Third Wave Feminism

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fashion and beauty information in order to satisfy women's individual needs (賴珮 如,1994).

2.3 Third Wave Feminism

After World War II, and after the first wave of feminism, which started in late 19th to early 20th century, women realized they must have political power such as the right to vote to start off the pursuit of gender equality. During the 60s, Second wave feminism broadened the debate to workplace, sexuality, family, and reproductive rights (Walter, 1998). Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique, which was written in 1962, pointed out the frustration of educated housewives that felt trapped and unfulfilled. The book stunned the society by contradicting the prevailing knowledge that housewives were satisfied to serve their families; also by calling on women to seek fulfillment in work and career outside of family. Friedan's work had a great impact on the society and is credited with sparking the "Second wave" of the feminist movement (Collins, 2009).

Women used to be limited in almost every aspect from family life to work place, but the Second wave feminism has liberated women from the domestic realm and enter the work place. Then the Second wave of feminist movement splits over the issues related to sexuality, therefore a new wave of feminism began to emerge in order to avoid the contentious splits over sex issues and also to revitalize feminism (Snyder-Hall, 2010). Third-wavers rose arguments about women using their sexuality to wield power over men and controlling their own sexuality against the inherently exploitative nature of sexual performance from second-wave arguments showed the self-identification of the Third wave as pro-sex (Gilley, 2005). The beginning of

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Third wave feminism is often dated to Rebecca Walker's 1992 essay in Ms. called

"Becoming the Third wave," in which she claimed herself as a part of a new generation of feminists wanting a feminism which they considered to be more familiar to their own experiences (Karlyn, 2003; Keller, 2011). Given the reason that with the stereotypes of the hairy-legged, bra-burning, anti-male, strident feminist permeated the society has led to the phenomenon of “I’m not a feminist, but...”syndrome among women, beginning in the late ’80s, in which young women refused to identify themselves as “feminist” even they agreed with feminist political views (Gilley, 2005).

The term "Third wave" also made its first official political appearance at the Freedom Summer youth organizing event in 1992, and the same year that a feminist conference at Hunter College in New York featured a panel dedicated to Third wave feminism (Baumgardner & Richards, 2000).

Third wave feminism arose within the Second wave, kept the core idea of the Second wave that women are capable of seeking fulfillment outside of the domestic realm but it insists that each woman must decide for herself how to negotiate the common contradictory desires for both gender equality and sexual liberation (Snyder-Hall, 2010). On the issue of sex and heterosexuality, Third wavers see the opportunities for sexual pleasure and empowerment (Snyder-Hall, 2010). For example, many Third-wavers believe in the use of female sexuality as a power tool, which is if dancing sexually improves the female body image because men are whistling it can be empowering (Gilley, 2005).

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Rebecca Walker expressed the contradictions and tensions of self-positioning young feminists who were uncomfortable with what they regarded as the inflexibility of Second wave identity politics:

"For many of us it seems that to be a feminist in the way that we have seen or understood feminism is to conform to an identity and way of living that doesn’t allow for individuality, complexity, or less than perfect personal histories. We fear that the identity will dictate and regulate our lives, instantaneously pitting us against someone, forcing us to choose inflexible and unchanging sides, female against male, black against white, oppressed against oppressor, good against bad."(Rebecca Walker, 1995, Being Real: an introduction, in Walker, To Be Real, p. 33.)

Therefore, most feminist theorists agree that the Third wave focuses more on how each individual defines feminism and further leads to an embracing of contradiction, conflict when it comes to agreeing on a specific Third wave scheme (Heywood and Drake, 1997; see also Dicker and Piepmeier, 2003; Henry, 2005).

Third waver Naomi Wolf, also as the writer of Fire with Fire, stated that women are never the minority in our society, and are a financial bloc with "enormous power".

She stressed that patriarchy does not prevent women from achieving the goal of equality. She referred Second wave as "victim feminism." She defined the term

"victim feminism" as "when a woman seeks power through an identity of powerlessness" and criticized how traditional consciousness raising efforts. Therefore she calls for women to reject victim feminism and embrace "power feminism" with the following definition:

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"What is power feminism? It means taking practical giant steps instead of ideologically pure baby steps; practicing tolerance rather than self-righteousness.

Power feminism encourages us to identify with one another primarily through the shared pleasures and strengths of femaleness, rather than primarily through our shared vulnerability and pain. It calls for alliances based on economic self-interest and economic giving back rather than on a sentimental and workable fantasy of cosmic sisterhood." (Sigerman, 2007, The Columbia documentary history of American women since 1941, p.510)

In order to understand it more, Wolf's emphasis on individualism needs to be noted. Regarding power feminism as an opposition to Second wave collective action makes it an individualistic motion, the message might be understood as we already have the power in us and all we have to do is to use it. Third wavers claim to be less rigid and judgmental than the anti-male, anti-sex, anti-femininity, and anti-fun Second wavers.

Naomi Wolf referred Second wave feminism as "victim feminism" and it is

"sexually judgmental, even anti-sexual," "judgmental of other women's sexuality and appearance," and "self-righteous" (Wolf 2006, p.14-15). Second wave feminism expects women to give up heterosexual privilege by not marrying, instead of extending civil rights; and to give up beauty, instead to expand the definition. It believes that sensuality cannot be compatible with seriousness and fears that having much fun might pose a threat to the revolution. On the other hand Third wavers feel that we should interact with men as equals, claim sexual pleasure, either heterosexual or otherwise, and play with femininity vigorously as we desire it (Wolf, 2006).

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Third wave feminism is defined as the feminist thought influenced by postmodern culture in a way that embraces the contradictory and the multi-perspective of feminisms; making use of the current culture to its biggest benefits, and how young feminists negotiate with the current cultural domain (Conrad, 2001). Thus, it can be seen as a contemporary feminism and culture. In this post modern era Third wave feminism has diverse approaches to feminism activism and various values about intimate topics such as sex and lifestyle.

Third wave feminism is an extension of its earlier movement, Second wave, yet it somehow fused itself with postmodern culture and broke down the stereotype that society held against feminism, which came with the Second wave feminism (Conrad, 2001). It is a movement that is considered to contain elements of Second Wave critique of beauty culture, sexual abuse, and power structures; while it also acknowledges and makes use of the pleasure, danger, and power of those structures (Leslie Heywood & Jennifer Drake, 1997). But it rejects the feminism of the Second wave, claiming that it reflects almost exclusively the perspectives and values of white, middle-class, heterosexual, who define themselves as oppressed victims of patriarchy.

Empowerment means different in this new feminism, unlike the collective terms in the Second wave, it is in a rather individualistic term. In a Third wave sense, being empowered is about feeling good about the self and having the power in making choices, no matter what choices they are. Third wavers seek to embrace sexual desire and expression, to be free from the limits of patriarchy and heterosexuality also from the anti- sex sensibilities perception of second-wave feminism (Shugart, Wggoner, &

Hallstein, 2001). Therefore Third wave feminism is a hybrid of multicultural,

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individualism and anti-essentialism, diverse sexualities, contradictions and contrasts (Conrad, 2001).