Waves upon waves upon waves...

Reading Shakesville this morning, I stumbled across this piece by Amanda Fortini.

The idea of a reawakening is so appealing. But Fortini's article raises an issue I've had for quite some time.
Fortini's acceptance, and use, of the "wave" metaphor of feminism bothers me. Yes, there are many, many young women out there who believe they live in a post feminist moment. The semester I co-taught a Feminist Theory class with Dr. Snarky and Fiery Mentor we spent the entire first month defining feminism and defending it as a legitimate and necessary position. Yes, that was in a course clearly labeled Feminist Theory. The fact that the women and men in this class felt that feminism was over demonstrates a perceived lull in the movement. However, in reality, by the end of the semester several of the students in that class had officially joined the Women's and Gender Studies program, and started a student run Feminist Group on campus. (I'm not sure if that group still exists.) What they saw over the course of the semester was that the moment was not dead, and that a larger community existed for them to join.

There have certainly been stronger and weaker moments for the movement, but perpetuating the wave metaphor keeps elements of the movement distinct and dispersed. Because waves are always distinct and separate, when members of the movement are assigned to specific waves, they are separated. If we accept the wave metaphor, we accept allow ourselves to be separated. We allow the 'rift' between the second and third wave feminists to become reality and grow. If we allow the wave metaphor, then we accept that for each wave we begin from a flat surface, that we have to build our movement and momentum always from scratch, without drawing on the energy of the members of the wave before us. Enough with the wave metaphor.

That's all I have time for right now, but I'm sure this issue will come up again.