Isn't It Ironic?: The Intersection of Third-Wave Feminism and Generation X

Abstract

In this essay, I analyze how gender is constructed and communicated by women popularly associated with and thus representative of Generation X in order to assess the nature of the relationship between Generation X and third-wave feminism and to chart the presence of feminism in contemporary popular culture. Ultimately, I argue that the overlap between “third wavers” and Generation X is great and that third-wave feminism is more appropriately understood as a “Gen X” subculture than as an evolutionary phase of feminism.