But what IS this "Third Wave" of which you speak??

What made me broach this topic? A post on Jezebel, my favorite source to steal from, about the 35th anniversary of Ms. magazine and why they can't bring themselves to care. A quote:

It's like, according to them, you're not a real feminist unless you're doing something boring and constructive without any flash or pizazz. Why does everything have to be so dour? There are fun aspects about being a woman, you know. That's probably the biggest divide between second and third wave feminism. There's this emphasis on the "serious" shit, which is indicative in their coverage of grave news, and insistence of an anti-pornography stance.

I basically agree with them, though I do fear that many of today's feminists choose the personal OVER the political, and that we need both pizazz AND activism. But anyway, it reminded me of a Nerve* article I read awhile back that gave a good explanation of third wave feminism. I link you to the beginning of the article, but the stuff about what the third wave means to the author (Ada Calhoun) is on the second page. Here's a particularly nice quote:

I think growing up post-AIDS, we who were born in or around the '70s had to be more honest and upfront with each other about sex; it made us more equitable, curious and fair. We became well educated about date rape but sensible enough to laugh at the absurd rigidity of the Antioch Rules.
Third Wave women, as I know them, are financially independent. They're happy alone, or they're looking to create families with partners rather than providers. They are politically active, voting, signing petitions, contacting their representatives and being conscious consumers and respectful employers and employees. They enjoy sex, especially thanks to the enthusiastic presence of feminist porn companies, anthologies like Gynomite, sex-toy stores like Good Vibrations and Babeland. They are represented in the media by reasonable, funny feminist writers like Jennifer Baumgardner, Rebecca Traister and Lynn Harris; on TV by Tina Fey and Samantha Bee. Third Wave women are women from all over who have an innate sense of their own value and potential...They are self-aware, adventurous and live supportive lives with men and with each other.

Some people argue that what we're going through now is not actually a new wave--more like Second Wave 2.0. I think there's truth to that, but it's not the whole story. This new wave has broadened itself, and our causes extend to race (Second Wave was notoriously white, to the point that some black feminists had a different name for themselves--Womanists), sexuality (hurray for LGBTQ!), and the notion that there are many ways to be a feminist. There are still core issues upon which the movement rests--there is no feminism without contraception, and housewifery is still a tricky issue--but the guiding forces are freedom and collaboration.

There are plenty of cliches I can throw out there. We today don't think of bras as tools of oppression but as sources of physical comfort (especially us well-endowed girls--ouch!) and expressions of sexuality. We don't have to choose between marriage and identity, and we can find men who share our beliefs and are allies as well as friends and lovers.

Perhaps all of this is obvious, but it's good to lay a groundwork. So, what do you guys think? What does the third wave mean to you, and what parts are confusing/unclear? What differences do you see between these recent waves, and what experiences do you have explaining feminism/having it explained to you?


*My other beloved source of theft.