How Madonna Defines the Third Wave on the Sisterhood and Jezebel


At a dinner party recently, a British journalist asked me to quickly define the difference between second- and third-wave feminism. I stumbled a bit, muttering about diversity and post-modernism and something about sexuality. But now I realize I should have just told him that the difference is Madonna.

To second-wavers, Madonna is all wrong. She is guilty of trading on her sexuality and has resisted what is known as “aging gracefully” at all costs. No, no Madonna wants to be a girl, a hot girl — as Elana Stozkman notes in her recent critique of the icon — something she proudly declares in hot pants and a crop-top in her new video.

To third-wavers, Madonna is a revolutionary pop star who taught us that we could be sexy and strong. She is a woman whose every move is guided by her own boundless ambition, and ultimately longs only to satisfy herself.

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Do Men Belong in the Women's Movement? What role do men have in fighting for gender equality? on Alternet

When Dan Wald, 24, began his matriculation at Ithaca College, he wasn’t thinking much about women’s issues. But then the biochemistry major from greater Boston began to hear stories about sexual assault from friends and something clicked. 

His big realization was that he should work with campus groups on sexual assault prevention not in spite of the fact that he is a guy, but precisely because he is one. Wald spent the rest of college bringing men in on the discussion of sexual violence and harassment and today he sits on the board of Students Active for Ending Rape.

“My whole life, rape had been framed as something you talk to your daughters about, and not your sons, but it is a men’s issue too,” Wald said.

After decades of feminism that was by women and for women, more and more men, like Wald, are coming around to the idea that men and feminism might just be good for one another.

Today there are more men than ever immersed in women’s issues and fighting for gender equality. They are taking women’s studies classes, contributing to feminist publications, attending conferences dedicated to men working on women’s issues, and advocating against sexual violence and for reproductive choice. And they are working with women who are realizing that gender equality might be better achieved with the participation of both sexes.

“We are now seeing that men can be allies to women, that they are being allies to women, and that men should be allies to women because it is in our own interest,” said Michael Kimmel, sociologist and co-author of the recently released The Guy’s Guide to Feminism from Seal Press.

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