The Wave Divide
*note. This is a brief, historical explanation of how feminism works for the beginning learners. If you already know what the feminism waves are, feel free to not read this.
When talking about feminism, different movements are labeled 1st, 2nd, and 3rd "waves" to talk about specific issues and people associated with a specific time. I'm guessing that people reading this are those that don't know a ton about feminism, so similar to the first regular posts, I'm providing a basic intro to subjects I'll talk about pretty often.
1st wave feminism was primarily in the 19th and early 20th century and focused on property rights for women, and the idea that women and children should not be owned by their husbands. When people refer to first wave feminists, their talking about Mary Wollstonecraft and others of the time who were actively writing and fighting for their rights. While these women were great because they moved other women to gather together for their rights, racism also played a part in the beginning of the Womens' Suffrage Movement. Women weren't exactly thrilled that black men were given the right to vote before white women. Thus, women pushed for their right to vote out of racist notions. Not exactly the best inspiration, but aren't we glad they did what they did!
It's with 2nd wave feminism when women started to focus and be offended by the social and political inequalities that put women inferior to men. This started in the 1960s and is still lasting today. However, 3rd wave feminism is moving through like a wave (Clever, eh?). Here's the thing with 2nd wave feminism: it often focuses on what women should be like rather than focusing on changing the societal inequalities. This is how feminist stereotypes all started.
3rd wave feminism seeks the same social and political change that 2nd wave feminism does, but avoids the perception of what "true femininity" should be. Essentially, third wave feminists want social and political change without telling women how they should act or how they shouldn't act. That being said, there are a lot of issues surrounding the media, and women that degrade themselves in the media, that 3rd wave feminists do have a problem with. It's not all black and white.
Just so everybody knows, I'm a third wave feminist. So a lot of the content on Amen, Sister. (namely opinion posts) will be third wave oriented. But more on the Waves later.
