a conversation with someone I went to grad school with (history, and we are both avowed feminists) and we realized how murky the waves issue is!

Please bear in mind that what I'm about to say is often commonly accepted. That doesn't mean people won't disagree about it.

To sum up:
1st wave: Starts with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, which began as a discussion of expanded rights for women within marriage and ended with a declaration for women's suffrage. Ends with the successful passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

2nd wave: arguably begins with the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963. Or with the Civil Rights movement, around the same time. Ends with (?) the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment at the end of the 1970s. Or maybe with the economic turmoil of the 1970s and subsequent backlash of the 1980s.

I'm less clear on 3rd and 4th wave, although I think of 3rd wave feminists as being 1990s and early aughts, characterized by bands like Le Tigre and Riot Grrrls and movies like The Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Sex positive, queer positive. I feel like this book, which I read back then, sums it up for me.

When does the 4th wave split off and how are they divergent? Is it the voices of queer and genderqueer feminists and feminists of color? Is it the inclusion of gender nonconformity?

Where does "sex positive feminism" fit in, I wonder?

Anyway, the reason my friend and I were confused in the first place is that it's very strange to call 1848-1920 a single wave, when you really think about it.

[Gayle]

Here's some of what I've written about the 2nd and 3rd waves in my book draft on global young women's feminism. If you want more I can email the chpt. gkimball at csuchico dot edu

Generation Gap in the Third Wave
In a 2013 letter to Ms. Magazine, Gail Bjorkman defined Third Wave feminism as emphasizing “multiplicity, pluralism, contradiction, playful resistance, cyber culture and relational power.” She dates the Third Wave from about 1988 to 2010. Jennifer Baumgardner also defined the Third Wave In her 2005 book with Amy Richards Grassroots: a Field Guide for Feminist Activism and 2011 book F ’em! Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls, the title illustrative of her generation’s humor. She said it’s interested in pop culture, tolerant of a range of sexual expression, and more interested in individual expression than organizing institutions. She explained that young feminists were more “sex positive” rather than condemning sex workers and porn. She discussed her own bi-sexuality in her book and what it was like to nurse her best friend’s baby. By the late 1980s young people were living feminist lives whether they called themselves feminist or not, because of the Second Wave activists. Example of local organizations for teens are The Young Women’s Project in Washington DC, founded by young women in 1992 and Take Your Daughter to Work Day created in 1992 by the Ms. Foundation for Women, which spread to over 200 countries. Singer Lady Gaga and her mother organized the Born This Way Foundation in 2011 to halt bullying and violence in US schools.
Imani Perry is a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton, who shares her thoughts about the feminist waves as someone who grew up during the Third Wave:

We were talking about feminisms in plural, about multiple women’s experiences, about how gender coexisted with race and class and sexuality, identities and experiences. However, somewhere along the way, certain branches of third (and fourth) wave feminism got caught up in the neoliberal fixation on personal choice and the individual experience, embracing sexiness without challenging the larger power relations that socialize the very ideas about what sexy is. We need to keep alive the second wave focus on broader liberation and justice, alongside the truths from non-mainstream feminist and queer thought and activism.

An NPR producer described her Generation Y as “rich with superlatives—the biggest, the most diverse, the least religious, the most connected, the least patriotic, the most accepting (of gay marriage, of marijuana legalization), the least trusting, the least married, the most educated and the most unemployed.” Friction and misunderstanding sometimes foment a generation gap. Second Wave author Susan Faludi (born 1959) worries about a “generational breakdown” and “battle of the ages.” There’s a “generation war” said blogger Megan Austin; “There are few generalizations you can make about young feminists, except that our feminism is likely to be idiosyncratic, even contradictory, and we prefer it that way. It isn’t just irony and lipstick that separate us from Second Wavers: It’s an entire continent.” Anastasia Higginbotham (who worked for Girls, Inc.) told me in a telephone interview, “We take ourselves seriously but have taken it further by trying to adapt the message with more humor and playfulness; this can be subversive.“ This theme of seriousness vs. fun as a common thread through the generational debate.
Older feminists accuse younger women of being narcissists who don’t care about politics (see more information about the youth narcissism debate among researchers on the book website ), and “frivolous fashionistas” who view liberation and empowerment as the right to wear stiletto heels and call themselves bitches. TIME magazine did cover stories about “Feminism: It’s All About Me” (1998). A May 20, 2013, TIME Magazine cover on “Generation ME ME ME,” showed a young woman taking a selfie with her iPhone, representing criticism of her generation as self-centered. The cover caption is “Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents. Why they’ll save us all.” Writer Alyssa Rosenberg pointed out that selecting a woman as the symbol of what older people dislike focuses on “traits coded as feminine,” including dependence, interiority and fantasy. In fact, studies show that young men are more narcissistic than young women, there’s no increase in narcissism in college students over the last few decades, and various generations get less narcissistic as they age.
The Second Wave’s realization that “the personal is political”—a social problem--devolved into “do what ever you want.” An example, singer Miley Cyrus said her sexual performance “twerking” wearing very little at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards indicated her feminism: “People got a rise out of me saying that I was a feminist, but I am. I’m telling women be whoever you want to be.” She calls herself “pansexual.” She explained she’s a feminist because, “I'm female-empowered and I want to give fucking women jobs and I want us to be being out there, being leaders and being badass, totally, but I want the same thing for men as well. Totally.” She also blamed Instagram photo sharing for girl’s lack of self-esteem, a generational crisis. Her costumes led to debates about “slut shaming,” neglecting the major economic and political problems facing women. The sexualization of entertainers like Cyrus and Rihanna is discussed in Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2006). She questioned if young women showing their bodies on TV shows like Girls Gone Wild is a badge of courage or treating casual sex as a sport.
Lady Gaga’s new brand of feminism is explored in J. Jack Halberstam’s book Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal. The author (who identifies as male but was born female) argues that popular woman singers are sexually assertive following in the path of Madonna. More than being sexually aggressive, Gaga (born 1986) advocates “being yourself.” “Postgender” she portrays a variety of genders (she acts as a man called Jo Calderone) and advocates gay rights. Bisexual, she tweeted, “Justice for the nerds, the disenfranchised + the insecure.” She said her greatest accomplishment was to influence young people “to throw away what society taught them is wrong. Gay culture is the very essence of who I am and I will fight for women and for the gay community until I die.”
A Second Wave feminist, Paula Rothenberg wrote an article titled “Snatched from the Jaws of Victory: Feminism Then and Now. She reminded readers that the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s was about the deep forms of male and white privilege, calling for radical change. Feminism challenged the basic beliefs about women’s nature, and the definition of beauty as looking like a Barbie doll in high heels and a girdle. It fought for a woman’s right to choose her own destiny and fought against the social and institutional inequality of women. Now Rothenberg sees girls wearing T-shirts labeled “Stupid Girl,” wanting to dress in sexy skimpy clothes like Paris Hilton, Brittany Spears, and Mariah Carey. Some teens get breast enlargement surgery as birthday gifts. Rothenberg warns,

We've been duped into trading social critique and collective action for a vision of feminism that offers us personal choice without social responsibility and without social context. Once upon a time the personal really was political. Today, it is simply personal. Racism, sexism, and class privilege are still alive and well. They frame our choices and define the meaning of what we choose.

[[deleted user]]

I think slut shamming, cat calling and things like that should be taken seriously, otherwise they'll be even more intertwined with our current culture, people can't see these as a normal and acceptable behavior, because it's not.
I think the waves mark the history of the movement, the media is calling us the new wave of feminism.