This article from Everyday Feminism written by Kelsey Lueptow really helps to elaborate more on the Third Wave of feminism discussed in the online lecture and in chapter 3 of the textbook. I found it really interesting and helpful with how in depth the article talks about this Third Wave of Feminism and also how it broke it down into different parts. Something that really stuck out to me from the article was where it says, “Therefore, language has a phenomenal power over internalized ideologies that comprise a culture.” I think that statement definitely sums up a lot of what we have been talking about in the course as far as gender and culture goes, but especially through a theory like symbolic interactionism where language plays a very important role.
Gender Watch
“When you know better you do better.” ― Maya Angelou
Reading the article mentioned above in the original post, which is one person’s take on the, “third wave” of the feminism movement, as well as reading the article “Who Stole Feminism” really got me thinking about what I think feminism stands for today. I learned about how the first wave of feminism focused on getting women the right to vote, and the second wave was geared towards women being allowed to pursue careers outside of the “feminine career” box that had been placed on them. The third wave has included many different ideas such as equality in men’s and women’s pay, the ability for women to have families and extremely successful careers just as men have been able to have; not having to make the choice between family and a career. There is also much debate concerning a woman’s ability to express herself sexually, and the opposing view that women should not give into the objectification that our patriarchal society has promoted. In my opinion feminism is quite simple. I believe that women should have the ability to become the type of person and pursue the goals that they feel is best for them personally. However, I would even go a step further to not just want this for women, but for men too. Society always tries to put men in one box and women in another. People should be free to express themselves in whatever way they would like. If a man wants to be conservative with his sexual activity, dress provocatively, and be a stay at home dad, he should be able to just that. If a woman wants to be the CEO of a company with 8 children and wear a tie with a skirt, she should be able to. We don’t have to make these boxes that women or men should fit into, and we don’t have to fight over what should or should not be in these proverbial boxes. I believe we should just burn the boxes all together and express ourselves as the humans that we were born as.
This article helped me a lot too. I came across it while writing my blog! I agree that language is important, but the most enlightening part about the article for me was about knowledge. It amazes me how many people have such a strong opinion on feminism and feminists when they really have no idea what they’re about. If you ask me, it’s better to admit you aren’t knowledgable enough to have an opinion on something than to make one up out of thin air. The more people know about feminism will help to rid the bad connotations and stereotypes.