The Rebirth of the Movement and the Rebellion forEquality

1. The Fourth Wave of
Feminism: Meet the
Rebel Women
BY SUSAN GRAHAM

2. The Beginning
of the Newest
Wave
 Fourth-wave feminism is the resurgence of
interest in feminism that began around 2012
and is associated with the use of social media.
According to feminist scholar Prudence
Chamberlain, the focus of the fourth wave is
justice for women, particularly opposition to
sexual harassment and violence against
women. Its essence, she writes, is "incredulity
that certain attitudes can still exist". Fourth-
wave feminism is "defined by technology",
according to Kira Cochrane, and characterized
particularly by the use of Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and blogs such as
Feministing to challenge misogyny.

3. The Purposes
 Issues that fourth-wave feminists focus on include street and
workplace harassment, campus sexual assault and rape
culture. Several scandals have galvanized the movement,
including the Delhi gang rape (2012), Jimmy Savile
allegations (2012), Bill Cosby sexual assault cases (2014), Isla
Vista killings (2014), trial of Jian Ghomeshi (2016), Harvey
Weinstein allegations (2017) and subsequent Me Too
movement and Weinstein effect, and the Westminster sexual
scandals (2017). Examples of fourth-wave feminist
campaigns include the Everyday Sexism Project, Ni una
menos, No More Page 3, Stop Bild Sexism, Mattress
Performance, 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman,
#YesAllWomen, Free the Nipple, One Billion Rising, the
 2017 Women's March, the 2018 Women's March, the Me
Too movement, and Time's Up. In December 2017, Time
magazine chose several prominent female activists involved
in the #MeToo movement, dubbed "the silence breakers", as
Person of the Year.

4. Criticism
 One criticism of fourth-wave feminism is that it
depends on technology. As Ragna Rök Jóns
argued in Bluestockings Magazine in 2013,
"[t]he key problem that this '4th Wave' will face
will be the disproportionate access to and
ownership of digital media devices." The fourth
wave is left with the "inherent classism and
ableism" created by giving the biggest voice to
those who can afford and use technology.[20]

5. Focus
 Kira Cochrane describes the fourth wave as
focusing on sexual harassment (including street
harassment), workplace discrimination, body
shaming, sexist imagery in the media, online
misogyny, assault on public transport, and
intersectionality, relying on social media for
communication and online petitioning for
organizing. Events and organizations included
the Everyday Sexism Project, UK Feminista,
Reclaim the Night, One Billion Rising, and "a
Lose the Lads' mags protest"

6. The Passing of
the Torch – 3rd
Wave and 4th
Wave Feminists
 Third-wave feminism has been heavily influenced by academic
investigations of queer theory. Queer theory posits that gender
and sexuality are fluid categories, and do not easily map onto
binary understandings of ‘male’ and ‘female’. Increased
understanding of bisexual and trans identities characterize the
third wave – although as the Moore/Burchill forbore shows, this is
an ongoing process, with the increasingly visibility of trans people
within feminist activism prompting a concurrent rise in
discrimination, most notably from within the radical feminist
movement.
 Many commentators argue that the internet itself has enabled a
shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism. What is certain
is that the internet has created a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism
or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. This culture is
indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its
focus on micro politics and challenging sexism and misogyny
insofar as they appear in everyday rhetoric, advertising, film,
television and literature, the media, and so on. The existence of a
feminist ‘fourth wave’ has been challenged by those who
maintain that increased usage of the internet is not enough to
delineate a new era. But it is increasingly clear that the internet
has facilitated the creation of a global community of feminists
who use the internet both for discussion and activism.

7. Are the 3rd
Wave and 4th
Wave Feminists
Different?
 Third wave is a women's right to be a woman.
It started a deeper exploration of gender and
acknowledged it was ok accepting traditional
female roles, especially about parenthood, so
long as it was a clear choice. It was also a
broadening of the movement beyond its white
middle-class base.
 Fourth wave is the current wave of the next
generation of Feminists, and not everyone
agrees exactly what it is yet. The one unifying
thread between the various definitions is the
use of technology and social media to broaden
the movement. It also tries to be more inclusive
of transgender issues, which some factions of
feminism have not fully embraced.

