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Thread: Is Radical Feminism the 5th Wave?

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    Is Radical Feminism the 5th Wave?

    A couple weeks ago, Spain witnessed a second now apparently annual women's strike. The first one last year saw 5.3 million participate in the strike and about 500,000 turn out in the streets for corresponding demonstrations in 120 Spanish cities. This year's strike was much larger, with protests in 500 Spanish cities and turnout estimated at approximately double last year's. What's more, this year the women's strike centered in Spain spread to other European countries as well, with tens of thousands of French women and male allies striking and picketing on the same day as well (i.e. turnout comparable to a typical yellow vest protest action) and even reached as far east as Turkey.

    The organizers of these strikes are lesbian feminists (lesbian feminism being a particular school of radical feminism which contends that women should focus their lives on helping and advancing other women) known as the March 8th Movement. The strikes were conceived of in their autonomous women's assemblies that have been established throughout Spain. The stated ultimate, long-term goal of the March 8th Movement is, according to their web site, "subverting the world order and the pervading hetero-patriarchal, racist, and neoliberal rhetoric." The inclusion of the term hetero-patriarchal here is significant in that it is a term employed (to my knowledge anyway) only by lesbian feminists, as only lesbian feminists see a direct connection between heteronormativity and male privilege. (Intersectionality theory, which is an American invention most popular here in North America and the overwhelmingly dominant variety of feminist thought here, by contrast, sees only an indirect connection between these two things.) I first heard the term used by activist, scholar, and author Sheila Jeffreys when she was interviewed by Meghan Murphy back in 2011.

    Women's strikes were first conceived of as a mobilizing strategy by an early radical feminist organization called Red Stockings here in the U.S. back at the end of the 1960s during the second wave of feminist activism. The premise was to organize strikes (including of homemakers) around women-specific issues instead of labor issues as part of raising public awareness thereof, with the ultimate aim of transitioning into a whole different kind of social order. The goal of the March 8th Movement seems analogous to this. Red Stockings organized the famous National Women's Strike of 1970 that catalyzed the movement of that era. I continue to believe that women's strikes are the most effective form of feminist protest.

    1.jpg

    2.jpg

    3.jpg

    (The color purple here is very common, I'm sure you've noticed. It's the understood international color of lesbian pride. The women who are wearing purple shirts emblazoned with the woman power symbol popularized by radical feminists back in the 1970s and waving purple flags featuring the same symbol are essentially declaring themselves lesbian feminists with that symbolism. What's especially striking to me about it all is the leadership of this section of the women's movement even in the last picture, which is from a parallel women's strike/protest action in the Muslim-majority nation of Turkey.)

    There is also a thriving radical feminist movement that exists in South Korea as well today called Ditch the Corset.

    Hundreds of thousands of women have now joined the Ditch the Corset movement, and while actions vary, Nayoung explains that “in general they include cutting one’s hair short (two-block, undercut or even fully shaved off), choosing one’s clothes based only on practicality and comfort (as men in general have always been able to do), getting rid of all cosmetics and the everyday rituals that come with having a beauty regimen, not engaging in intimate relationships with men, and renouncing motherhood.”

    Nayoung herself has a has a child and a male partner, though she is supportive of the emerging movement which also takes aim at traditional notions of the family: “Many Korean radical feminists would also include heterosexual romance, marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing in the list of ‘corsets.’
    I liked that this interview describes both the sweeping scope of ideas that are in circulation within the Ditch the Corset movement right now without pigeonholing these women as all being of one mind on any particular subject. That's how it actually is.


    5.jpg

    4.jpg

    (You'll notice that the main focuses of the women's movement in South Korea are topics like pornography and the beauty industry; things that are definitely taboo for feminists to oppose today here in the U.S. And also that alternative spellings that were popularized briefly by American lesbian feminists in the late 1970s are in circulation in South Korea today.)

