First Wave:
- mid 1800’s – 1920’s
- women’s suffrage
- “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments”
- Highly political
Second Wave:
- 1960’s -80’s
- “The Feminine Mystique”
- Break from traditional housewife molde
- encouraged women to be independent and get jobs
- sexual liberation/exploration
- brought race and class into the discussion
Third Wave (Modern Feminism)
- 1990’s-present
- lgbt rights
- reproductive rights
- fight against rape culture
- global feminism/civil rights
- step back from the “free love” of the 70’s (very possibly due to STD’s and rape culture)
- power through expression of sexuality (good or bad thing? too much sexuality?)
Name Connotation:
- In recent years, “feminist” has become a dirty word
- man-hating lesbians – no one wants to associate with that image
- many women who hold feminist values will say things like “Now I’m not a feminist or anything, but….”
- Does this show a societal shift away from true activism? A fear of expressing unpopular beliefs?
- Definitely damaging feminist goals
Effect on the Modern Woman (aside from the obvious political rights):
- pressure to be high performing – old housewife values added to new independent working-woman values. Makes it extremely difficult
- Over sexualization of women all over again? Have we taken a step backward?
- Women are getting married later or not at all – has feminism degraded the traditional family?
Okay, so that’s my first/main idea, to track feminism and what that’s done to society/how society has affected feminism, but I’m also considering focusing in on sexuality…here’s a much rougher outline of how that would go:
- Up until the 1950’s and 60’s: No sex acceptable before marriage, no tolerance of homosexuality, sex was taboo and a sin unless between husband and wife.
- 60’s and 70’s – sexual revolution, free love, free expression of sexuality. Experimentation was encouraged, as was the use of mind-altering drugs. Birth control pills were made publicly available in the 60’s, bringing a new sense of freedom to women who didn’t have to fear unwanted pregnancy any longer
- Growing acceptance of the LGBT community and the fight for their rights
- The emergence of STD’s like herpes and AIDS puts a marked damper on the sexual revolution – schools begin teaching rigid sex ed “if you have sex, you are at high risk of getting AIDS, and you will die” (exaggerated but you get the memo)
- Once STD’s became a legitimate concern, teens still began having sex younger than before, but rather than having multiple partners at a time, we saw (and are seeing) a trend of relatively short monogamous relationships.
- Exploitation of sex by the media – how has the commercialization of casual sex affected this generation outlook on sexual relationships? How big/small of a contributor is the media in hook up and rape cultures?
- Grey areas in definition of sexuality – rise of terms like “pan sexual” and acceptance of sexual experimentation. Losing the rigid definitions of sexual attraction
- How has the internet/texting affected sexuality? Rise of sexting and online interaction changing the game for teens