Korsunsky 1

Sara Korsunsky

CAS 137H - Rhetoric and Civic Life I

November 7, 2016

Establishing the Third Wave

The word feminist always sparks a debate in society. There is a misunderstanding that

it means support for women above support for men, when in reality it signifies the desire for

equal rights for both men and women in society, not just on paper. Notable feminists such as

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gloria Steinem, and even modern-day feminists like Lena Dunham

often faced criticism of their acts as feminists, and, although the context of their work varies

greatly, all had the same end goal. The failure of Second Wave Feminism due to widespread

backlash and lack of cohesive understanding found a new purpose in the Anita Hill lawsuit,

prompting the emergence of a new, uniquely defined movement often referred to as Third Wave

Feminism. The paradigm of feminism ultimately shifted from Second Wave, which emphasized

women entering the workforce and beginning the fight for reproductive rights, to a new wave

that placed importance on reclaiming female sexual identity, continuing the fight that former

waves of feminism started, intersectionality, and global feminism. The overall expansion showed

a change in mindset from sisterhood to creating a more inclusive world for all people.

The origins of feminism in America began with the efforts of suffragettes like Susan B.

Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The most famous event that marked the beginnings of this

movement in the United States is the Womens Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848. The

purpose of the convention was to discuss the state of women in American society, and one of the

main outcomes of this convention was the edited Declaration of Sentiments, which critiqued the

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence (Cummins). This convention was attended by men
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and women alike, but its message faced difficulty being spread due to limitations in technology

at the time (Cummins). The Declaration of Sentiments mimicked the style of the Preamble, but

revised it to represent equal rights for men and women, as shown in the following passage. We

hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal (The Feminist

Movement in the 20th Century: Overviews.).

After the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, feminism had been increasingly growing, in

that women obtained the right to vote, female college attendance was steadily increasing, and

women entered professional fields of employment. However, the Great Depression reversed a

great deal of the social progress that women had made over the past seventy years. The extreme

unemployment, general social dissatisfaction, and remaining sexism permitted the majority of

the few remaining jobs to go to men, thus undoing a significant portion of feminist progress in

the workforce. The Depression ended with the start of WWII in 1939, as the need for wartime

production generated numerous jobs and jumpstarted employment once again. World War IIs

progress of implementing women in the workplace was spurred by Rosie the Riveter, a

propagandistic symbol that inspired women to join the workforce to replace the men that were

drafted in war, but when the men returned, women were often relegated back to homemaking

jobs (Honey). Second wave feminism emerged with the publication of Betty Friedans book The

Feminine Mystique in 1963, which addressed the major unaddressed issues that were plaguing

women throughout the 1950s and 1960s and shed a new light onto supporting the solution of

these issues (The Feminine Mystique.).

Although strides were being taken toward a new wave of feminism following the decline

in the early 1970s, the event that put the Third Wave on the map was the ruling on the Anita

Hill/Clarence Thomas court case, which sparked controversy for women and brought together
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feminists for a common cause. In this case, Thomas, who had just been nominated for Supreme

Court Justice by President George H. W. Bush, was accused by law professor Anita Hill of sexual

harassment when she worked for him. Hill faced numerous attacks for coming forward with her

accusations, which sparked extreme outrage when Thomas was still confirmed to the Supreme

Court (The Feminist Movement in the 20th Century: Overviews.). Hill was also subjected to

extreme criticism publicly, especially from the right wing, including being called a little bit

nutty and a little bit slutty in a public campaign by David Brock (Carmon). The feminist outrage

was most concisely summarized by Rebecca Walker in an article for Ms. Magazine (Walker).

Walker stated, While some may laud the whole spectacle for the consciousness it raised around

sexual harassment, its very real outcome is more informative. He was promoted. She was

repudiated, while discussing her disgust with the case and the way in which it was designed to

punish the woman who came forward, as opposed to the man accused of committing a crime

(Walker). Following the emergence of Rebecca Walkers phrase we are the third wave,

numerous other groups began to emerge supporting the revival of feminism (Walker). In 1992,

Walker and another feminist named Shannon Liss founded Third Wave Direct Action

Corporation, which intended to create opportunities for social and political leadership for young

women to enhance the new wave of feminism (Fueling a Feminist and Queer Youth

Movement!).

It is important to note that Third Wave feminism was not a new movement; instead, it

built upon many of the goals of prior feminist waves and included new concepts as well. One

critical element of the Third Wave is the continuation of fighting for reproductive rights. Despite

the seemingly open access to birth control, abortion, and other forms of contraception, there is

still a fight as states try to cut corners to support pro-life agendas. In 2013, Senator Wendy Davis
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gave an eleven-hour filibuster in Congress to prevent the passage of a bill that would essentially

ban abortions in Texas. The antiquated view toward abortion reinforces how feminism is not yet

complete and may never be, due to intrinsic resistance from people that refuse to educate

themselves on feminism. Senator Daviss actions were intended to protect womens right to

choose, which does not imply she supports free-for-all abortion. Instead, pro-choice advocates

acknowledge the variety of situations that could prompt the need to terminate a pregnancy and

promise to protect a womans right to choose. Many third wave feminists reject certain the

second waves stereotype of women in the workforce being forced to be there and instead creates

a focus on the womans right to choose her life but having options in many different places.

