Between the Waves Feminist Positions in American Art 194962
This piece was originally published online in conjunction with the Fall 2008 result of Pacific mag. Martha Rampton is a professor of history and director of the Heart for Gender Disinterestedness at Pacific University. Her specialty is the early on medieval period with an accent on social history and the activities and roles of women. She holds an MA in medieval history from the University of Utah and a doctorate in medieval history from the University of Virginia.
Information technology is common to speak of 3 phases of modern feminism; notwithstanding, at that place is little consensus equally to how to characterize these three waves or what to do with women'due south movements before the late nineteenth century. Making the landscape even harder to navigate, a new silhouette is emerging on the horizon and taking the shape of a fourth moving ridge of feminism.
Some thinkers have sought to locate the roots of feminism in ancient Greece with Sappho (d. c. 570 BCE), or the medieval earth with Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) or Christine de Pisan (d. 1434). Certainly Olympes de Gouge (d. 1791), Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797) and Jane Austen (d. 1817) are foremothers of the modernistic women's movement. All of these people advocated for the dignity, intelligence, and basic homo potential of the female sexual practice. However, information technology was not until the late nineteenth century that the efforts for women'south equal rights coalesced into a clearly identifiable and self-witting move, or rather a serial of movements.
The beginning moving ridge of feminism took identify in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, emerging out of an surround of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. The goal of this moving ridge was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage. The wave formally began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 when 3 hundred men and women rallied to the cause of equality for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (d.1902) drafted the Seneca Falls Declaration outlining the new motility's credo and political strategies.
In its early stages, feminism was interrelated with the temperance and abolitionist movements and gave voice to now-famous activists like the African-American Sojourner Truth (d. 1883), who demanded: "Ain't I a woman?" Victorian America saw women acting in very "un-ladylike" ways (public speaking, demonstrating, stints in jail), which challenged the "cult of domesticity." Discussions virtually the vote and women's participation in politics led to an examination of the differences between men and women every bit they were and then viewed. Some claimed that women were morally superior to men, and so their presence in the civic sphere would improve public beliefs and the political process.
The second moving ridge began in the 1960s and continued into the 90s. This wave unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights movements and the growing self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups around the world. The New Left was on the ascent, and the vocalization of the second wave was increasingly radical. In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights were ascendant issues, and much of the movement's energy was focused on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex activity.
This phase began with protests confronting the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 and 1969. Feminists parodied what they held to exist a degrading "cattle parade" that reduced women to objects of dazzler dominated by a patriarchy that sought to go on them in the domicile or in wearisome, low-paying jobs. The radical New York group called the Redstockings staged a counter pageant in which they crowned a sheep as Miss America and threw "oppressive" feminine artifacts such as bras, girdles, high-heels, makeup and simulated eyelashes into the trashcan.
Because the second wave of feminism found vocalisation amid and then many other social movements, it was hands marginalized and viewed as less pressing than, for example, Black Ability or efforts to end the war in Vietnam. Feminists reacted by forming women-only organizations (such as Now) and "consciousness raising" groups. In publications like "The BITCH Manifesto" and "Sisterhood is Powerful," feminists advocated for their place in the sun. The 2d wave was increasingly theoretical, based on a fusion of neo-Marxism and psycho-analytical theory, and began to associate the subjugation of women with broader critiques of patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality, and the woman's role as wife and mother. Sexual practice and gender were differentiated—the quondam being biological, and the later a social construct that varies culture-to-civilisation and over time.
Whereas the first wave of feminism was generally propelled by centre form, Western, cisgender, white women, the 2nd phase drew in women of color and developing nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity, challenge "Women's struggle is class struggle." Feminists spoke of women as a social class and coined phrases such as "the personal is political" and "identity politics" in an endeavour to demonstrate that race, class, and gender oppression are all related. They initiated a concentrated effort to rid society top-to-bottom of sexism, from children's cartoons to the highest levels of government.
