Tag Archives: sexuality

Paradigm Shift Visual Map: Feminism (or maybe…)

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:
  1. 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. 
  2. 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
  3. Growing acceptance of the LGBT community and the fight for their rights
  4. 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)
  5. 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. 
  6. 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?
  7. Grey areas in definition of sexuality – rise of terms like “pan sexual” and acceptance of sexual experimentation. Losing the rigid definitions of sexual attraction
  8. How has the internet/texting affected sexuality? Rise of sexting and online interaction changing the game for teens