Third Wave Feminists Need example essay topic

Feminism was a very political movement during its first and second waves. The new Third Wave of feminism is quite different from the previous two. These three feminist writers all shed light on the views of modern feminists. Katie Roiphe has contributed to the New York Times Magazine and Playboy. She has also published two books, The Mourning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus, and more recently, Last Night in Paradise: Sex and Morals at the Century's End.

Roiphe's essay The Independent Woman (and Other Lies) tells how second wave feminism is effecting her life as a third wave feminist. One of her colleagues is Yvonne Abraham. She is a staff writer at the Boston Phoenix, where she covers city politics, race, and most anything else. Abraham's essay, Lipstick Liberation, is more focused on what is wrong with the thirdwave of feminism from a second wave feminist's view. The third feminist writer is Christina Hoff Sommers.

She is an associate professor of philosophy at Clark University who specializes in contemporary moral theory. Sommers articles have appeared in several publications including the New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and the New England Journal of Medicine. She has edited two ethics textbooks, and published numerous professional papers. Sommers is a second wave feminist, but in heres say, she criticizes second wave feminism. The three waves of feminism must now be explained for the reader to get a full understanding of what these women are trying to say. The first wave of feminism was highly political.

It involved the grouping together of many women in this country to fight for women's suffrage (the right to vote). This movement first got women actively involved in politics. The second wave of feminism, unlike the first, had more than one objective. Second wave feminists wanted equality in everything. They argued that men and women were equal in everything, and should be treated this way.

This meant equality i the workplace, at home, and in the eyes of the government. However, although second wavefeminist have made many advances in women's rights, all their goals were not accomplished. Men still get paid more and hold a majority of lucrative and government positions. The third wave of feminism is completely different from the first two. No, or very little politics are involved here.

A third wave feminist concentrates more on herself, an dhow she feels. Third wave feminists write about how they feel, and why second wavefeminist has made it practically impossible for a third wave feminist to have everythings he wants in life. Second wave feminism has forced all third wave feminists to be completely independent, even if they wish otherwise. Kathie Roiphe is herself a third wave feminist. She criticizes her mother, AnneRoiphe, and the rest of her mother's generation. Her mother is a second wave feminist who taught total independence at the expense of marriage.

Abraham, however, does not agree with Kathie Roiphe. Abraham is chronologically a third wave feminist. She, unlike Kathie Roiphe, agrees with the second wave feminists. She argues that today's popular brand of feminism focuses on too much individualism, and not enough on politics and women's problems as a whole. Sommers is a different story altogether. She is a second wave feminist who is condemning other second wave feminist for the lies they spread with inaccurate and incomplete data.

She believes that political activism is important, but not i fit is based on lies. To put it simply, Kathie Roiphe is confused. Her mother, Anne Roiphe was a very prominent leader of the second wave of feminism. She was raised in a very liberal feminist household, yet her parents were not truly equal. Kathie's father was the breadwinner ofthe house.

He got up and went to work everyday, and it was he that paid for all of the family's necessities. This, Kathie believes, means that her parents were not really equal, no matter what her mother said, taught, or believed. Even though Kathie Roiphe is herself successful writer, she says that when she thinks about marriage, she says somewhere deep in the irrational layers of my psyche, I still think of the man as the breadwinner (Roiphe 127). She says that she feels as though she is working for fulfillment, for reward, for the richness of life promised by feminism. What she means by this is thatthe second wave feminist have put an image of how every woman should be totally independent in the public's mind.

Therefore even if it is not what they want, third wavefeminist almost are forced to try to live up to this image. At the same time, this is and is not what Roiphe wants for herself. She is completely independent women, and she says that she wouldn t dream of giving up her career. However, she dreams of a Man in a Gray Flannel Suit (Roiphe 127). This fantasy of her's comes from a book written by Sloan Wilson entitled The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

Roiphe wishes for someone who can support her, even though she does not need to be supported. She does not want to have to worry about such things as bills and car payments. She wants a man to go to work everyday and bring home the money and worry about the bills himself. Roiphe does realize that she cannot have it both ways though. She knows she cannot have everything she wants.

