Ok, first wave of feminism was early 20th century, maybe a little of late 19th century and dealt with very basic issues like right to vote, not being a property of a husband, etc. Perfectly fine.
The second wave, probably started around the 60's but maybe earlier dealt with equality and social status issues and discrimination, etc. All good stuff.
The third wave, I am not sure when it started, but it introduced the dreaded intersectionality concept into the whole thing. Post modernism took over and of course phrases like the patriarchy , white privilege and toxic masculinity followed. It simply turned into man hating, plain and simple. Opinions started to have genders. Like, if you are a male, you cannot talk about certain issues now, because you do not have a vagina. It is like, I have cancer, I need treatment, but I cannot possibly go to a doctor who did not have cancer before ! The stupidty of the argument is breathtaking.
The third wave of feminists believe in the victimhood scale as a result of the intersectionality argument. The higher you are in the victimhood scale, the more your opinion matters. So if you are a white heterosexual male, you literally have no right to an opinion on most subjects. I don't know if there is a forth wave that may have started with the election of Trump but I suspect things got worse with that because Trump is a douche. The #metoo stuff may be a part of the 4th wave. When it started, I was 100% behind it but it turned into man hating again pretty quickly. The word "consent" became a joke. Like, women want to express their sexuality in any way possible, anywhere possible but in some college campuses now , like Princeton , you have to ask for consent two three times while you are dancing with a female partner if it is OK to continue ! Like , women started using the #metoo thing for dates that they did not particularly like ! There was an article by a woman , maybe in the New Yorker or something, that blamed a bad date, in which the guy did not do anything she did not want, but she just did not feel good the next morning. So THAT deserved a #metoo. Stuff like that of course totally undermines the legit sexual abuses but the 21st century feminist does not care for that. For her, withdrawing consent the next day is actually normal. I mean, how dare a man does not understand how she is going to feel about what just happened tomorrow? Careers ended, jobs lost , etc. Hollywood, the biggest hypocrite of all, the place where the phrase "casting couch" was invented, became the leader of the movement! Oh the irony...As a result, for men, the term "innocent until proven guilty" changed to "Innocent until charged" . So a legal concept that took centuries to perfect just got discarded almost overnight...for men of course.
I can go on and on but in a nutshell, the feminism currently practised by some, is all about post modernism, intersectionality, toxic masculinity, victimhood scale and man hating. The current feminist dilemma regarding transgenderism is also interesting but maybe for another day.
You and
@mrzz have put a lot on the table here, and I appreciate the thoughtfulness of both responses. I will try to respond as thoughtfully, but there is a lot going on here. In part, I think, because we're muddying the waters here with lots of things going on in, ok, "social justice" arguments these days, and "feminism" seems to be getting more than its share of the blame. (I'll come back to this.) Another is that you treat the Feminist movement as a monolith, (and an angry and dangerous one, at that,) while I would say it is more of a philosophy that women (and men) subscribe to in the interest of equality along gender lines.
One thing I would like to say is that "man-hating" has been a charge against feminists since the early suffragist days. I would actually argue that it was at its worst in the 70s, with the radical feminist separatists. However, most women and most feminists are not "man-haters." Most women I know love men, "even" lesbians (sarcasm intended.) We all have fathers, brothers, nephews, and friends who are good to us, and most are pretty good feminists, imo. "Man-hating" is a false perception, and a reason that many young women have been put off of feminism since the 70s-80s, and even earlier. Allow me an example: In the documentary "Maiden," (currently in a theatre near you,) Tracy Edwards, the captain of the first all-female crew to compete in an around-the-world yacht race, said, before the start of her voyage, that she didn't think of herself as a "feminist." She hated the term. By the end of her journey, after confronting the sexism, lack of faith in their potential to complete the job, and how much they inspired women and girls around the world, she reckoned that, yeah, she was a feminist. Point being that a lot of women don't want to associate with Feminism (and haven't since the early 20th C.) because it is seen by men as aggressive, unattractive, associated with man-hating, hairy armpits and outrageous demands. But most of us are just regular women asking for our piece of the pie, and consideration of our position, our ambitions, and the difference in our needs, both biological (that we lose time in our professional lives to have children,) and historical, (that we are seen as lesser in many ways.) Another example I'd like to offer is my mother. After raising her 3 children, she went back and finished her Masters, became a sea-going oceanographer, all the while supported by my father, who I would say was also a great feminist, as he was completely supportive of her ambitions. She taught me that feminism is about being able to do what you want and not being limited by your gender. I would say this is the crux of the feminist position, and I think it's worth getting back to basics.
