Thread by @kyrieeleison60

Feminism Megathread 🧵

Summary

Feminism can be broken down into three "waves:"

First Wave (1800s-1920s) - better conditions at home + suffrage
Second Wave (1960s-1970s) - Equality in society with men
Third Wave (2012-present) - Female Domination / Transhumanism twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Each "wave" was concerned with breaking down certain social norms constraining women's behavior in the hope that deconstructing these rules would lead to better outcomes for women.

Like many things, the 'wave' model is not perfect, but its satisfactory

First-Wave Feminism

First-wave feminism was primarily concerned with improving the lives of women in their current social roles. Women campaigned for suffrage (the right to vote) and championed abolition and temperance (prohibition of alcohol). twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Of course, there were definitely "radicals" of this time as well - women who campaigned on ideas we would see as radical today. Emma Goldman was an anarchist & political activist who campaigned for the destruction of the patriarchy and total female liberation

Goldman was caught up in the Palmer Raids of the First Red Scare and later deported to Russia in 1919

The more "mainline" wings of first-wave feminism were largely successful. Congress passed the 18th Amendment in January 1919 and the 19th Amendment later that year in July.

First-wave feminism is said to have died out after these amendments were passed, and hard times brought on by the Depression and World War II reinforced traditional gender roles. There was no time for free-thinking activism. Feminism then lay dormant for 40 years.

Second Wave Feminism

2nd wave feminism was concerned with creating equality among the sexes. It is said to have been kicked off by the publishing of 'The Feminine Mystique' by Betty Friedman in 1963 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Friedan (nee Goldstein) challenged the idea that women's only happy role was as a housewife. The prevailing idea was that women should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions.

Feminists campaigned on changing many laws - previously, women could not own a bank account, own a credit card, or go to college. In 1975, Congress passed Title IX guaranteeing equal treatment, and by 1980, more women were graduating college than men.

This period was focused on "Equal treatment." While 1st wave feminism was mostly focused on better working conditions for housewives, 2nd-wave feminists wanted to be treated just like men. They wanted to go to college, work jobs, and have a bank account.

It was during this period that traditional institutions began to break down. No-fault divorce became the law, and women were increasingly independent of men

Notably, it was a period of post-war abundance that triggered the feminist movement. The 1950s were an outlier in history. People got married younger than ever before, and Americans basked in the abundance of a post-war world where the USA was on top.

The 60s also brought in more radical ideas. Baby boomers wholesale rejected social norms that governed society and embraced "free love" and doing drugs. "If it feels good, do it!" they said.

The 60s were unique. Mass media energized the spread of ideas and brought around the deconstruction of old ideas and old ways of doing things. But this would not last forever.

This essay titled "Decivilization in the 1960s" Highlights the major cultural revolution (counter-culture) of the 1960s and some of its negative effects. quod.lib.umich.edu/h/humfig/11217…

2nd-wave feminism largely died out in the late 70s and early 80s as Reagan ushered in the "Morning in America." People were tired of all the changes of the 60s and 70s and sought out safe, traditional lives for the most part

Third-Wave Feminism (2012-present)

Third-wave feminism can be characterized as the complete rejection of the patriarchy in favor of a gynocentric world, radical feminism, #metoo, use social media, and transhumanism twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Most young people can tell you about the YouTube videos they watched where Ben Shapiro "DESTROYS" a "radical feminist"

Third-wave feminism is characterized by the spread of its ideas online, especially in spaces such as Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter. 3rd wave feminists largely dislike men and blame them for all their problems in the world

3rd-wave feminists claim that our society is constructed around men at the expense of women and that we need to reconstruct society in favor of women. They embrace ideas like intersectionality, sex positivity, transfeminism, and postmodernism

Many 3rd-wave feminists are notably aggressive and in-your-face. They simply really do not like men at all.

I think 3rd-wave feminism really began with Gamergate in 2014, where several female video game developers were harassed by legions of men angry at women breaking into traditionally male-dominated spaces. Below is Zoe Quinn, who was the main target of #Gamergate

#Gamergate is notable for the use of main common harassment techniques found online today such as doxxing, stalking, sending anonymous death threats, and "exposing" people

#Gamergate involved the rejection of "political correctness" and "social justice warriors (SJWs)" who were attempting to reshape society

3rd-wave feminism gained even more popularity with the rise of Donald Trump, the Kavanaugh Hearings, and #metoo

#metoo especially was the crescendo of the movement characterized by women calling out men (usually powerful ones) who had sexually harassed, assaulted, or raped them.

#metoo kicked off with several sexual-abuse allegations made against powerful media mogul Harvey Weinstein as well as many other high-profile celebs and figures such as Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, Gov, Andrew Cuomo, and fmr. Senator Al Franken

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The aftermath of #metoo continues to this day. However, there has been somewhat of a "Counter-Revolution" to #metoo. Due to the severe effects of allegations, many men are hesitant to be close to women at all in fear they are risking their reputations and careers

While some say that false accusations are rare, many men are still scared of being falsely accused. There are several notable cases both in academia and business, where prominent men have been railroaded by a gung-ho HR or Title IX department nytimes.com/2018/03/07/nyr…

Many men have embraced the Billy Graham / Mike Pence rule to protect themselves. This rule is a code of conduct where men avoid spending time alone with women who they are not married or dating. nytimes.com/2017/07/01/ups…

Support for #metoo is split along gender and political lines, with men and conservatives holding more negative opinions of the "movement"

#metoo Counter-Revolution

All of this brings me to recent polling done on feminism and #metoo

https://twitter.com/BradWilcoxIFS/status/1663253365902409752?s=20

twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Men and women are increasingly at odds in society

https://twitter.com/BradWilcoxIFS/status/1663255282921635855?s=20

With this in mind, I look to South Korea for a vision of a possible future - a war between the sexes thecut.com/2023/03/4b-mov…

South Korea's 4B movement is a feminist movement characterized by a rejection of the 4B's: no dating, no sex, no marriage, and no child-rearing. With a homogenous society, Koreans have divided themselves by the main difference they have - sex. theconversation.com/why-so-many-so…

South Korea is also in a fertility emergence. They have the lowest fertility rate in the world - 0.78 births per woman. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

South Korea's newest president, Yoon Suk-yeol, capitalized on anti-feminism to win the Presidency time.com/6156537/south-…

Is this where America is heading? Will we see a new war between the sexes? Only time will tell. In the meantime, check out my other thread on the war between the sexes in politics (END)

https://twitter.com/kyrieeleison60/status/1652532517419769858?s=20

You can also check out my thread on the masculinization of women in modern America

https://twitter.com/kyrieeleison60/status/1662964045471784961?s=20