The play The Vagina Monologues, was written by Eve Ensler premiered in 1996 and

included stories of 200 women and, as suggested in the title, their vaginas, with the goal to

represent the struggle that women in the late 20th century faced with their sexuality in a

patriarchy-driven society, and its content was often rebuked by conservative critics for being too

vulgar. However, the play also included information about difficult topics like rape and

molestation, and it was the inspiration for founding V-Day, which was an organization founded

in 1997 that had the goal of preventing violence against women (The Vagina Monologues.). V-

Day, on February 14th, includes students performing The Vagina Monologues to raise money

to fight domestic violence and has even spread to other countries, including Mexico, Egypt,

Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. Since 1997, V-Day has raised more than $30

million for victims of domestic abuse (The Vagina Monologues.). Within the play, the poem

My Short Skirt, states that a womans short skirt is not an invitation, or an indication, of

anything more than a womans right to choose what to wear. It is an extremely powerful poem,

and it deals with rape and overcoming the former stigma of what has been called slutty
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clothing. One stanza states, My short skirt / is not a legal reason / for raping me / although it

has been before / it will not hold up/in the new court. which is indicative of the shift in terms of

how rape is viewed and a shift from victim-blaming to actually punishing the perpetrator of the

crime (The Vagina Monologues).

Third wave feminism also had a unique quality in that it employed pop culture as a tool

to spread the message of sexual liberty and female empowerment through television shows that

celebrated women. The rise in girl power in the 1990s and 2000s was demonstrated in shows

such as Sex and the City, the soft-core pornographic series Girls Gone Wild, and other TV

shows, and it promoted sexual liberation and freeing oneself from the formerly restrictive

patriarchal standards towards sex and sexual liberty (Cowden). The increase in body and sex

positivity in the media had a significant impact on establishing the new norm for women in

regards to their sexuality by giving the movement a very well-known platform.

Another unique facet of the paradigm shift that is evidence to a new norm is the

reclaiming of previously derogatory terms. In the past, feminists encouraged other women to not

use words such as bitch, slut, or whore, when describing women, since it fostered an

environment of hatefulness and competition. However, in the 1990s, pop culture did emerge with

acts to reclaim this language and empower women. The 1994 single, All Women are Bitches

by the band Fifth Column and the 1999 book Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth

Wertzel, both flipped the script about these terms as a way to empower women by creating a

safer atmosphere (Wertzel). The book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, written in 1998 by

Inga Muscio, has the intention of appealing to women and encouraging them to reclaim their

bodies and sexuality. The shock factor of the title was meant to be an act of rebellion that
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demonstrated the strength of women to overcome the negative connotation of these words and

reclaim them to rid those who did not support the movement of some of their power (Muscio).

Additionally, the establishment of feminist coalitions demonstrated the new, collectivist

face of the third wave, as opposed to the second wave which was more focused on domestic

issues. These coalitions supported numerous elements of international feminism, including the

spread to fair labor in third world countries, work to provide access to feminine hygiene

widespread, and access to legal and safe abortion, In 1997, Layli Miller-Muro founded the

Tahirih Justice Center, which is an NGO that provides free legal aid to immigrant women

seeking asylum from sex crimes, such as sex trafficking, genital mutilation, rape, and more

(About Us.). Many third world countries were disregarded as they faced more important

issues such as starvation, genocide, political corruption, so the oppression of women was sent to

the wayside and considered to be a lesser issue (Cowden). Third wave feminism attempts to

reverse this, as the feminists no longer work to solve small issues. The problems now are all

viewed as interconnected, and the intersection of race, gender, socioeconomic background are all

addressed when considering the factor that contribute to disadvantages (Cowden). The overall

movement is evolving from a very pop culture-centric issue to a more widespread, holistic

movement (Cowden). Some critics of the third wave argue that these global issues are

overshadowed by the focus on pop culture and more domestic issues, but the emerging focus on

the global issues is a new quality that did not previously exist with former views of feminism,

thus indicating a paradigm shift.

In 1989, two years before the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas case began, a University of

Chicago professor named Kimberl Crenshaw published a paper that gave a true definition to

intersectionality, which became more prevalent with the Anita Hill case, as race and gender were
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at the forefront of this case. Crenshaws paper, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and

Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist

Politics discussed how varying factors contributed to the continued oppression of women

throughout time. Crenshaws work was a key element in fueling the overall paradigm shift,

because numerous sub-sections of intersectionality came to a greater light with the Anita Hill

case and increase in awareness about feminism in general (Crenshaw). In Crenshaws essay, she

clearly articulated the way in which intersectionality differed from conventional feminism in the

context of the Moore vs. Hughes Helicopter Inc. case. Moore sued Hughes Helicopter for

discrimination against black females, and her case was dropped partly due to her introduction of

statistics only about black females and not just females (Mann and Patterson). Crenshaw

addresses the varying social and economic obstacles that are unique to Moores and other black

females situation, such as how they can get jobs without access to childcare or transportation.

