Generational Dynamics and Feminist Futures

Abstract

Third wave feminism positions itself against a post-feminist backlash, which has denigrated feminism for its purported perpetuation of women as ‘victims’.¹ In opposition to this backlash, third wave feminists advocate the continued need and indeed viability of a feminist identity; however, it is claimed that this is a distinct identity, which is discontinuous with the identities associated with second wave feminism. The construction of a distinction between a second wave and an emergent third wave is a vital constitutive element in third wave’s narration of feminism history and in its own positioning within different feminisms.² The relegation of second wave feminism to the status of a necessary but outdated stage in feminism’s trajectory serves to legitimate many of the claims made by third wave particularly as it presents itself as a corrective to feminism’s shortcomings. Yet by invoking the wave metaphor a relationship with the established enterprise of feminism is also suggested. So on the one hand, third wave feminism seeks to establish a radical figuration of feminist subjectivity that is not reducible to second wave principles and problematics. Yet on the other hand, invokes a reproductive temporality by constructing its place as a successor to second wave within feminism’s time.