The College of New Jersey                                                                 April 2003

Big sister. Best Friend. Play mate. Role Model. Fantasy. Oppressor. Liberator. Victimizing source of weight-loss obsession. Makeover expert and confidante. All the rage for competitive sleepover parties. A fetish for discreet and private pleasure.

Barbie is all and none. But, why is one 11-inch doll so powerful?

In WGST 201, the general elective course, Gender & Popular Culture, some of the sauciest, funniest, and often most intimate class discussions are an attempt to answer this question. In the process, women – and men -- reveal their own relationships, often conflicted and always controversial, with Barbie and all of her accompanying accoutrements of femininity. Suggest that Barbie may be a female impersonator, a fake, a made-up, drag queen of hyper-femininity, race, class, and sexuality privilege; and hearts are often crushed.

The personal is political, sure, but sometimes we resist the political getting too personal. Falling in love -- and in hate -- with Barbie is easy. I personally love the button I see at gay-themed Greenwich Village tzotchkie shops that reads, "I hate Barbie: that bitch has everything."

In Gender and Popular Culture, students de-center the focus on oppression and, feminist-identified or not, mark the territory of icons, signs and hegemonic celebrity figures as sites of dominating notions of traditional feminine beauty, yes, but also revolution, resistance, and ultimately, pleasure.

By the end of the class, together we have taken down the master's house -- here the Barbie Dream House -with the master's tools, and discuss the possibility that sometimes, too, a doll is just a doll. We have all, together, in WGST 201, done Third Wave feminism.

Youth is wasted on the young, some say. They might also be the ones to say that feminism is dead, sexism is a thing of the past, and discrimination against women was wiped out decades ago with a slew of legal and political accomplishments so that women have nothing to complain about anymore. "Geesh, really, what do you young women want now?!," these same voices seem to demand.

Third Wave feminism is being carried forward by young women across America, primarily to meet contemporary concerns – not the least of which is to combat such stereotypes about young women, sexism, and feminism.  Referring to "waves" as in a larger, now global, continual process, Third Wavers share an emphasis on their singular status as young women and the occasional young man (those born around 1970). These 20- and 30-somethings certainly critique the work left to do from the Second Wave.

Prior waves focused on specific political and legal agendas. The First Wave – marked at the turn of the last century between Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and 1920 when suffragists gained the right for women to vote - and the Second Wave - when women in the 1960s and 1970s were uniting together to gain legal and political equality to men and reform traditional sex roles - were marked by large, distinct activist movements. Now, Third Wave has extended the fights in the political and economic arenas to the cultural one.

From Barbie to bisexuality to globalization, this new generation of American feminists marks out a unique media-driven culture, political agenda, and set of challenges. Some of the issues include: monitoring the increasing power that corporations have to set public policy agendas, sexual and reproductive freedom, the continued threat of harassment and violence against women, hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and women’s experience of multiple oppressions like racism and classism. Part of a global human rights movement that dovetails with anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and anti-class privilege efforts, Third Wavers encompass women’s experiences around the world.

Overall, Third Wave demonstrates that there are many ways to ‘do feminism’ and be a feminist. Third Wave challenges the common assumption that there are adhered to doctrines of feminism that designate one a card-carrying member. Now, there is no single ideal of a "liberated woman", rather liberation is seen as diversity in the options available for gender identity and sexual relations for all women and men.

With a focus on sex and pleasure, popular culture and media misrepresentation, more complex understanding of how various systems of oppression work together, including men and masculinity - activism is often more local, specific, and private. Even the "Personal is Political" has become somewhat of a cliché as young women combine politics, pleasure, and subversion in order to celebrate personal freedom to buy lingerie at Victoria’s Secret and vibrators at sex toy shops, wear and enjoy make up and pornography, yet also simultaneously confront eating disorders, body image anxieties, the stereotypical depictions of ideal beauty and body type by the fashion and cosmetic industries.

Body Image, Femininity, & Sexuality
Third Wavers are fed up with the pressure to look perfect and wear a size six. Fighting unrealistic standards of beauty set by the mass media are central to Third Wave.  Second Wave faced the difficult task of arguing that women are not naturally feminine or born feminine but socialized to be ‘ladylike.’ Now, Third Wave at once recuperates and values how individual women wish to make up their appearance while also contending with new forms of oppressive and objectifying femininity, such as the increase in - breast implants, facial reconstruction, and liposuction in particular — that perpetuate racist, classist, weight-obsessed, sexually objectifying standards of beauty which have drastic effects of girls’ body image and self-esteem..

Thus Third Wavers are just as likely to criticize the objectification of Britney Spears and trendy quick-fixes to women's aging like Botox treatments while supporting individual women’s choice to bear their midriffs and select plastic surgery. Just as likely to carry Hello Kitty coin purses as they are to listen to riot rocker Ani DiFranco, Third Wavers, ultimately, advocate the need to be comfortable and happy with one’s appearance and that every woman has the right to wear what she wants without an assumption of behavior or personality.

Grown Ups and Girlie Culture
Over the years, the term ‘feminist’ has developed a very negative meaning; it has become a dirty word and became erroneously synonymous with man-hating, lesbianism, bra burning, and not being very feminine. Indeed, Third Wave refers to it as the new ‘f-word’. As a result, young women eschew the label "feminist." Third Wavers try to eliminate this swear word stigma. And, they are making feminism all the rage with their own savvy backtalk and media messages by using the child-like sweetness of girlie culture to combat the stereotype that feminists are hairy, ugly militants who can’t put an outfit together.

