Feminism vs Post-Feminism
A Quick Rundown
To be a feminist simply means to believe in the social and economic equality of the sexes. So why do millenials addimetly insist they are not feminists? Why do my coworkers slowly back away when I tell them the topic of my thesis? I believe the reason is because of the influence the post-feminist movement has had on our popculutre and society.
To fully understand this it is important to know a little history about the Feminist movement. The movement has had three waves, each with a slightly different focus. The first wave fought for the right to vote, the second for sexuality and reproduction rights leading to the equal rights amendment and the third addresses the oppression of the female voice.
Simultaneous to the rise of the third wave was the rise of a post-feminist movement. Post-feminism is a backlash to the feminist gains of the 1970s and 80s suggesting equality has been achieved and the Feminist Movement is no longer needed. It does this by using devices like irony and retro-sexism and to insulate itself from accusations of sexism.
IRONY:
For example, the Carl’s Jr. ad below is a ridiculous way to sell hamburgers, but by being so overly sexist it becomes a joke that we are all in on.
RETRO-SEXISM:
Robin Thicke claims that his video Blurred Lines is a joke about how men use to objectify woman. He, however, did the same thing by making the video.
In our culture it is difficult to critique these things because by doing so it is seen as confirming the stereotype of the critical, angry, humourless feminist portrayed by the post-feminist movement in our media. This angry, hairy, bra burning, male hating image has become so ubiquitus with what we think a feminist is that feminism has become the dirtiest of all F-words. The funny thing is that no bras were actually burned in the Freedom Trashcans. In fact, fire was prohibited from the demonstrations.
Image from: https://mediamythalert.wordpress.com/