8. Books
Associated
With the
Fourth Wave
Feminism
Books associated with the new wave
include Men Explain Things to Me
(2014) by Rebecca Solnit
The Vagenda (2014) by Rhiannon Lucy

9. Modern Pioneers of the Fourth-wave
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter - singer,
songwriter, and actress. Although she’s a
registered member of the Republican
Party, Beyoncé uploaded pictures of her
paper ballot on Tumblr, confirming she
had voted in support for the Democratic
Party and to encourage others to do so.
Malala Yousafzai - a Pakistani activist for
female education and the youngest-ever
Nobel Prize laureate. She is known
mainly for human rights advocacy for
education and for women in her native
Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province of northwest Pakistan, where
the local Taliban had at times banned
girls from attending school. Yousafzai's
advocacy has since grown into an
international movement.
Kelly Rowland - singer, songwriter,
actress and television personality who
rose to fame in the late 1990s as a
member of Destiny's Child, one of the
world's best-selling girl groups of all
time. From the album Destiny Fulfilled
the song “Girl” written by Kelly and her
bandmates Beyoncé, Michelle Williams
along with Darkchild, and produced by
Beyoncé, Rowland and Douthit. the soul
song was written about an abusive
relationship Rowland went through
during the time of writing.

10. Pioneering LGBT feminists of the fourth-wave
Nell Carter (September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) singer and
actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the
Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin', as well as an Emmy Award for
her reprisal of the role on television. Best known for Gimme A
Break! In the 1980’s then Hangin' with Mr. Cooper from 1993-95.
Carter passed away in early 2003 due to complications of diabetes
and brain aneurism
Laverne Cox an actress, reality television star, television producer,
and LGBT advocate, best known for her portrayal of Sophia Burset
on the Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, for which
she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated
for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category. Cox has been
noted by her LGBTQ peers, and many others, and has won
numerous awards for her activist approach in spreading
awareness. Her impact and prominence in the media has led to a
growing conversation about transgender people, specifically
transgender women, and how it intersects with one's race and
identity.

11. Timeline
Date Event
16 April 2012 Laura Bates creates the Everyday Sexism Project for women to report sexist encounters.
Aug 2012 Lucy-Anne Holmes starts No More Page 3 to stop The Sun in the UK publishing images of topless women.
Sept 2012 Eve Ensler founds One Billion Rising to end sexual violence against women.
Sept 2012 Allegations lead to the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal.
Alissa Quart coins the term hipster sexism.
16 Dec 2012 The 2012 Delhi gang rape sparks protests in India and global outrage.
2014 Free the Nipple argues for women's right to show breasts in public.
Feb 2013 Cao Ju (pseudonym), first woman to bring gender-discrimination lawsuit in China, wins 30,000 yuan and apology from the Juren Academy.
7 March 2013 Anita Sarkeesian launches Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.
December 2013 Kira Cochrane's book All the Rebel Women: The Rise of the Fourth Wave of Feminism published.
22 Jan 2014 President Barack Obama launches the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.
April 2014 Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, criticizes UK's "boys' club sexist culture".
24 May 2014 #YesAllWomen begins in response to the 2014 Isla Vista killings.
Aug 2014 Gamergate begins, leading to sexist harassment of female video-game developers and widespread condemnation.
14 Sept 2014
Female graduate student at the University of Miami reports Colin McGinn for sexual harassment, sparking debate about sexual harassment within
academia.
20 Sept 2014 Emma Watson launches HeForShe at the UN.
Sept 2014 Emma Sulkowicz begins Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) to highlight campus sexual assault.
27 Oct 2014 Release of 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman.
Nov 2014 First women speak out about the sexual assault by Bill Cosby.
Oct 2014 Kristina Lunz starts Stop Bild Sexism to stop the German Bild newspaper from objectifying women.
31 Oct 2014 #BeenRapedNeverReported tweeted millions of times in response to the Jian Ghomeshi sexual-assault allegations in Canada.
Dec 2014 Comic book Priya's Shakti features an Indian girl who is gang raped.
23 Dec 2014 Time magazine writes that 2014 "may have been the best year for women since the dawn of time".
22 Sep 2015 Launch of blog "Breasts Are Healthy", to assist women to appear in public bare-chested without police interference.
1 Feb 2016 Trial of Jian Ghomeshi begins in Toronto.
21 Jan 2017 2017 Women's March supports women's rights and protests inauguration of Donald Trump.
5 October 2017 Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations first reported by The New York Times.
10 Oct 2017 #MeToo campaign, based on a slogan created in 2007 by Tarana Burke, begins in response to the Weinstein allegations.
30 Oct 2017 The first 2017 Westminster sexual scandals appear on the Guido Fawkes blog.
6 Dec 2017 Time magazine names #MeToo campaign as Person of the Year.
1 January 2018 Time's Up, a movement against sexual harassment, is founded by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and #MeToo.