Identities: Applying Feminism factsheet

1) Briefly list or describe the different waves of feminism.

FIRST WAVE: Women in the late 19th to early 20th centuries wanting to gain politcal change with their agenda concerning sexual, reproductive and economic matters.

SECOND WAVE: A women's liberation movement concerning matters of women in the home and workplace.

THIRD WAVE: This wave focuses on women's sexuality, reproductive rights and the stereotypes of women which affect them negatively. 

2) The factsheet doesn't mention a fourth wave of feminism. Do you think we are currently in a fourth wave of feminism due to digital media?

To an extent, the fourth wave feminism is what we are currently in; as joining social media like Twiiter, Facebook etc. can be equated to joining a political party because people are able to voice there opinion on specific topics that effect them or the environment they are in. I think, the third wave feminism and fourth wave  are similar as things such as reclaiming femininity from the third wave is been done a lot with the use and better way than before by technology and social media making it gain a lot of attention and awareness. So, I do think feminism has used social media as a positive gain to gain awareness and create political buzz but because other feminist waves had important problems they were trying enforce or changes doesn't mean these were successful and I think other waves of feminism have just changed with the changing social scope and that social media has been an important impact on still being able to bring more of these problems to light such as women of Saudi Arabia creating pages or account for the betterment of women in the country. 

3) List the five different types of feminism with a one-sentence definition for each.
Radical feminism: This type of feminism is to show men as the perpetrator of women's oppression and do it deliberate to exploit women with  the agenda to address the problems of forms violence against women 

Liberal feminism: This type is show how gender socialisation and gender roles are not biological and to change the social idea of putting gender stereotypes on children (blue for boys pink for girls etc.)

Marxist feminism: This type looks at the oppression of women in our capitalist and class system aiming to change the domestic labour of women (women working for freee) and women being a part of making the next generation of labour workers.

Black feminism: This type focuses on the oppression and exploitation of Black and Asian women connecting topics of anti-racism, capitalism and the patriarchy. 

Postmodern Feminism: This type is connected to the third wave feminist, acknowledging the diversity of women and encourages women to be able to combine their experiences which connects to them.

4) Summarise Laura Mulvey's analysis of Hollywood film.

Mulvey states that Hollywood film uses women as objects as they are there for men to look at which is the theory of the male gaze and this is still prevelant in mainstream/Hollywood movies today, and she suggests for this image to change the cinematography and portrayal of women need s to change 

5) What does Jean Kilbourne argue regarding advertising and the impact on women?

Kilbourne states that advertising isn’t selling their products but also selling the norms of society which audiences conform to and in the advertising sphere women are used for their body and this body image ideal is what creates an unrealistic goal of perfection for women unattainable because many are very altered Andy distorted. 

6) Summarise Naomi Wolf's theory of 'The Beauty Myth'.

Wolf’s theory states that beauty is a social construction and applied by the patriarchy, that men in the society create the ideal of what makes a woman beautiful (alters between cultures). Though women have been able to get change such as in voting and workplace harassment claims but the male dominated society oppressed women by making them uphold their beauty more than anything else.

7) List the texts discussed in the section 'feminism and music videos'. Do you believe that the representation of women in music videos can have an impact on how people behave in real life?

• Beyoncé's Run the World, 
• Nineteen percents's feminist response to Run the World 
• Nelly's Tip-drill. 

For these videos, I do think music have an effect on people's behaviour as after Beyonce made 'Run the World' many women covered it or quoted form it and it became popular in pop culture as something to bring empowerment to women; that shows that people became empowered especially those who identified with Beyonce as women showing how music video have an effect on people's behaviour. As many music video's especially in the Black music industry have black women as video vixens in a sexualised way and this has been done for a long time and because of this many people have a perception of black women as overly sexual people reinforcing the idea of the behaviour of people impacting others behaviour and perception.

8) To conclude feminism, do you believe than men and women are basically equal now or is there still a need for feminist movements?

I think there is still a need for feminist movement as it really shouldn't be exclusively to women but to men as well. Also, feminism is still very much predominately for white women as many feminism don't see the issues faced by women of colour and mostly shut them down, making it less inclusive and more exclusive. An example, would be at the recent Academy awards where Emma Ston was accused of white feminism when calling out the names of the directors said "These four men and Greta Gerwig created their own masterpieces this year.", this was highlighted by the social media as her dismissing the struggles faced two male directors of colour Jordan Peele and Guillermo del Toro. This shows that through the digital age we are in now it can be used by others to educate themselves and further bring into conversations about feminism being not as intersectional as many think.