Dis-engaging with feminism

Question 1

Generational differences discourage women from identitifing as feminists

Answer 1

Levy 2005 = young women embrace a raunchy culture to distnace themselves from the 2nd wave feminism their mothers follow

Question 2

Negative stereotypes to feminists

Answer 2

Ryan (1997) = women will not identify as feminists as they believe men will not then like them
Haddock (1994) = asked men their thoughts on feminists and they responded with anger, disgust and annoyance

Question 3

The movement is irrelevant; equality has been achieved

Answer 3

Sharpe 2001 = young women regard gender equality as having been achieved
Jowett 2004: 96 = “it is seen as something which contributed to female progress in the past but is no longer relevant”
Anachronistic = belonging to an earlier period

Question 4

Neoliberal discourses promotes individual achievement and dissolves the idea that there should be a collective political movement

Answer 4

Scharff 2009 = reject the need for a collective movement by positioning themselves as individuals who are capable of negotiating structural constraints autonomously

Question 5

Post-feminism - a cultural era where feminism is taken into account but also critiqued

Answer 5

Scharff 2012 = the feminist movement does not allow for any intersectionality with is crucial for establishing a collective political movement.
Feminism now needs to be taken to other parts of the world

Question 6

Class and race differences intersect with feminist disidentification - Scharff 2012

Answer 6

• feminism is exclusive - it excludes oppressed men of their social class from struggles for equality
• the movement is see as too middle class
• the ‘black single mother’ already holds connotations of disgust (Tyler 2008) so adding feminist would cause further stigma