Ane of the strains of this complex and diverse "wave" was the development of women-only spaces and the notion that women working together create a special dynamic that is not possible in mixed-groups, which would ultimately work for the betterment of the entire planet. Women, due whether to their long "subjugation" or to their biology, were thought by some to be more humane, collaborative, inclusive, peaceful, nurturing, autonomous, and holistic in their arroyo to problem solving than men. The term eco-feminism was coined to capture the sense that because of their biological connectedness to world and lunar cycles, women were natural advocates of environmentalism.
The third wave of feminism began in the mid-ninety's and was informed by post-colonial and postal service-modern thinking. In this phase many constructs were destabilized, including the notions of "universal womanhood," torso, gender, sexuality and heteronormativity. An attribute of 3rd wave feminism that mystified the mothers of the earlier feminist movement was the readoption by immature feminists of the very lip-stick, high-heels, and cleavage proudly exposed by depression cut necklines that the get-go two phases of the move identified with male person oppression. Pinkfloor expressed this new position when she said that information technology'due south possible to have a push button-upwardly bra and a encephalon at the same time.
The "grrls" of the third wave stepped onto the stage equally strong and empowered, eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not every bit objects of a sexist patriarchy. They developed a rhetoric of mimicry, which appropriated derogatory terms like "slut" and "bowwow" in order to subvert sexist civilisation and deprive it of verbal weapons. The web is an important tool of "girlie feminism." E-zines accept provided "cybergrrls" and "netgrrls" another kind of women-only infinite. At the same time — rife with the irony of third-wave feminism considering internet is disembodied — it permits all users the opportunity to cross gender boundaries, then the very notion of gender has been unbalanced in a way that encourages experimentation and creative idea.
This is in keeping with the third wave'southward celebration of ambivalence and refusal to think in terms of "us-them." Most third-wavers refuse to identify equally "feminists" and reject the word that they find limiting and exclusionary. Grrl-feminism tends to be global, multi-cultural, and it shuns simple answers or artificial categories of identity, gender, and sexuality. Its transversal politics means that differences such as those of ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, etc. are celebrated and recognized as dynamic, situational, and provisional. Reality is conceived not so much in terms of fixed structures and power relations, but in terms of operation within contingencies. Third wave feminism breaks boundaries.
The quaternary wave of feminism is still a captivating silhouette. A writer for Elle Magazine recently interviewed me about the waves of feminism and asked if the second and third waves may have "failed or dialed down" because the social and economic gains had been more often than not sparkle, lilliputian substance, and whether at some signal women substituted equal rights for career and the atomic self. I replied that the second moving ridge of feminism ought not be characterized as having failed, nor was glitter all that it generated. Quite the contrary; many goals of the second wave were met: more women in positions of leadership in higher education, business and politics; abortion rights; access to the pill that increased women's command over their bodies; more expression and credence of female sexuality; general public sensation of the concept of and need for the "rights of women" (though never fully achieved); a solid bookish field in feminism, gender and sexuality studies; greater access to education; organizations and legislation for the protection of battered women; women'south support groups and organizations (like Now and AAUW); an manufacture in the publication of books by and about women/feminism; public forums for the discussion of women'south rights; and a societal discourse at the popular level almost women's suppression, efforts for reform, and a critique of patriarchy. And then, in a sense, if the second moving ridge seemed to have "dialed down," the lull was in many ways due more to the success of the move than to whatsoever ineffectiveness. In addition to the sense that many women's needs had been met, feminism's perceived silence in the 1990s was a response to the successful backfire entrada past the conservative press and media, especially against the word feminism and its purported association with male person-bashing and extremism.
All the same, the second moving ridge simply quieted downward in the public forum; information technology did not disappear just retreated into the academic world where information technology is alive and well—incubating in the academy. Women's centers and women's/gender studies have became a staple of virtually all universities and almost colleges in the US and Canada (and in many other nations around the give-and-take). Scholarship on women'due south studies, feminist studies, masculinity studies, and queer studies is prolific, institutionalized, and thriving in virtually all scholarly fields, including the sciences. Academic majors and minors in women'due south, feminist, masculinity and queer studies accept produced thousands of students with degrees in the subjects. However, generally those programs take generated theorists rather than activists.