Another thing I want to address is the #metoo. This is not exclusively a female issue. It's not outside of the purview of those with a feminist bent to sympathize, but it is about sexual harassment in the workplace, the academic and religious environments. Sexual predation in the context of power inequality involves male victims, as well. I'd be happy to discuss it, but if you don't mind, I think it's a separate issue. And I absolutely think that there has been misuse of it by people who rather regret things when they had full choice it the matter. But I don't think we need to confuse the issue of Feminism with that one, if you don't mind. (That was the point I was coming back to.)
You say "if you are a heterosexual male you literally have no right to an opinion on most subjects." Not only is this "literally" not true, heterosexual males are the ones that get to debate a lot of law on a woman's right to choose abortion, to decide about the funding for our healthcare and bring to law ways that women can be criminally liable for the death of their fetuses. Sorry to be graphic, but you must have heard of some of these laws in Canada. I'm sorry if the current climate makes you feel silenced and put-upon, but I think you over-state your level of lack of voice.
(just lost a long reply -- pc crashed)
To avoid a long discussion of what "feminism is all about", which in general are completely useless, because they pit dictionary definitions against subjective perceptions, let us use a
"working" defintion: 21st century feminism is what 21st feminists do, or better, what they fight for.
Tennis example: Do we see people discussing how the ITF invests its money on children and youth? Because it is glaringly obvious that the important thing is that girls have not only the
opportunities, but the structure there to look for their interests as future players, amateur or professional. That they (and their parents) are guided on how sports and tennis might impact their lives, both socially and from a health
point of view, be they succesful or not. Do we see people discussing it? No, we see people fighting for prize money in majors and big tournaments, which is not only almost irrelevant, but also unfair as we discussed to a long extent.
I happen to know people who work with sexual violence. Do the average/stereotypical "21st century" feminist have a clue about what these people face everyday? No. They know all about
#MeToo, however. They know all about Neymar's supposed/alleged rape case. I actually heard a long rant about how we should condemn him by default, and in this same rant the person
tried to convince me that the "classical" rape case does not happen anymore, and if it happens, is irrelevant (I am simplifying, but still. Disclaimer: I have zero interest on this case, but everything points to a false claim anyway).
There are tons of other examples. Yes, those are all "anecdotal" on one hand, but those things do drive the (social/mass) media, and if you cannot deal decently not even with that... I am sorry, you are not helping.
If the ultimate goal is to eliminate prejudice and misogyny, "21st century feminism" seems to be the perfect tool to achieve exactly the opposite.
(original text was around 4 times longer. Please try to see the corners I cut on this version. Just saw Murat's last post, I agree with a lot of what is there. You could reply that this is partial picture, but the point is that this partial picture is getting all the attention and driving the conversation).
I'm sorry you lost your longer post about this. Perhaps some points will come out in further discussion.
I don't agree with you that 21st C. women or feminists don't know enough about sexual violence. Surely, and hopefully, most of us haven't experienced it. But most women know what it's like to walk with your keys in your fingers. To always be aware enough avoid any number of situations. To be made uncomfortable in the workplace. To have to get away from a man who is intimidating us. Surely we think about our surroundings and our situations more than men do. As to the Neymar and what "rape" is anymore. I think we know what "rape" is. The issue of "consent/non-consent" as Murat also brought up...well, that's difficult, but it always has been, in the case of rape claims. But do remember that is usually the woman who is portrayed as putting herself in the position. Frankly, if men are suddenly looking worse in this scenario, I have very little sympathy. Women have been portrayed poorly in these cases for many, many years. Which is why they don't even pursue them, in most cases. If someone is willing to call out Neymar....think what you will. Who knows. As I said above, I'd prefer to make a separate conversation for #metoo, which deals with the finer points of sexual abuse of power.
As to your point about tennis putting effort into young players rather than us just complaining about equal pay, I think there has been conversation about it. I have brought up the fact that qualifiers at Majors allow a much smaller group of women than men, for example, which disadvantages the lower-ranked women.
As to your last point:
"If the ultimate goal is to eliminate prejudice and misogyny, "21st century feminism" seems to be the perfect tool to achieve exactly the opposite." So, whatever men perceive about feminism is so abhorrent, inconvenient and unappealing to their reflexion of themselves that women are to blame for the notion that men can't get beyond their own prejudice and misogyny? Are you really willing to back that statement?
), but the lack of political savoir faire sometimes is stunning to me. Just saying...