    When you combine these things with the growing, and indeed now quite powerful, radical feminist-led movement in the UK against proposed changes to the country's Gender Recognition Act that would give men access to women's restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, prisons, and more if they simply claim to be women, without requiring a diagnosis of dysphoria for that access...a movement that I have been documenting from time to time here over the last year or so...you almost can't help but notice a trend. We are now even starting to see this movement make its way to Canada, New Zealand, and the United States even, as an organized thing, I mean. I posit it as a possibility that the revival of radical feminism isn't just a sporadic thing that's happening here and there so much as it is an emerging global trend within the women's movement that's starting to challenge and even replace the more conventional liberal (individualist) and intersectional (Marxist critical theory type) schools over time.

    Regardless of how you feel about the women's movement in general, radical feminism, or any of these particular ideas that are in circulation in different parts of the world, do you think that the re-emergence of radical feminism as a global phenomenon marks the start of the next, "fifth" wave of the women's movement?
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 03-24-2019 at 12:34 PM.

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    So you're saying that the construction trades are going to have one *really* productive day per year because there are no chics on the job site?

    Cool.

    Any way to make that strike permanent?

    Sent from my evil cell phone.
    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

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    Imagine a Normal Guy strike. No toilets flushing, no planes in the sky, no electric power, no gas at the service station, no police protection no one operating the locks and dams on the rivers, No military protection, no buses on the highway, no one to repair the roads, no one to put out the fires, no one growing food or bringing food to the stores, No Football, No Baseball, No Hockey to watch, No one working to develop new medicines, no one to fix your roof if it is damaged in a windstorm, no one making sure the drinking water is safe, no doorman to help women haul their bags in. No one to help a women load up her furniture at the furniture store and deliver it. No one to fix your leaking pipes and clogged sink, No one to fix the dent in your car, No one cut your lawn and rake your leaves.

    You see no one cares about a womens strike because they don't do any of those things.

    Just a bunch of lazy $#@!s..they have it made..

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    Waves of Feminism may refer to:
    • First-wave feminism, early 20th century (1900 to 1959), focusing on women's suffrage, property rights, and political candidacy
    • Second-wave feminism, 1960s to 1980s, focusing on reducing inequalities in sex, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities
    • Third-wave feminism, 1990s to 2000s, focusing on embracing individualism and diversity
    • Fourth-wave feminism, 2008 to present-day, focusing on combating sexual harassment, assault, and misogyny

    Fifth-wave feminism: future, power over males
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Waves of Feminism may refer to:
    • First-wave feminism, early 20th century (1900 to 1959), focusing on women's suffrage, property rights, and political candidacy
    • Second-wave feminism, 1960s to 1980s, focusing on reducing inequalities in sex, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities
    • Third-wave feminism, 1990s to 2000s, focusing on embracing individualism and diversity
    • Fourth-wave feminism, 2008 to present-day, focusing on combating sexual harassment, assault, and misogyny

    Fifth-wave feminism: future, power over males
    I guess I am fourth-wave... but I am skeptical about aspects of feminism and wouldn't want to label myself beyond "feminist". I disagree that feminists want to have power over males; I think that is a very small minority. I dislike that an entire group seems to be defined by their most extreme members.

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    I don't think it matters if some feminists want power over men. They are not relevant to men.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Waves of Feminism may refer to:
    • First-wave feminism, early 20th century (1900 to 1959), focusing on women's suffrage, property rights, and political candidacy
    • Second-wave feminism, 1960s to 1980s, focusing on reducing inequalities in sex, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities
    • Third-wave feminism, 1990s to 2000s, focusing on embracing individualism and diversity
    • Fourth-wave feminism, 2008 to present-day, focusing on combating sexual harassment, assault, and misogyny
    There are a lot of ways one can define feminist waves, ranging from periods of uptick in activism to instead periods wherein a particular range of philosophies was in vogue with the women's movement to instead generationally. All of those are valid definitions, IMO, and I apply each of them in varying circumstances myself. When I describe the fourth wave of the women's movement though, I'm generally referring to the prevailing ethos that one sees within the movement's leadership here in the U.S., which the first paragraph of Wikipedia's article on fourth-wave feminism describes this way:

    "Fourth-wave feminism is a wave of feminism that began around 2012 and is characterized by a desire for the empowerment of women and its reliance on the internet. It focuses on intersectionality, and examines the interlocking systems of power that contribute to the stratification of traditionally marginalized groups in society. Fourth-wave feminists advocate for greater representation of these groups in politics and business, and argue society will be more equitable if policies and practices incorporate the perspectives of all people."

