First-Wave/Second-Wave Feminist Distinction
The submission is very simple. You can see at the bottom I have provided a specific example, if I were to write an essay and create a submission. Before that, below, I have provided a generic example.
Name: Self-explanatory. State your name here.
Choice of contradiction: Of the list of contradictions within women's studies I listed on the prompt, please state the one you plan to focus on. If you have your own idea of a contradiction that was not listed, you can probably use that instead, but you should inform me of that here.
Prompt choice (content): Here you should provide, in brief, a summary of your broader essay. What are the specific choices you've made for your contradiction: what time period, what location, what people are involved? This may be very short, probably about 100 words, and does not need to quote any source material.
Sources (at least 5): Please provide your sources here. You need at least 5, but feel free to cite more if you feel you need them to fill the 2000 word essay space. Please cite them using full MLA formatting unless you also have their URLs, in which case you may just write their titles and supply the URL below. Your sources may be interview subjects as well as historical sources, scholarly sources, or, if relevant, journalism. These sources may be changed out for new ones while you are writing, but you should have a general idea of what they may be now.
Miscellany: If there’s anything else you’d like to mention or discuss, please do so here.
What follows is a specific instance of the prompt, were I to write an essay. I have used a distinction we focused on in class:
Name:
Choice of Contradiction: Public/private
Prompt choice (content): For my essay I will be focusing on the public/private distinction as they apply to the so-called "feminist sex wars" of the 1980s, surrounding differing feminist positions on sex in general, but specifically pornography and (to a lesser extent) street sex work, or prostitution. In particular, I mean to follow through with Alice Echols's insight that in the 1980s, the feminist idiom "the personal is political" came to be reinterpreted as asserting personal transformation was sufficient feminist practice. In other words, many antipornography feminists came to believe transforming personal access to commercial sex and pornography would be sufficient, rather than uplifting the broader economic conditions of women which drives them into such employment. This had the net effect of actually harming women involved in the sex trade.
Sources (at least 5):
Catherine MacKinnon, The Minneapolis Antipornography Ordinance [http://www(dot)nostatusquo(dot)com/ACLU/dworkin/other/ordinance/newday/AppA.htm]
Andrea Dworkin, Woman hating. New York: Dutton, 1974.
Gail Pheterson, ed. A Vindication of the Rights of Whores. Seal press, 1989.
Gail Pheterson, The prostitution prism. Leiden University Press, 1996.
Jill Nagle, ed. Whores and other feminists. Routledge, 2013.
Miscellany: While the other texts directly relate to and sometimes reference one another, Jill Nagel's more recent editorial work collects writings surrouding a recent unionization attempt at a strip club, The Lucky Lady, from 2013.
Submission assignment holder for your second of two short essays in this course. I have loosened the deadline a week to Tuesday of next month, as a few students might opt to complete the essay after receiving complete grading information with the completion of the last journal this week.
A reminder that the essay should be at least a 2,000 words. It should also use MLA citation format, be double spaced, use Times New Roman size 12 font, and be submitted as a pdf. I suggest titling your essay like one would a scholarly article. However, the length requirement is by far the most important, and likely the only one that will significantly impact your grade if not met.
Points will be out of 100 (unlike the reading journals). Your associated score will be "tacked on" as additional points at the end of the semester, thus lowering the weights toward final grade of all other assignments in proportion to the grade here. It is thus impossible for this contribution to harm your final grade.
First-wave”/ “Second-wave Distinction
Name
Professor Name
Course
Date
The choice of contradiction is “First-wave”/ “Second-wave” feminist distinction. For this essay, I will focus on the distinction between first-wave”/ “second-wave” feminists and how they differed in their approach to advocating for women's rights. Feminist movements have been instrumental in addressing issues surrounding the oppression of women. Several feminists have been involved in various movements. I will focus on the works of second-wave female feminists like Firestone Shulamith and Alice Echols, who demonstrate how their feminism differs from the first-wave feminists. For generations, the feminist movement has forged ahead advocating for the rights of women. Despite the opposition feminists have faced in the process, they have gone ahead to demand the rights of women. The rights that women enjoy today were a result of the hard work of feminists who have gone ahead (Thornham 26). Their efforts have borne fruit, given the progress that women in America have made over the years. However, the freedoms that women have today have not come suddenly, but gradually with different feminists advocating for different things over the years. The feminist movement in the United States (US) has been marked by distinct waves, each with its goals and ideologies. While the metaphor of “feminist waves” is instrumental to distinguish between different eras of women’s activism, it is challenging to identify the exact dates that commenced or ended each wave of feminism. In particular, two waves stand out; first-wave and Second-wave feminists. Each historical era was inspired by a long tradition of activism that transcended generational lines.