Therefore, Roiphe decides to continue to date men who aren t terribly rich, and don t pay for dates and buy her expensive dresses and such. In real life, she takes the average man, but in her dreams and fantasies, the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit will live on. Abraham attacks Roiphe and other third wave feminists like her. She describes them as pod feminists (Abraham 137) because she thinks that they aren t really feminists. They do not fight for the rights of women, they just write about how they feel, and how they think women should be able to live.

One problem is that The third wave defines itself primarily in contrast to the second (Abraham 137). This causes a problem, because the third wave feminists are now alienated from the second wave feminists. If the third wave of feminism concentrates on how the second wave feminism's accomplishments has made their lives harder, the two will never get anything accomplished together. Abraham also thinks that third wave feminists go too far when they write about traditional feminism's under appreciation of the personal gains women have made. They include too much of their personal lives, taking away from the analysis of the situation. However, this is not likely to change because third wave feminist writers are too marketable.

Abraham writes they are completely in sync with their times and, more significant, with publishing trends. Third wave writers include many personal details in their writings, an dit appears that great personal revelations sell. The problem with this is that the writing turns into a form of a memoir, and it fails to address many truly important issues. Thirdwave feminist write as if the world revolves around them.

By writing this way, attention is taken away from more important political and economic questions about women equality. Traditional feminism is mostly about women. Third-wave writing, by contrast, is mostly about feminism (Abraham 138). Abraham also identifies another major flaw in the writing of third wave feminists. She says that third wave feminists write like the world is kind to women now, which Abraham apparently disagrees with. She thinks that by writing about their personal lives, third wave writers sidestep more important issues that still beset women.

Abraham even goes as far as to say that third wave writers even undermine attempts to fix them. Abraham believes that problems, such as not enough women in government and the income gap between men and women, need to be brought to the attention of the public in order to get something done about them. Third wave writers effectively punch these important issues to the side in favor of more personal details, which sell more books. Abraham, in general, believes that third wave feminists need to become more politically active. Christina Hoff Summers addresses a different issue altogether. She is a second wavefeminist who criticizes the way other second wave feminists have made the public view women as emotionally and physically fragile.

Summers argues that many feminist writers write about how the selves of girls are going down in flames, and about how their self esteem suffers from coed schools. She says that adolescent girls are even more stable then men are quoting a statistic that six times as many boys as girls committee suicide. The problem, as she sees things, is that there is no evidence to prove that girls, as a group, are any worse off than boys of the same age group. Sommers says that the reality is the contemporary women's movement is obsessed with proving that our system is rigged against women (Sommers 149). No matter how much success and improvement you show them, it seems that feminists can always come up with some example of how women are oppressed. Sommers believes that it is irresponsible to think that women are worse off then men, as a whole.

She says that the women's movement is still fixed on victim ology, and that where they can t prove discrimination against women, they invent it. Sommers argues that the American Association of University Women released survey in 1991, it was badly distorted. The survey claimed that American girls suffer from tragic lack of self-esteem. The major problem with this survey is that first the AAUW put the belief in people's minds, and then it went out and tried to find data to confirm their beliefs.

The truth is, American women are the freest in the world. Anyone who doesn tree this simply lacks common sense (Sommers 150). Until reading the writings of these three women, feminism was an alien topic tome. Now I have a far better understanding of what it means to be a feminist.

I, for one, am inclined to agree with Sommers and Abraham more than Roiphe. It appears to me that Roiphe's writing seriously undermines that of the second wave feminists, who have made tremendous advances in women's rights. Sommers has a good point when she points out the errors of the misleading studies on adolescent girls. Abraham also points out that there is still a need to bring women's rights to the attention of the politicians because women still aren t paid as much as men, and there still aren t as many women asme n in high paying and political positions. I don t think Roiphe et al are truly feminists. They are just writers complaining about feminism and looking to make some money in the book and television industries.