Misrepresentation Of Third Wave Feminism In The United States

Feminists have irrefutably accomplished tremendous achievements in the historical struggle for women’s rights. From the suffrage movements all throughout the 20th century to Nobel prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, feminism has secured the basic civil rights denied to women for most of human civilization, whether it be the right to vote, the right to have an equal-paying job, to own property, to marry at one’s own will, etc. In countries where these rights are still to be given to women, feminism, and support of it, is no less important than first wave feminism was in industrialized Western societies. However, contemporary ‘third wave’ feminism in Anglo-European industrial nations (or fourth wave, according to some theorists), in lack of viable

This essay will discuss two prevalent problems with contemporary feminist discourse, which hinder the aim of gender equality, namely, 1) the misrepresentation of gender-related issues, as illustrated through ‘the wage gap’ issue, and 2) exclusionary politics. Statistics are considered mostly in the context of the US. Misrepresentation of facts can most prominently be seen in the issue of wage inequity, which has held the spotlight in modern feminist criticism. The ‘77 cents on the dollar’ buzz phrase has frequently been touted by fringe feminist outlets and the mainstream alike. President Obama signed two executive orders in 2014 in attempt to narrow this 23% wage gap ; The Democratic presidential nominees have cited similar figures, pledging to improve the situation . Although pay inequity is an issue which has permeated mainstream media and politics, it has been falsely represented in both. The wage gap, as it is cited, does not indicate an inequality in the payment received by men and women working in the same industry and in the same working position, although it is frequently presented as

ways in which women benefit over men in society. This has seen the rise in popularity of the men’s rights movements such as the MGTOW movement, which only further divides the social and cultural gap between the genders. The most relevant example of such exclusion is feminists’ reluctance to address the issue of rape against males. The ‘rape culture’ theory presents women as the sole victims of sexual abuse. Some figures cite incidents of male rape to be as low as 3% , although studies have found that number to be much higher, as high as 38% , accounted by rape being rarely reported by male victims due to a culture of shaming and non-acceptance. Men have a 63% higher average prison sentence than women ; Men are less likely than women to get child custody . Male suicide rates are globally higher than those of females . Cases of sexual and physical abuse with male victims have been ridiculed on female-hosted talk shows . All of these issues have attracted little to no attention in feminist circles and in the mainstream media. It only goes to show that gender equality has transformed into a one-sided struggle, a struggle for gender