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I think that's a pretty good representation of the differences of emphasis and opinion between 2nd and 3rd wave feminists all over the world. You see these discussions in the US and, to a lesser extent, in the UK.

Interestingly I've never seen the debate in such stark contrast in the rest of europe. Fedela Amara's work in France just seemed to be accepted as a logical evolution of feminism. Her new agenda wasn't contested, however much it embraced 3rd wave perspectives and rejected the boundaries of 2nd.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 07:50:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Helen:
Interestingly I've never seen the debate in such stark contrast in the rest of europe.

Thinking about it, I suspect the divide was not so obvious here before the Feminist Initiative started. Many different feminisms flourished, though generally keeping a common front to the outside (and having the heavy in-fighting out of the wider public).

At the time of the great public in-fight I thought they had made an obvious mistake in setting up the party. As I saw it you either start by declaring a clear direction and let those that concur gather or you start with a big group and see what you agree upon and agree to disagree on the rest. However, I am now leaning towards the conclusion that the involved parties did not realise from the start how much their policy suggestions differed and actually was contradictory. In that case there might not have been much they could agree upon.

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by A swedish kind of death on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 02:01:01 PM EST
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I've often wondered why women assume a commonality of purpose that stretches across boundaries of affluence, culture, colour etc. Men know they share no agenda, women think they do and are shocked and disappointed when they discover that isn't true.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 02:17:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Women had as a group more common interests when being a woman was legal grounds for wide-spread discrimination (property rights, voting rights, lower wages (I do not refer to wages being lower, I mean when lower wage was mandatory, which in Sweden was until the 60ies)).

But that is actually a bit beside the point - or it would have been on point if it was a womens party (which was discuseed in the 90ies and as a result gave higher female representation in elected assemblies) - but this was a party around the feminist ideology. Just turned out there was some huge differences within that ideology.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 04:39:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
but this was a party around the feminist ideology. Just turned out there was some huge differences within that ideology.

Yea, same assumptions about commonalities.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 05:02:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But assumptions of commonalities of feminists, not of women. There was quite a few men among their activists.

So it would be similar to assumption of commonalities among socialists.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Dec 7th, 2008 at 08:14:52 PM EST
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