The Third-Wave Of Feminism: What Is Third Wave Feminism?

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The term “feminism” has been around for almost 200 years first meaning “the quality of females” and since then has been defined a multitude of ways. Today, feminism can be defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as a noun meaning “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities” (Feminism). This definition truly describes today’s feminism: third wave feminism. Third wave feminism first began in the 1990’s and is still present today. Third wave feminism is a movement to redefine the concepts of words like beauty, gender, and gay that society had previously twisted into one correct meaning. What the majority of people fail to realize is the importance of third wave feminism and its true intentions. Feminism is still …show more content…

Beauty for instance, is a term that has been used to define the quality of a woman; a woman was not good enough unless society ranked her beauty high enough. The biggest problem third wave feminists have with this it that it was not the woman herself defining her own beauty, society was defining it for her. Third wave feminism wants to open society’s eyes to this unconscious behavior it follows; a behavior that oppresses women by teaching girls they have to be skinny, have big breasts, and conceal their flaws to obtain perfect skin in order to have the “right” sexuality. The worst part is that society cannot take full blame for oppressing women who did not have these ideal standards of beauty; women hurt other women too. Many times women who do not fit this standard of beauty get left out of friend groups because other women do not want to be associated with them for fear of hurting their own beauty status. Third wave feminists do not want to put up with this oppression of anyone. Whether it is women shaming other women or women shaming themselves because society has told them they are not good enough, third wave feminism calls for an end to all of it. Women have the right to define their own beauty and the same can be said for men. Men have grown up in a society that tells them they must be tall, dark, and handsome. Third wave feminism is breaking these stereotypes and empowering men and women to define their own

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