• DOI:10.1086/588436
• Corpus ID: 144068546

What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay

@article{Snyder2008WhatIT,
  title={What Is Third‐Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay},
  author={Rebecca Claire Snyder},
  journal={Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society},
  year={2008},
  volume={34},
  pages={175 - 196}
}

• R. Snyder
• Published 1 September 2008
• Art
• Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

M any of my colleagues in women’s studies tell me they do not know how to react when copies of Bitch or BUST show up in their faculty mailboxes. They know that the magazines are examples of something called third-wave feminism, but they are not exactly sure what that is or how it differs from second-wave feminism. Do young women have a genuinely different version of feminism? Do they have different issues, different solutions? Or are they just claiming they do as part of their rebellion against their “feminist mothers”? What exactly is third-wave feminism anyway? This essay explores a wide array of popular and academic literature on third-wave feminism in an attempt to make sense of a movement that on its face may seem like a confusing hodgepodge of personal anecdotes and individualistic claims, in which the whole is less than the sum of its parts. While third-wave feminists do not have an entirely different set of issues or solutions to long-standing dilemmas, the movement does constitute, I would argue, more than simply a rebellion against second-wave mothers. What really differentiates the third wave from the second is the tactical approach it offers to some of the impasses that developed within feminist theory in the 1980s. That is to say, third-wave feminism makes three important tactical moves that respond to a series of theoretical problems within the second wave. First, in response to the collapse of the category of “women,” the third wave foregrounds personal narratives that illustrate an intersectional and multiperspectival version of feminism. Second, as a consequence of the rise of postmodernism, third-wavers embrace multivocality over synthesis and action over theoretical justification. Finally, in response to the divisiveness of the sex wars, third-wave feminism emphasizes an inclusive and nonjudgmental approach that refuses to police the boundaries of the