Generations in Conflict - Grappling with the Feminist Wave Metaphor
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]by Sarah Bebhinn[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]"Manifest this, motha fucka number one!" The crowd at the 2002 Michigan Women's Music festival roared in response to their first-ever hearing of Bitch and Animal's Pussy Manifesto. I loved feeling that energy swell, and although I'm not a huge fan of their music, I took the song in, as did every one of the 4,000 women sitting at the Night Stage that night.
It wasn't until later, on the wagon ride back to the tent, that I realized not everyone had appreciated this blunt condemnation of the patriarchy. Many women didn't hear any of the lyrics past the first phrase. They were stuck on that word. How could women singing at Festival possibly think that that word was appropriate to use? "It degrades women!"
I have to say I was somewhat shocked. "Actually," I offered, "they're using the word in its literal sense. They're addressing the people who fuck women over in order to further their own agendas." A dozen or so sets of eyes blinked back at me. "You know," I continued, "our oppressors." Some nodded skeptically, but the overall tone seemed to be that the use of the word was unforgivable and context didn't matter. What I realize now is that my peers, the other ones who understood what the song was, were young and mostly able-bodied and walking back to their tents instead of taking the wagon. The third-wavers hoof it at Festival.
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Another example of inclusion in the third wave is the acceptance of each other's issues. In defining third wave during a presentation of her paper entitled "Are you woman enough to be my man? Pearl Jam as Third Wave Feminists," Judy Brady, a musicology grad student at the University of Wisconsin, said, "We acknowledge that we all have issues. An activity that I take part in may oppress you and an activity you participate in may oppress me." As a movement we are learning to work around this. We are an issue-driven culture and if we allow everything we disagree with to become a deterrent to working together, we will never get any work done. In a world as diverse and varied as ours, those of us in the know must do whatever we can to turn the tide. Feminism covers at least a thousand different issues. We can't afford to pick apart each other's choices when the very freedom to make those choices is at stake.
http://www.matrifocus.com/IMB06/feminism.htm
