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Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future The "third wave" of feminism has been floating around for a few years now. It has managed to give rise to a few young feminist media figures, ˆ la Naomi Wolf and Rebecca Walker, and a new feminist organization, The Third Wave Foundation. This generation has also found its way into women's studies courses across the country, stemming from the publication of a few anthologies such as Walker's To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism and Barbara Findlen's Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation. But the new generation's answer to feminism has lacked anything even approaching a coherent, unified vision--until publication of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. Jennifer Baumgardner--a freelance writer found in the pages of Jane and Nerve as well as Out and The Nation--and Amy Richards--a founding member of the Third Wave Foundation--start off strong with a rousing collection of statistics on the status of American women in 1970. These first few pages give any young feminist a startling sense of just how much we owe the second wave. From there, the book settles into a combination of history lessons, media analysis, personal experiences and interviews with feminists young and old. Concerned largely with the interaction between the second and third waves of feminism, the book expends considerable energy dissecting the defining characteristics of the latter and how it plays off the politics of the former. With an almost tedious attention to detail, Baumgardner and Richards illustrate how "Generation X" is the first generation to grow up with feminism "in the water"--present in everyday life--and pinpoint areas of contention between the two waves. They forthrightly call on the second wave to accept leadership from young women, and chastise them for failing to recognize the feminist activism already taking place among the young. Emphasizing the notion that feminism begins with women's shared experiences, the book also pays homage to the consciousness-raising groups of the '60s. This leads to one of the book's recurring themes: the "click," that moment where women realize that something is being denied them for no other reason than gender. When the authors shift away from the second wave, they enthusiastically depict the current state of feminist activism as a wide-ranging "diaspora": a myriad of feminists doing work around women's issues. Baumgardner and Richards confess that the lack of a focused and powerful movement is a problem, but one marked by an energetic and inspiring series of disconnected local struggles, ranging from a woman agitating for "crip rights" for the handicapped to 60-person riot grrrl conferences. They tout the vast and varied nature of the feminist movement, arguing that it signals a "pre-emergent" phase for a "revolutionary movement [that] will eventually emerge from where young people are starting today." The authors' calls to activism are invigorating, and it's refreshing to hear young feminists admit that for all the good that a cultural version of feminism may do, it takes real political work to actually change society. The authors call for radical change, for envisioning a society in which gender poses no limits on one's potential. With all the hoopla surrounding youth activism on issues of globalization, it's heartening to hear coherent, young voices advocating for principled and patient action coupled with a vision for changing society in the long haul. Still, one wonders if there isn't anything more innovative or inspiring in the third wave beyond being pro-sex, culture-driven and continuing the struggles of the second wave. Most pointedly: What about coherent, substantive critiques of race and class that build on the mistakes of our foremothers? The authors cite books known for their scathing critiques of race and feminism, (Dorothy Roberts' Killing the Black Body, Angela Davis' Women, Race and Class, bell hooks' Ain't I a Woman?) but don't include the arguments they make about race. While Baumgardner and Richards refer to having a "commitment to workers," advocate for strong social provision and name-drop feminist women of color, there is little in the way of an actual critique of race and class. For example, instead of addressing the racist rhetoric Margaret Sanger employed in her birth control crusades, she is repeatedly mentioned as a near-sainted feminist foremother, with not a word about her alliance with eugenicists. The suffragettes are held up as strong, mighty women, but their willingness to trade off the black vote for their own is not mentioned. Instead, the authors simply say that Sojourner Truth supported suffrage and that civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was a feminist too, all but insinuating that having a few brown faces present in the movement exonerates it from its own race and class prejudices. Instead of bringing forth constructive arguments about how feminism might need to change if it is to represent all women, they universalize women's issues, arguing that "reproductive rights are inherently a multiracial issue." While it's true that women of all colors are affected by sexism, glossing over the layered and complex nature of how that plays out is problematic at best. It's a superficial treatment of race, one that finds fault in the movement's lack of diversity instead of its lack of political projects that speak to poor women or women of color. It's absolutely inspiring to read the chronicling of my generation's
feminist activism, and to hear young women emphasizing the vital
importance of being political activists instead of just cultural
ones. Still, it's frustrating and disappointing to hear so little
substantive debate or critique of race and class, the two most daunting
obstacles to building a real movement. Our generation needs
a feminist manifesta--a declaration of our politics, our priorities
and where our allegiances lie. But what it needs even more, and
what Baumgardner and Richards have glossed over, is a real interrogation
of why feminism has been identified as a white women's movement
and what feminism needs to do to change that. Tracie McMillan is the editor of the activist, the magazine of the Young Democratic Socialists.
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