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Second Wave Feminism

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Feminism: The political, economical, and social equality of the sexes. When defined like that it appears to be clear cut what people are fighting for, although that is far from the truth. Feminism like many other politically charged topics has a lot of miscommunication and issues associated with it. This is something that can be seen in the movement itself, and the people who choose to take part in it. The second wave of feminism, which is what we call the era of feminism we are in now, is one that has been very confusing for many women. This is due to fact it lacks the clear ground the early waves of feminism had. This can either be seen as a good thing that allows feminism to be a more all inclusive movement, but it could also be a negative …show more content…
This being said feminism did manage to get a lot accomplished, but one thing that they disagreed on was ways to accomplish them. One way in the 1970’s that they could accomplish the feminist agenda was through lesbian separatism. This was whenever women would decide to be lesbians and separate from the men in the community living in commune like structures so that they could truly be separate. This method was both praised and looked down upon for many reasons. Some feminist looked upon this method as the only way to truly escape this man's world, and others viewed it more as an irrational idea started by diehard feminist. In Worden and Andrews piece though titled “In Defense of Lesbian Separatism.” they seek to shed some light on why the separatist though this was the best way to accomplish what they sought out to achieve. In their definition though all men were the enemy, and what they were fighting …show more content…
In this Dougles is discussing how the way she saw the ERA debate was more or less a cat fight. While this idea that it was like a cat fight makes sense it subtracts from the message and the power the ERA had at that time. With one side fighting to get women in the constitution, and the other side fearing the change that the ERA could potentially cause it did escalate into a ‘cat fight’ at some points. Douglas claims that this struggle ran deeper though stating “...the catfight a symbolic catharsis of women's internal conflict between the desire for liberation and the longing for security.”(Douglas, pg.223) This theory rang true for most women in this battle. While they wanted to be formally recognized in the constitution they also wanted to keep the security that being a wife and mother at that time held. This lead to many feminist not knowing how to get involved, due to them fearing for loss of security. This was a battle that the feminist community was divided on as well, because while some women immediately jumped on the ERA bandwagon others were more reluctant. This ultimately lead to a divided in the feminist community during this point in

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