The first wave of the feminist movement can be attributed to the first formal Women’s Rights Convention that took place in 1848. However, these feminists were influenced by the activism of women in various other movements, particularly the French Revolution, the Temperance Movement, and the Abolitionist Movement. The French Revolution marked a turning point for women to participate in politics (Abray 57). Women started being on the front line to advocate for their rights. French women, while seen as ‘passive citizens’ did not shy off from engaging in political activities. On October 5th, 1789, French women marched in the streets in response to the economic challenges affecting them. In 1791, the French adopted the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.’ However, the document provided citizenship to various members of the population and excluded women and other minority groups from citizenship. Such a move inspired feminists to shift their attention to obtaining citizenship and equal rights.
Another influence for the first-wave feminists was the Temperance Movement. The movement aimed at promoting ‘moral reform’ in the US by limiting the consumption of alcohol. Since middle-class white women were considered to be the moral authorities in their households, they were at the forefront in advocating for less consumption of alcohol. As these women advocated for temperance and affairs of their homes, they also demanded an equal role in the public sphere. The third influence for the first-wave feminists was the Abolitionist Movement. The early 19th century was marked by African Americans fighting for freedom and citizenship. The collective activism of African Americans formed the foundation of the abolitionist movement, which pushed for the end of slavery. African American women were at the forefront of advocating for the abolition of slavery (Wrenn 183). They undertook extensive tours across the US and published letters and poems about slave narratives to fight for the abolishment of the institution.
Generally, the first wave of feminism had the primary goal of securing legal rights and suffrage for women. The wave sought to achieve political equality and economic opportunities for women, who had been largely marginalized. The wave sought to secure the rights of women to own property, receive education and work outside the home setting like their counterparts males. Women were largely oppressed by the existing institutions. Achieving the same legal rights as men were instrumental in getting women out of their predicaments. The first wave of feminists wanted a change in the existing social and legal structures to achieve gender equality. These feminists can be considered as ‘reformers’ working within the existing system to attain incremental changes.
However, the second-wave feminists were different from their predecessors. The second wave of feminists emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and marked a shift towards more radical and transformative goals (Motta et al). While the first-wave feminists wanted more opportunities by achieving political equality and access to more opportunities, the second-wave feminists focused on a more radical range of opportunities like reproductive rights, sexuality, gender violence, and workplace discrimination. The feminists aimed at challenging societal expectations regarding the position of women in society. For a long time, women had been considered to be primary care providers, majorly responsible for childcare and domestic work. The second-wave feminists became more critical of the existing political and economic structures.
One of the notable second-wave feminists was Firestone Shulamith. In the book, "The Women’s Rights Movement in the US: A new view," Shulamith offers insightful analysis of the movement, highlighting its strengths and limitations. The author demonstrates that the second wave emerged due to the limitations of the first wave, which majored in securing the legal rights and suffrage of women. Shulamith believes that the second-wave feminists wanted to challenge the existing social structures that aided gender inequality. Shulamith considers consciousness-raising an important aspect of second-wave feminism. She believes that becoming aware of the existing inequalities was instrumental in allowing women to challenge the existing structures that oppressed them. Conscious awareness was critical in enabling women to connect their personal experiences with the larger issues affecting society. This made them recognize that their struggles were not isolated, but rather constituted a broader part of the feminist movement. Shulamith demonstrates the essence of collective action toward the realization of the second wave. She had become a key member of the New York Radical Women (NYRW), a prominent feminist organization in the late 1960s and 1970s. NYRW was known for its radical focus on femini...