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Third wave feminism set off in the mid 1990s and was brought to its feet by young feminists, mystified by the highly valued constructs of the previous two waves – including the ideas surrounding universal ‘womanhood’, gender, sexuality, heteronormativity. Third wave feminists would shun such limiting and exclusionary categories of identity, gender and sexuality in favour of a celebration of deeply diverse sexual orientations, ethnicities and a spectrum of genders. Young feminists in the late 1990s are interesting, as they took great pride in the very high-heels, lipstick and push-up bras that their first and second wave counterparts fought against as they were deemed to be the means of the patriarchal sexualisation of women. Third wavers subconsciously or otherwise, defined femininity for themselves as the subjects of their own lives, not the objects of a patriarchal society. Third wave feminists illustrate women as diverse, self-regulating and with the possibility of being sexual whilst still maintaining intelligence and respect.

The existence of a fourth wave of feminism is up in the air. I like to think fourth wave feminism is beginning to find its feet with the backdrop of post-modernism – a departure from the ‘modernism’ of the second half of the 1900s and a revisit to the conventions of the distant past. If fourth wave feminism is to solidify itself as a movement, we have to recognise the incapacity of third wave feminism in its ability to produce change for those more marginalised than cisgender white women. Fourth wavers will struggle to dissociate from the gender binary, exclusionary nature of movements past, but they recognise there are still problems left to face. Intersectionality is a word often referenced by modern day (possibly fourth wave) feminists; it suggests women’s oppression can only fully be comprehended in context of the marginalisation of other groups.

Fourth wavers are different to third wavers in that they recognise feminism is part of a larger problem of oppression - along with racism, ageism, classism, and the oppression of the LGBTQ+ community, not just a movement to address women’s struggles. To quote author Shiri Eisner, fourth wave feminism will need to understand and act on the fact “that different kinds of oppression are interlinked, and that one can't liberate only one group without the others. It means acknowledging intersectionality - the fact that along different axes, we're all both oppressed and oppressors, privileged and disprivileged.”

On the edge of third wave feminism, it is difficult to predict how the feminist movement will change and mutate itself. I hope the fourth wave materialises, but if it does, in what direction? Since humans have existed as separate sexes, feminists have existed unbeknowningly, such as Queen Boudica, Queen Elizabeth the first, and the many other women who were far from royalty, that have been forgotten by history. Feminism has taken many forms throughout history and since it came into fruition as an identifiable movement – not just one fixed feminist ideology. There have always been, and will continue to be, conflicts and tensions, disagreements and discrepancies between the different factions and waves of feminism - and that is precisely what makes it progressive.

Image Credits: http://perezhilton.com/2010-10-18-spice-girls-campaigning-to-perform-at-london-games-in-2012?photo=4#gallery

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-your-feminism-isnt-true-feminism-unless-its-intersectional