Not only did the word Feminism become a symbol (for our generation) of angry and butch women but now it also brings generations of sisters to argue! Maybe most of you are not aware but there is a war between generations at hand. This for me, defies all rules of our sisterhood. In the article 'Lipstick Feminists' (you can find link bellow) it points clearly that there is much commotion between the 3rd and 2nd generation of women around the topic of what is a feminist. Our older sisters are pist off at us for not appreciating all the work they have done and putting it lightly, for our moronic and degrading 'girlie culture'. Now sometimes, even I get a little concerned by the objectification that the media portrays of women but on the other hand I believe that the women who are being objectified are in control of there bodies. This shows to our older sisters that our generation has been empowered enough by them and that if we choose to be objectified, we are in control of our bodies portrayals. Further more, we are not trapped only in the objectification of male desire but actually we portray women with the desire to be acknowledge in all our traits (beauty, spirit, mind and body). Not only does this show to our older sister's that they have done a wonderful job in passing on the potential and freedom to be ourselves (no matter our sexual orientation, social status or colour). But also this empowers future generations of women not to fear their sexuality or their femininity but to embrace this famine power as part of who we are as women without prejudice of dishonoring ourselves. Now, there will always be women or men who still don't get it and will be objectified with no power over there image (Paris Hilton for one!). But that is life, some people get it, some don't; you can’t expect the whole world to be enlightened. Our older sisters might be generalising all women because of few rotten apples. Which saddens me immensely!
There is no doubt that our generation is a little spoiled and most of us have no idea what our older sister's had to go through to give us such freedoms. We do take it for granted but also our older sisters are sometimes hard on us. They forget that we live in a very different world and that we might know more of what women are all about today than they do. Not only that, but also we are more in contact with women issues of our generation than they will ever be.
In conclusion to all of this and the article, no matter if you are a feminist or girl power or geek; at the end of the road we are all women. Women need other women to share there feelings and experiences no matter what generation you are. Every woman has there own agenda of issues that they think are priority and that is what feminism is all about. I do agree with Jennifer Baumgardner (she was interviewed in the article) that feminism is something individual to each woman. So instead of creating this communication gap and these walls between each other, why not try to find a common ground. Because at the end, we are all sisters and we all share the same road.
Article: Lipstick Feministas. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards create a manifesto for Third Wave feminism by Tamara Straus.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/11.29.00/feminism-0048.html
Want to find more about 2nd and 3rd generation of the F word check the link bellow: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/920/context/cover
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