What the Heck is Feminism

When it comes to relationships, girls don't know what they want. They say they want a nice guy, but time after time they go for the "bad boy." You know what?--I don't think girls ever know what they want. Many of them support "feminism" and gender equality...but they can't even agree on what that is! For example, in our discussion of Merri Lisa Johnson's "Ladies, Love Your Box," we went over the three waves of feminism. Basically, over time, what it means to be a feminist has changed and these changes can be grouped into three main phases on feminism.

When feminism was born in the late 19th-early 20th century, it was about woman's suffrage--voting, equal rights, etc. A lot of things changed due to the movement and by the 1960's there was a second wave. Feminism became part of the civil rights movement, it involved calls for equality including a gender equality amendment, etc. Second wave feminism is probably what most of us think of when people talk about feminism. We picture the radical woman preaching about how society degrades women and how they should all just stop wearing makeup, cooking, having kids, or acting like girls altogether because that's just what we want them to do.

Now we have come into an era of 3rd wave feminism. It blatantly contradicts it's predecessor in my opinion. Where 2nd wave feminism shunned sexuality, 3rd wave embraces it and moreover, seeks empowerment through sexuality. It preaches that a girl can wear a push up bra and have a brain at the same time. 1st or 2nd waves would have seen this as a form of oppression.

Okay, I understand that feminism had to change over time because the circumstances in which it existed changed. You can't go around asking for the right to vote anymore when you already have it. And I also understand that the basic idea of appreciating women lies behind all of these forms of feminism. But my issue with feminism is that I still don't get it. How can I be a feminist or not if the definition isn't even static? I never know how to answer when someone asks if I'm a feminist. Do I believe in treating women well? Of course I do. I believe in human rights across the board. Some people might say to be a true feminist you can't just believe in it, you actually have to do something. Well do I actively engage in the activity of treating women with respect? It just so happens that I do. I hold doors. Then again a second wave feminist might get mad at me for that because she can do it herself. So if I'm still not a feminist after that, does that mean that I have to organize social action to be a feminist? Do I have to have a convention or make a power point or something to be considered a feminist? Is every girl who flaunts her breasts and still gets straight A's a third wave feminist? Do you have to be mean to all men if you're a feminist? Can a guy be a feminist? You see, most of the time there is no way to know if someone is definitely a feminist or not. Its CONFUSING.

Women in Maine demonstrated some kind of feminist movement the other day by walking the streets topless. Maybe I'm just too immature to see it, but...what are you doing that for? To prove that you have boobs? Cool, I guess. It kind of makes me feel like feminism is sometimes used as an excuse to do crazy stuff that really makes no sense and doesn't really help the feminist cause. I mean, guys don't walk around with their pants off, so what are you proving?

The whole thing's weird to me how one feminist wouldn't even recognize a different kind of feminist from another wave. It's to the point now where I'm just like, "What do you ladies want?" I think we should just make it a law that women have to get paid the same wages as men and see if feminism goes away. But it wouldn't. I think feminism is very important in that it has lead to many advances for woman's rights, but even if there was no major social change at stake like voting or equal pay, I get the feeling that they'd find some other weird reason to organize and demonstrate.

The other thing I was thinking is that maybe 3rd wave feminism isn't feminism at all. Maybe it's just proof that the masculine media and the men that run it have won. They've brainwashed women so badly that they've gotten them to want to be objectified and sexualized. They've even got them to call it feminism. What an ingenious plan. It's almost like if we somehow tricked the slaves to fight for slavery back when Abe Lincoln was president and make it seem like we didn't want them to so they thought they won even though they were really doing what we wanted the whole time. Its a crazy thought and probably bogus, but it makes sense if you think about it.

So in conclusion, I just don't get feminism in this day and age. Hell, I don't get women. I don't think I'm supposed to understand them though. But how can we give them what they want if they don't even know what they want, right? I think that the word feminism is actually unhelpful to its own cause. It should just be called Equalityism or something because "feminism" already implies that women aren't as good as men. There's nothing called masculism as far as I know. Because if there was we would be acknowledging that we aren't as good as women. So in closing, good luck girls, with whatever it is that you want feminism to accomplish, because sometimes you just go in too many directions for me to understand what you really want.