- Feminist = a political position
- Female = a matter of biology
- Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
first wave feminism – 1904 international alliance of women. Emily Pankhurst, suffragettes, women’s rights protesting.
second wave feminism – the facilitation of of birth control and divorce, the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality, the abolition of hanging and theatre censorship, and the Obscene Publications Act (1959) – which led to the Chatterley trial. Nevertheless,
third wave feminism – different from the 60s, tries to embrace plural identities (pluralism) as seen in the Maybelline advert. more alert to issues of class and race
- an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
- individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
- fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
- cyberactivism
- the re-appropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
- sex positivity
4th wave feminism -the idea of liberation involves new freedoms for sexual exhibition, experimentation and presentation, and on the other, it may well be playing out the same old patterns of exploitation, objectification and misogyny?
raunch culture = ‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in the media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality’