Critical Waves: Exploring Feminist Identity, Discourse and Praxis in Western Feminism

Abstract

Feminist scholars frequently question the wave narrative, fearing the way in which it constructs generational divides and suggests periods of inactivity, whilst others have found it a useful way of understanding the chronological and ideological development of feminism. This article seeks to avoid rehashing well-rehearsed debates concerning the pros and cons of the narrative, instead seeking to emphasise the importance of engaging with the themes of continuity, inclusivity and multiplicity by exploring identity, discourse and praxis through the wave metaphor. It does this by drawing upon analysis of key feminist writings and empirical research undertaken with feminist activists in the UK. This article stresses how the coterminous existence of second, third and fourth wave have changed the nature of the wave narrative in such a way as to require a different critical approach, one that recognises the power of the discourse and the pragmatic implications of its use.

Keywords::

• Feminist waves
• third-wave feminism
• second-wave feminism
• feminist generations

Notes

^1. The first wave typically refers to the suffrage movement, the second wave refers to the liberation movement, the third wave is generally acknowledged to have emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a stronger emphasis on intersectionality, whilst the newest wave, the fourth, embraces new forms of technology (Baumgardner, 2011).

^2. Following Lear, we also stress the western nature of the wave narrative, acknowledging that non-western women have the right to self-determine their own feminist histories and trajectories, rather than having a western narrative of feminism imposed upon them. This becomes even more important when we consider that the first wave is largely characterized as the campaign for women's suffrage – something yet to be achieved in some states.

^3. The research gathered for this project is part of broader research project being undertaken by Evans to compare third wave feminism in the UK and the USA.

^4. The need for, and guarantee of, anonymity was stressed in the interviews in order to encourage interviewees to be open and honest in their reflections of feminism. Given that there are relatively few feminist organisations in Bristol and Glasgow, membership of specific groups or biographical details of the interviewees are not provided as it would be relatively easy for several interviewees to be identified.

^5. Italicised sentences or phrases in quotations have been added by the authors.

^6. Rebecca Walker, former editor of Ms Magazine (and daughter of leading African American feminist Alice Walker), wrote an influential article declaring herself to be the third wave, in the face of the anti-feminist backlash and the perceived dominance of post-feminism. Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), formed the National Organisation of Women and is most closely associated with a (white heterosexual) liberal strain of the US second-wave feminism.

^7. A call for feminists (and particularly those we might identify as third wave) to abandon the grand narrative of the wave metaphor was made by Lisa Jervis, co-editor of the US magazine Bitch; see http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2004/thirdwave.asp [accessed 24 April 2012].

^8. Available online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1021293/How-mothers-fanatical-feminist-views-tore-apart-daughter-The-Color-Purple-author.html [accessed 20 April 2012].

^9. Roz Kaveney, a writer and trans-activist, outlined the problem of the ‘women born women’ Radical Feminism conference for the Guardian, retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/25/radical-feminism-trans-radfem2012 [accessed 24 October 13]. Sheila Jeffreys was offered the same platform to respond, in which she claimed that transgender activists had been silencing her and other feminists: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/29/transgenderism-hate-speech (accessed 24 October 2013). For Bindel's event cancellation and history with trans–activists, see http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/death-threats-force-feminist-campaigner-out-of-university-debate-8821362.html (accessed 24 October 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Evans

Dr Elizabeth Evans is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bristol. Her book, Gender and the Liberal Democrats: Representing Women?, was published by Manchester University Press in 2011, and she has published articles in Parliamentary Affairs, British Politics, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations and The Political Quarterly. Her book, The Politics of Third Wave Feminism: Neoliberalism, Intersectionality and the State in Britain and the US is forthcoming with Palgrave in 2015.

Prudence Chamberlain

Prudence Chamberlain is a practice-based Ph.D. student at Royal Holloway, London, documenting feminism through a poetic strategy of flippancy. She is involved in POLYply, a series of avant-garde multi-disciplinary events, and praxis, a seminar group for the discussion of practice and politics.