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Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study beginning in the late 1980s. Some would describe this movement as a response both to perceived failures of second-wave feminism and to the popular backlash against the progress of that same second wave. Others who identify with the third wave distinguish themselves by their recognition of the intersection of gender with race, social class, and other social categorizations, and also by their commitment to work against all forms of oppression.
Third-wave feminism sought to challenge or avoid the "essentialist" definitions of femininity which, proponents argued, were common to the second wave such as an over-emphasis on the experience of white middle class women. Third wave theory usually encompasses queer theory, women-of-color consciousness, post-colonial theory, critical theory, transnationalism, ecofeminism, and new feminist theory. In contrast to their predecessors, third wave feminists often focus on "micropolitics," writing about forms of gender expression and representation that are less explicitly political. They also challenged the second wave's defintions about what is or is not good for females, by finding signs of empowerment and resistance in areas which were not a part of the second wave paradigm. For example, overt sexuality catering to male fantasy was reinterpreted as empowering if the results primarily profited the female "object." A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave and helps to account for its heightened emphasis on the indeterminacy and discursive power inherent in all gender terms and categories.
History
In the fall of 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, Anita Hill, an African-American law professor from Oklahoma, came forward and said that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas almost a decade earlier, while she had been employed under him. In response to the Thomas hearings, Rebecca Walker published an article entitled “Becoming the Third Wave” in a 1992 issue of Ms. in which she declared, “I am not a postfeminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.” This event is often marked as the beginning of the usage of the term third wave. As Amber Kisner has argued, Walker's was "a notable expansion of feminist space for women of color."
Third wave rhetoric first appeared, however, in the mid 1980's. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other feminists of color, called for a new subjectivity in feminist voice. They sought to negotiate prominent space within feminist thought for consideration of race related subjectivities. This focus on the intersection between race and gender remained prominent through the Hill-Thomas hearings, but began to shift with the Freedom Ride 1992. This drive to register voters in poor communities of color was surrounded with rhetoric that focused on rallying young feminists. For many, the rallying of the young is the emphasis that has stuck within third wave feminism.
Third wave in popular culture
Ideals and debates associated with third-wave feminism were reflected in popular culture of the 1990s and 2000s.
- See main article: Girl Power
Books
- Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards: Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2000, ISBN 0374526222
- Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards, Winona LaDuke: Grassroots : A Field Guide for Feminist Activism, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2005, ISBN 0374528659
- Stacy Gillis, Gillian Howie and Rebecca Munford (Editors): Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration, Palgrave, 2004, ISBN 140391821X
- Astrid Henry: Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism, Indiana University Press 2004, ISBN 025321713X
- Leslie Heywood, Jennifer Drake (Editors): Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism, University of Minnesota Press 1997, ISBN 0816630054
- Kisner, Amber. (2004). Negotiating space for/through Third-Wave Feminism. NWSA Journal, 16(3) pp. 124-153.
Magazines
External links
See also
"Third-wave feminism"