text: Stefania Gheorghe

illustration: Ana-Maria Mihailidis

As promised, I'm back with a follow-up article on the first two waves of feminism. We continue the discussion with wave three and what is theoretically called "wave four". Although here the discussion is much more controversial. But you will find out along the way.

Going back to the chronological evolution of the feminist movement, we are now somewhere in the 90s. At their very beginning, being face to face with the feminist movement of Generation X.

The third wave "got lucky" with some of the achievements of the second wave and built itself very much, at least initially, around it. Now there are women who have the opportunity to have higher education, who occupy better jobs and have more and more access to education and information. The third wave of feminism already included women from all walks of life and enjoyed the mass expansion of information brought about by the information revolution at the turn of the century, encompassing far more women of color, excluded from the first two waves. We can also start discussing activists within the movement, books with feminist messages, and much broader movements of women's representation. For the first time, the black-and-white gender division of labor began to be questioned, and they began to convey to young women that they were strong, in control, and capable of anything. The third wave aimed to break down some barriers that were, unfortunately, long rooted in people's way of life.

One thing I really liked about third wave feminism—and also related to this idea of breaking down barriers—was that for the first time women began to question the concepts they grew up with and with which they were accustomed. And here comes another part of the story. I've always liked to say that feminism is the starting point of all minority movements. The same happens in the present case. Because the feminist movement was the first to try to redefine ideas about gender, sexuality, femininity and masculinity. What the third wave set out to do was to replace the idea of strictly feminine/masculine characteristics with things that anyone could do. Regardless of gender. From this perspective, we understand that each person possesses the full range of traits that were once associated with one gender or another.

Because of the innovations that third wave feminists brought, they were hit with labels such as "defiant" or "proud" (in the negative sense of the word), because they considered themselves smarter than the "law of nature".

Third wave feminism was finally dotting the i's and speaking loudly about the issues women were facing outside of the professional sphere this time.

"riot grrrl" - a punk subculture with strong feminist influences - or the famous book The Vagina Monologues, which spoke in a downright artistic way about sexuality, sexual abuse, childbirth, abortions or orgasm, were born. It may seem hard to believe now, in 2022, but in the 90s not everyone had the courage to talk about it. And not with two friends, but in front of thousands of people.

"#GirlPower" was born back then, back when the Internet and its tremendous ability to bring people together was just being discovered. It represented a much faster means of communication for feminist associates, bringing with it a greater potential than ever to spread the message.

As the movement became more visible, bigger and seemingly unstoppable, criticism of it began to appear. Many women writers of the 2000s considered themselves to be "postfeminists", arguing that the "new movement" did not bring anything real, concrete and tangible. Most of the criticism received centered on the fact that the purpose of the movement was "forgotten", feminism starting to be based, as I told you earlier, on supporting all minorities, on the experiences of people, regardless of class, ethnicity or gender.

We also had some legislative approaches, not just social ones. While second wave feminism tried to regulate laws, also regarding women, third wave feminists turn their attention to the perpetrators, not to the women who are the victims. Instead of trying to change women so that they are not sexually abused, they believe that change must take place among those who abuse them, for example.