Throughout its history, feminism has proven difficult to define, and resistant to easy summation. It is complex movement and philosophic framework that has evolved and shifted over time, along with the people and cultures it represents. But because the historical contributions of women have rarely been a part of basic curriculums and are often layered with misunderstandings when they are considered, each feminist generation has been held with the task of rediscovering and redefining this history - its achievements, motivations, disappointments and points of contention. Indeed, “As historian Gerda Lerner has said, the only constant thread in women’s history is that it is lost and rediscovered, lost and rediscovered.”1
Adding to this problem, feminism has been routinely declared dead by popular media despite vehement remonstration and vigorous activity to the contrary. This problem, identified by Jennifer L. Pozner as “False Feminist Death Syndrome (FFDS)” is perpetuated by chronic media laments for the lack of activist energy in the younger generation, an overemphasized refusal by women to identify as feminists despite often liberated viewpoints on gender, and the frustrating declaration that the previous generation of feminists were so successful in achieving parity, no significant work remains to be done.2 Each of these disingenuous expressions of grief aim to subvert any real gains within the movement by declaring feminist concerns as completely non-existent. While it may certainly be argued that the
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feminist movement has changed over time, its central insistence that men and women are equal (and therefore should enjoy the same rights and privileges) has wavered very little over time and is as important a demand today as it was a hundred years ago.
With that in mind, it seems important to include a short history of the feminist movement (in America) to accompany the contemporary consideration of feminism found in the Girly Show: Pin-Ups, Zines & the So-Called Third wave.
The Wave Model
For the sake of convenience, and to the chagrin of many, a wave model has been used to provide an orderly metaphor for understanding the complex history of feminism in the United States. The model is widely criticized because it tends to reduce periods of activity to a few key issues that serve to simplify very large social problems and then trivialize those activist efforts. Wave theory has also been disparaged for establishing simplistic generational divides that invariably suggest conflict and discord.
However, in its defense, the wave model provides an eloquent analogy for (what may be considered) an indistinct stream of feminist theory that has evolved over time and through context. In that interpretation, the model speaks to the apparent ebb and flow of feminist activism – suggesting not so much stops and starts within the the discourse, but a free and
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