Returning to the question the Elle Magazine columnist asked about the third wave and the success or failure of its goals. Information technology is difficult to talk nearly the aims of the third wave because a characteristic of that wave is the rejection of communal, standardized objectives. The third wave does not acknowledge a collective "movement" and does non define itself as a group with common grievances. Third wave women and men are concerned virtually equal rights, but tend to think the genders have achieved parity or that society is well on its fashion to delivering it to them. The third wave pushed dorsum against their "mothers" (with grudging gratitude) the style children push button away from their parents in social club to achieve much needed independence. This wave supports equal rights, simply does not have a term like feminism to clear that notion. For third wavers, struggles are more individual: "We don't need feminism anymore."
But the times are changing, and a fourth wave is in the air. A few months ago, a high school student approached one of the staff of the Centre for Gender Equity at Pacific Academy and revealed in a somewhat confessional tone, "I think I'1000 a feminist!" Information technology was similar she was coming out of the cupboard. Well, perhaps that is the way to view the fourth wave of feminism.
The aims of the 2d feminist movement were never cemented to the extent that they could survive the complacency of 3rd wavers. The quaternary wave of feminism is emerging considering (by and large) immature women and men realize that the third wave is either overly optimistic or hampered by blinders. Feminism is now moving from the academy and dorsum into the realm of public discourse. Issues that were central to the earliest phases of the women'south move are receiving national and international attention past mainstream press and politicians: problems like sexual corruption, rape, violence against women, unequal pay, slut-shaming, the pressure level on women to conform to a single and unrealistic body-type and the realization that gains in female representation in politics and business, for example, are very slight. It is no longer considered "extreme," nor is information technology considered the purview of rarified intellectuals to talk about societal corruption of women, rape on college campus, Title IX, homo and transphobia, unfair pay and piece of work conditions, and the fact that the US has one of the worst records for legally-mandated parental get out and motherhood benefits in the world.
Some people who wish to ride this new fourth wave have problem with the give-and-take "feminism," not merely considering of its older connotations of radicalism, merely because the word feels similar it is underpinned past assumptions of a gender binary and an exclusionary subtext: "for women simply." Many fourth wavers who are completely on-board with the movement'southward tenants notice the term "feminism" sticking in their craws and worry that it is hard to get their message out with a characterization that raises hackles for a broader audience. Withal the word is winning the day. The generation now coming of age sees that we face serious problems because of the way society genders and is gendered, and we demand a strong "in-your-face up" word to combat those problems. Feminism no longer just refers to the struggles of women; it is a clarion call for gender equity.
The emerging quaternary wavers are not but reincarnations of their 2d wave grandmothers; they bring to the discussion important perspectives taught by third wave feminism. They speak in terms of intersectionality whereby women's suppression can only fully be understood in a context of the marginalization of other groups and genders—feminism is part of a larger consciousness of oppression along with racism, ageism, classism, abelism, and sexual orientation (no "ism" to go with that). Amid the third wave'south bequests is the importance of inclusion, an credence of the sexualized human being torso as non-threatening, and the role the internet can play in gender-bending and leveling hierarchies. Part of the reason a quaternary wave tin can emerge is considering these millennials' articulation of themselves equally "feminists" is their ain: not a hand-me-downwardly from grandma. The dazzler of the fourth wave is that in that location is a place in it for all –together. The academic and theoretical apparatus is extensive and well-honed in the academy, ready to support a new broad-based activism in the home, in the workplace, in the sphere of social media, and in the streets.
At this point we are withal not certain how feminism volition mutate. Will the quaternary wave fully materialize and in what direction? There take always been many feminisms in the movement, not just one ideology, and in that location have e'er been tensions, points and counter-points. The political, social and intellectual feminist movements have ever been cluttered, multivalenced, and disconcerting; and let's hope they continue to exist and so; it'southward a sign that they are thriving. ■
This story starting time appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Pacific mag. For more stories, visit pacificu.edu/magazine.
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Source: https://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/four-waves-feminism
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