At the same time Third Wave says "bye-bye" to the beauty standards set by Mattel’s Barbie doll, they are recuperating and embracing once outrageous epithets, like "girl," "bitch," and "cunt". Even though Second Wavers fought against calling women "girls," Third Wavers willingly use these once nasty words to name themselves for fun.

Grrrl. It is a word that describes a no nonsense young woman who, with a smirk and sense of pride, can tackle all that comes her way. Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the punk band "Bikini Kill" and an ex-stripper, coined the term in the mid-1990s. Reclamation of the world "girl" recalls the confident and curious, and possibly precocious, preteens that women once were before they understood the message that ‘proper’ ladies don’t break rules, investigate to go it alone, or get into trouble. "Girl Power" refers to an expression of brazen individuality – that strength employed by the Spice Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Power Puff Girls who continue to be popular.

Similarly, some women have reclaimed the word "bitch," to describe themselves defiantly. For example, Elizabeth Wurtzel published Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women in 1998 to talk about her riot grrrl rage and Bitch: Feminist Response to Popular Culture, a magazine based out of San Francisco by Lisa Miya-Jervis and Andi Zeisler continues to grow in national circulation.

Girlie Culture takes the mass media image of feminism and turns it on its ear as a style of femininity that connotes maturity and rebellion while calling to mind all-pink bedrooms with frilly curtains. Girliness is mimicry: playful, flirtatious, enthusiastic, and disruptive personal expression.

History - Growing up Feminist, Talking Back
Third Wave feminism is not second wave microwaved for the new millennium. Third Wave women grew up in a world shaped by the Second Wave - feminism is a given and the idea of gender equality taken for granted. Typically coming of age as Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut in 1983, many Third Wavers have even taken Women’s Studies or Gender Studies courses at college and have jobs in pro-woman organizations. Feminism is now old enough that those who were raised from within look back and talk back to those who blazed the trails before them.

While carrying on the unfinished business of Second Wave leaders like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan in the 1950s and 1960s, Third Wave addresses problems internal to the women’s movement. For instance, Third Wave questions the Second Wave assumption that patriarchal oppression was a universal experience for all women. Different types of women have historically experienced oppression in different ways. Third Wave recognizes that feminism was never monolithic, and it never will be. As if nodding to the legendary disputes between older feminists, Third Wavers agree disagreements are productive.

      Not only have many of the issues changed, but Third Wavers are, in fact ever vigilant of ageism when it's directed at younger women. Young women have begun to speak up about feeling ignored, slighted, or patronized by older feminists. A condescending and paternalistic assumption to know what the ‘real’ feminism is and what ‘real’ women’s issues are only furthers stereotypes and slows political gains, claim Third Wavers. The Second Wave slogans such as "I am woman hear me roar!" and "Sisterhood is powerful" – slogans put forward primarily by middle-class, white, and heterosexual women – have been reformulated to a notion of "girl power." Third Wave feminists have even changed the definition of "feminist" to be more inclusive since the emergence of gay and lesbian, transgender and transsexual civil rights movements.

Diversity
A simple summation of Third Wave goals is diversity. Third Wave can be seen as a push against all forms of discrimination simultaneously – sexism, racism, classism, ageism, and homophobia. Due to their advantaged status in society, white, middle class, educated (and typically married) women often dominated the earlier activist efforts of Second Wave and First Wave; and accordingly race, class, and sexuality issues often fell to the side. Earlier feminists were criticized by women of color, lesbians, and working poor women for excluding issues that were specific to their needs. In fact, the term "Third Wave" was first used by women of color in the 1970s in order to include the voices and concerns of non-white middle class women.

Men & Feminism
One of the differences between Third Wave and Second Wave feminists is the role of men in their movements. This new wave of feminism does not fight men – but rather fights injustices based on gender. Men are not seen as the enemy or cause of all women’s oppression. Still, Third Wavers recognize that not much has changed in men’s roles in the nearly three decades since the earlier women’s movement and therefore demand that men’s roles and attitudes change to meet women’s gains.

Third Wavers also take a different approach to understanding what ‘women’s issues’ are today.  Third Wavers, acknowledge that feminism is about men and masculinity, too, for stereotypes about masculinity are seen as just as limiting and harmful as those about femininity.  And, to be female is seen as a misnomer feminist requirement since more and more Third Wavers are sympathetic men. Thus, while including men and reaching out to many different types of women, Third Wave is much broader and larger than prior women’s movements. Simply acknowledging love for men, too, is a Third Wave accomplishment. Women, heterosexual or not, love men – as lovers, fathers, brothers, sons -- and need men to effect social change.

And, Third Wavers are all over TCNJ’s campus – the WILL Program, Bod Squad, VOX, Take Back the Night, The Clothes Line Project, Vagina Monologues. During Women’s History Month the Guerrilla Girls, that anonymous renegade band of guerrilla mask-wearing anti-high art heterosexism activists, came to riot with us.

Second wavers often refer to us as 'young women' and 'young feminists' -- the appellation 'young' replacing where once 'Black,' or 'lesbian' had been as a demarcation between women. I hear the same tone, intended or not, as when my nana used to call after me, saying, 'Young lady, get back here right this minute!' -- which was never good, and in, fact, always implied I had misbehaved.

I both embrace and eschew the labels "feminist," "third wave," "young woman," and "thirty something" while being all at once. Let's keep misbehavin'.

Sarah L. Rasmusson teaches WGST 201 "Gender & Popular Cultre," and writes as a professional journalist. The following is based on the forthcoming (May 2003) definition of "Third Wave Feminism" for Encyclopedia of American Social Movements by New  York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.