Third-wave feminism needs a hero

What does it mean to be a feminist today? When Rice students were being photographed for Playboy this year, I heard many different answers to this question, some of which appeared in the Thresher.

Certainly, the nature of feminism has necessarily changed since the First and Second Waves — but changed into what? Some women claiming to be feminists today do so without educating themselves on the history of feminism, and this is an extremely serious problem. We all have different ideas about what it means to be a feminist, but we must understand that our history is the same. There is no easy way of describing our current Third Wave of Feminism because there are so many different factions of it.

The First Wave fought for suffrage. The Second Wave fought for broader equality, especially in the workplace. The Third Wave is a bit more difficult to understand because we are fighting so many separate battles — sometimes we even fight against each other. There are so many different people saying conflicting things — all claiming to be feminists. This is extremely harmful. For women to be truly free we must work together as feminists. We must be united. But what will it take?

Last year I joined gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender leaders and activists at an Equal Rights conference in Austin. One of the key issues at the event was recognizing our own apathy within the Equal Rights movement, before Proposition 2 served as a call to arms.

During the Clinton administration, we thought we had a friend in the White House and became complacent — we stopped organizing, stopped fighting. Well, women and girls: We do not have a friend in the White House now.

I recognize how fortunate I am, but even as a white, educated, upper-middle class woman I encounter the boundaries of womanhood on a daily basis. When I am physically or mentally strong I am told that I am acting in a masculine way. Sure, I can deal with that. I can, and do, deal with worse gender discrimination — but I shouldn’t have to.

How much longer can we pretend that women are equal citizens in this nation? Women must not continue to ignore even the smallest injustices we endure — we must rise up.

But where are our activists? The Second Wave had Gloria Steinem, women’s rights activist and founder of Ms. magazine.

Steinem worked undercover as a Playboy bunny waitress and wrote an expose on the poor working conditions, poor wages, sexual objectification and harassment of “bunnies.” In sharp contrast today, our Third Wave movement is riddled with women who believe that they are asserting their independence and autonomy by objectifying themselves for the pleasure of men.

Who will be our Third Wave Gloria Steinem? I refuse to believe that she does not exist. We live in a largely apathetic nation, its true. But wouldn’t that make an organized, mobile feminist movement that much more powerful? The Riot Grrl band Le Tigre shouts, “Get off the internet/I’ll meet you in the street,” and I couldn’t agree more. Let’s get out of our dorms, our apartments, our cloistered suburbs—lets meet at City Hall. The marches, the rallies, the protests of the Second Wave must find their place in our own Third Wave movement. We must educate ourselves about our past if we have any hope of securing an equal future.

Laura Lamping Greenwell is a Martel College sophomore.

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