    (I applied minor formatting edits for maximum readability.)

    You could alternatively define this as millennial feminism because most subscribers are millennial people. Anyway, it is, as you can see, essentially defined by subscription to Kimberle Crenshaw's intersectionality theory, which forms a particular branch of Marxist critical theory. It's a theory that I don't consider myself a subscriber to anymore, mostly because I view it as being the opposite of consciousness-raising in the sense that it revolves substantially around conflating the interests of women with those of men. It's not a women-focused movement and the fact that it's not kind of defeats the purpose of even calling it feminism.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Adelaide View Post
    I guess I am fourth-wave... but I am skeptical about aspects of feminism and wouldn't want to label myself beyond "feminist". I disagree that feminists want to have power over males; I think that is a very small minority. I dislike that an entire group seems to be defined by their most extreme members.
    I get what you're saying here and it makes sense in connection to a lot of the perspectives you've shared with us over the years. We all have our individual nuances of perspective and many people just don't like being labeled in general, with all the pigeonholing and stereotyping that can lead to on the part of others. I get that.

    Personally, at times I have actually struggled over whether to call myself a feminist because I related to a lot to Jessa Crispin's sentiments on what the term has come to mean in the public's conception. In other words, coming at it from the probably the opposite angle of yours, I conversely get tired of apologize for being a women's advocate and having to assure everyone that I'm not one of those kinds. It's just exhausting and it saps all my energy. I just want to be done with saying I'm sorry for having any sense of self-worth at all. I've just stopped caring whether people think I'm anti-male or not, for example. I'm exhausted of having that argument out to the point that I refuse to dignify that bull$#@! with a response anymore. People can think what they want of me, as they're clearly determined to no matter I actually say anyway. I don't care anymore.
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 04-02-2019 at 07:02 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    There are a lot of ways one can define feminist waves, ranging from periods of uptick in activism to instead periods wherein a particular range of philosophies was in vogue with the women's movement to instead generationally. All of those are valid definitions, IMO, and I apply each of them in varying circumstances myself. When I describe the fourth wave of the women's movement though, I'm generally referring to the prevailing ethos that one sees within the movement's leadership here in the U.S., which the first paragraph of Wikipedia's article on fourth-wave feminism describes this way:

    "Fourth-wave feminism is a wave of feminism that began around 2012 and is characterized by a desire for the empowerment of women and its reliance on the internet. It focuses on intersectionality, and examines the interlocking systems of power that contribute to the stratification of traditionally marginalized groups in society. Fourth-wave feminists advocate for greater representation of these groups in politics and business, and argue society will be more equitable if policies and practices incorporate the perspectives of all people."

    (I applied minor formatting edits for maximum readability.)

    You could alternatively define this as millennial feminism because most subscribers are millennial people. Anyway, it is, as you can see, essentially defined by subscription to Kimberle Crenshaw's intersectionality theory, which forms a particular branch of Marxist critical theory. It's a theory that I don't consider myself a subscriber to anymore, mostly because I view it as being the opposite of consciousness-raising in the sense that it revolves substantially around conflating the interests of women with those of men. It's not a women-focused movement and the fact that it's not kind of defeats the purpose of even calling it feminism.

    Do you find it beneficial to define it so ambiguously?
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    The truth is that all feminist movements go as far as men allow it. It may not be right and it may not be PC but it's the truth.
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
    Pick your enemies carefully.






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