Tuesday, 9 September• read: Berger, WAVE; everyone should read the first three essays; from the remaining thirty choose ten that interest or inspire you most; be ready to say how you chose them.
Thursday, 11 September
• web action: historical sources, read and analyze 3 to talk about and share; one you know already but add to, two you don't so much; see handouts and assignment links on blog
• DUE: summary sheet 1
from Berger's Introduction, pp. 20-1:
"...People will ask me if identify as a Third Waver, or if I think my gneration is part of a new wave, a post-Third Wave, if you will. My answer: 'Good God, we don't need another wave.
Which is not to question the efficacy of waves or dis all those powerful feminists who identify as Third Wavers. I think the whole concept of a // Third Wave was great in its function as a rallying cry during the 1990s. But, really, it's time to quit talking about the rallying cry and, you know, rally to the rallying cry.
Calling this book We Don't Need Another Wave was a deliberate choice, but it is not a dis of the Third Wave. I repeat. This is not a diss of the Third Wave.
It's more of a critique of the ways in which feminism gets discussed in the mainstream media...when it gets discussed at all. There is so much focus on the packaging of our 'message' that we hardly ever talk about what the actual 'message' is. As if there's only one."
"...the connecting theme is this: 'I'm a young feminist and I'm going to work it! Watch me enact my feminisms!'"
Who is Melody Berger? See About the Editor, p. 319.
See The F-WORD zine on MySpace.
See also MySpaceMusic: Melody Berger.
Who published this book? See Selected Titles from Seal Press, p. 320.
See also Seal Press.
What can you tell about the book and press from this material?
What do you think of this so-called "wave terminology"?
Note Lisa Jervis' comments in the Forward to the book, p. 14:
"We've reached the end of the wave terminology's usefulness. What was at first a handy-dandy way to refer to feminism's history, present, and future potential with a single metaphor has become shorthand that invites intellectual laziness, an escape hatch fromthe hard work of distinguishing between core beliefs and a cultural moment.... Writers and theorists love oppositional categories--they make things so much easier to talk about...."
Who is Lisa Jervis? See note p. 18.
Lisa Jervis profile at BITCH
Why does the book begin with "Womyn Before" by Alix Olsen?
Listen (from iTunes): "Womyn Before."
See also MySpaceMusic: Alix Olson.
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Feminist historians and social movement theorists have worked hard to demonstrate how feminist theory is directly created within and for social movements. Kinds of feminisms have different historical trajectories and produce a range of forms in which feminist theory is created, used and shared.
"Watch me enact my feminisms!"
Noel Sturgeon and the idea of "direct theory."By Noël Sturgeon
Published by Routledge, 1997
"Examining the development of ecofeminism from the 1980s antimilitarist movement to an internationalist ecofeminism in the 1990s. Sturgeon explores the ecofeminist notions of gender, race, and nature. She moves from detailed historical investigations of important manifestations of US ecofeminism to a broad analysis of international environmental politics."
Wikipedia on: direct action:
"Direct action is political action which happens outside normal political channels via indirect actions such as electing representatives. Direct action is often associated with movements or groups who have little influence over normal political processes.... Nonviolent activities include strikes, workplace occupations, sit-ins, demonstrations, sabotage, vandalism and graffiti. More violent actions include riots and revolutionary/guerrilla warfare. Direct actions are often (but not always) a form of civil disobedience and thus often violate criminal law.... Less confrontational forms of this definition of direct action include establishing radical social centers, and performing street theatre."
"...social movements are involved in theorizing both the relations of power existing at particular conjunctures as well as previous traditions of opposition through their forms of action and their particular political rhetorics, and I call this aspect of movements 'direct theory." Sturgeon 1997: 5
Nancy Whittier shifting the idea of "feminist generations."By Nancy Whittier
Published by Temple University Press, 1995
"The radical feminist movement has undergone significant transformation over the past four decades-from the direct action of the 1960s and 1970s to the backlash against feminism in the 1980s and 1990s... contemporary radical feminism is very much alive. It is sustained through protests, direct action, feminist bookstores, rape crisis centers, and cultural activities like music festivals and writers workshops, which Whittier argues are integral-and political-aspects of the movement's survival. Her analysis includes discussions of a variety of both liberal and radical organizations...."
The usual ways of thinking about generations including feminist ones:
• As mother-daughter relationships; as student-teacher relationships:
These are two common models of generational difference used by feminists; they depict generational differences in pairs, as pedagogical or educational and thus as age specific, one proceeding to another while also mutually exclusive. Any power differences appear relatively benign and "familial", generational control is imagined as parental, pedagogical and inevitable.
• Waves as historical periods:
First Wave feminism: 19thc and early 20thc feminisms as named by 1970s feminists
Second Wave feminism: feminisms of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Third Wave feminism: feminisms of the 1990s and perhaps after.
• The Third Wave from 1963-1973:
Third Wave Agenda's 1997 model is age-stratified, defining the Third Wave as feminists born between 1963-1973.
This model builds upon but alters slightly the popular notion of feminist histories in "waves" or distinct historical periods by focusing on when activists are born rather than mixed aged collectivities.
• Entry into activism: Whittier's 1995 model with micro-cohorts:
Whittier's model challenges age-groupings or life-stage as definitions of generations, rather generations are defined as collectives who become first politically active at the same time, yet don't necessarily agree among themselves, and diverge in micro-cohorts. Two large generations: the Second Wave and the Third Wave.
The availability of public and collective resources for social change is pivotal to the experiences of these cohorts.
Second Wave micro-cohorts:
=initiators (1969-1971)
=founders (1972-1973)
=joiners (1974-1978)
=sustainers (1979-1984)
Third Wave micro-cohorts (don't have names just descriptions): (AKA post feminist); understood by Whittier to redefine meanings of "feminism" by conflict with Second Wave building new collective identities (mid 1980s and later):
= micro-cohort 1: reluctant to use term "feminist" because of media associations and initial belief that feminism had completed its political tasks; rethinks these assumptions over next ten years and becomes outspoken and pro-feminist
= micro-cohort 2: establishes earlier continuity with Second Wave & esp. with radical forms, disruptive social and cultural action.
Katie's essay on web for further reading: Theorizing Structures in Women's Studies
section on Whittier's generations
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Why do "womyn before" matter from your point of view?
BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS THIS NEXT CLASS! with examples from readings and websites.
NPR: 1968's Miss America understands that the women's movement made a difference in her life....
Wikipedia Feminism Portal
This is a fabulous site -- you may wish to become part of its continuing incarnations....
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