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Feminist Oceanography Continued

who is buying into media stereotypes?

Forum: WMST-L
Date: 05/22/2002

On 05/22/02 09:38 am, "silver_ak" wrote:

Since someone mentioned the Oprah show on "second" and "third" generation feminists, I'd like to know if this video is available.

I find it problematic to insinuate the relationship between second and third waves of feminism as solely generational, as it would privilege the dominant group's experience of being in any particular "generation." The term "third wave" was used first by women of color in the 1970s to position themselves outside of the second wave - a tone somewhat adhered to in earlier "third wave" anthologies like _Third Wave Agenda_ and _To Be Real_ but almost entirely whitewashed in _Manifesta_.

Last year I coordinated a "research cafe" on third wave feminisms at NWSA, in which I made the following proposal: re-define third wave feminism as the feminism "outside of" or "beside" the second wave rather than "after," and as the feminism that starts from the realization that there are many power imbalances among women that are as serious and important as the power imbalance between women and men. If you are interested in continuing this conversation, please come to Third Wave Feminisms + Bisexual/Transgender Interest Area Groups' joint meeting in Las Vegas.

I didn't see it and so can't comment on the discussions, but a couple of my WGS students were very downhearted about what they perceived to be the insular individualism of the younger feminists and a sense that the younger feminists had lost a vision of social justice for all women.

It is interesting that second wave feminists who have consistently complained about how *they* were depicted by the mainstream media would wholeheartedly accept anything the same media report about young women or feminists with all of its anti-youth, anti-feminist distortions. And then they accuse young women of buying into the media stereotypes about the second wave feminism. Sigh.

Emi Koyama <emi@eminism.org>

--
http://eminism.org/ * Putting the Emi back in Feminism since 1975.