She also ponders how can she secure a functional wage without quality education to allow her to

find a good job (Crenshaw). Intersectionality leads us to consider the role of social structures on

a social problem, rather than remain solely focused on the individual, is the best way that

Falcn describes the intersectionality movement to be more than just a one size fits all

movement. It requires analysis into the different obstacles that race, gender, and socioeconomic

background create when combined in varying patterns (Falcn).

Another element of intersectionality and addressing the Third Wave as a new phase of

feminism is the emergence of the Chicana movement and Black feminist movement, two sub-

genres of intersectionality. The Chicana movement, a feminist answer to the Chicano movement,

attempts to encourage women of Mexican descent to reject the restrictive culture that machismo,

religion, and conventional sexism place upon them (De la Garza). The major religion,
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Catholicism, places restrictive rules on women, and in combination with machismo, a concept

that is relevant in the behavior of many Latin American men, generates a situation that is

extremely difficult for Mexican women to shed. One element of machismo is that men should

have insatiable sexual appetites, while females should be submissive to their partner, be virgins

before getting married, and never possess more than one sexual partner. In Latin culture,

machismo is a source of pride and manliness, but it is extremely restrictive towards women, and

the Chicana movement attempts to free Mexican women from this antiquated lifestyle (Parker).

The book This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color is a collection of

stories compiled by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzalda that tell the stories of minority women

and their experiences with intersectionality and feminism, and also challenges the white idea of

feminist sisterhood that does not exist for women of color. The book All the Women Are White,

All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and

Barbara Smith is a novel with the goal of explaining the black feminist movement and the

difficulties that have come along with that movement. Although racism still exists in America, as

seen with many police brutality cases and other racism-fueled crimes, the black feminist

movement has gained traction by just starting the conversation through publications and not

being silenced by the numerous obstacles working against them. The Black Lives Matter

movement is just one example of the solidarity that African Americans have shown to spread

awareness about police brutality and the residual racism that exists in American society.

One final indicator of the paradigm shift from second wave feminism to third wave

feminism is the introduction of members of the LGBT+ community into the

feminist/intersectionality debate. In the past, people that did not fit into conventional gender and

heteronormal roles were often persecuted or made to be pariahs in society, often spurred by the
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religious background that cast shame over people of the LGBT+ community. However, in the

1990s, a shift occurred which became more inclusive of members of the LGBT+ society and did

not persecute these individuals. According to GLAADs report in 2015 of gay characters on

television, Of the 881 regular characters expected to appear on broadcast primetime

programming in the coming year, 35 (4%) were identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. There

were an additional 35 recurring LGBT characters, which also showed a great transition from a

total exclusion in pop culture to a significant representation (Where We Are on TV Report -

2015.). The overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 in 2013, due to the United

States v. Windsor case, legalized gay marriage and ultimately proved to be a critical step in a

positive direction for the LGBT+ movement. In 2016, Facebook added 58 unique gender options

to attempt to be as inclusive as possible to people who did not fit into conventional gender roles,

which is indicative of a more accepting society.

Despite the remarkable strides women have made toward feminist pursuits, the paradigm

shift would not be complete without resistance and a strong pushback from opponents of the

movement. There still exist significant barriers, including in government and society, that

represent obstacles with the feminist movement. First, of the over 4,600 U.S. ambassadors that

have served in for the United States, only 9% of them have been women (Zainulbhai). The

countries with the highest number of women ambassadors are typically less relevant to US

foreign policy (Zainulbhai). The most women ambassadors from the U.S. is held by

Luxembourg. Certain countries of greater strategic importance to American policy, like China,

Germany and Saudi Arabia, have never had a woman as ambassador (Zainulbhai). Additionally, a

key player in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, has faced consistent criticism for remaining

married to Bill Clinton, who famously had an affair with a White House aid during his tenure as
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president. The blame placed on Hillary for an action committed by another person is evidence of

the residual ideology that is still somewhat oppressing women today, and it has come to a

forefront with the election.

In conclusion, the feminist movement experienced a significant paradigm shift following

the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas case in which the collective dissatisfaction with the state of

feminism in America became prevalent. There are many indicators of the shift, including the

expansion of Second Wave concepts like reproductive rights and women in the workforce being

continued, but also the emergence of new concepts that broached feminism in a different way.

The increase in representation of female sexuality in pop culture is evidence of the change from

conservative to a more liberal attitude towards womens sexuality, and the publication of books

that reclaimed derogatory terms also indicated the change through the variation in connotation of

these words. The concept of intersectionality became an important issue and shifted the paradigm

from a collective sisterhood movement to something that involved analysis and understanding

in order to actively be aware of all of the obstacles that numerous different minorities faced when

fighting for feminism. Overall, although feminists still have to continue to fight every day to

ensure that women are given equal rights and have the same opportunities as men, there was a

significant paradigm shift within the feminist movement with the emergence of the Third Wave.
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