STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL: ME + THIRD-WAVE FEMINISM by Diandra Oliver B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2004 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS IN GENDER STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA November 2009 © Diandra Oliver, 2009 1*1 Library and Archives Canada Bibliotheque et Archives Canada Published Heritage Branch Direction du Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Your We Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-75130-5 Our file Notre re'fe'rence ISBN: 978-0-494-75130-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a nonexclusive license allowing Library and Archives Canada to reproduce, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, communicate to the public by telecommunication or on the Internet, loan, distribute and sell theses worldwide, for commercial or noncommercial purposes, in microform, paper, electronic and/or any other formats. L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou autres formats. The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. In compliance with the Canadian Privacy Act some supporting forms may have been removed from this thesis. Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la protection de la vie privee, quelques formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included in the document page count, their removal does not represent any loss of content from the thesis. Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. 1+1 Canada ABSTRACT This thesis is an example of what happens when a young feminist from a background in community organizing, zine-ing, crafting, and resistance chooses to go to grad school to pursue her nerdy passion: third-wave feminism. Overarching narratives include making space for third-wave feminism in the academy, struggling with the dichotomous/wave framing of contemporary feminist movements, first voice vs. scientific knowledge, and what theory looks like in practice (because, really, you can't have one without the other). n TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Abstract Table of Contents DIY Craft (Giving thanks) Honouring the ladies page i page n page in page iv page v Standing in the Way of Control1 pagel Get Off the Internet2 page 32 Fuck the Pain Away 3 page 61 You Make Me Want to Crochet?4 page 82 soft shoulders are made for crying, but are your boots made for walking? page 109 I Want to be the Girl with the Most Cake:5 Epilogue and Resource Guide page 120 1 Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control (Columbia Records, 2006). Le Tigre, "Get off the Internet", From the Desk of Mr. Lady (Mr. Lady Records, 2001). 3 Peaches, "Fuck the Pain Away", The Teaches of Peaches (Efa/Caroline Records, 2000). 4 Julie Ruin, "Crochet", Julie Ruin (Kill Rock Stars Records, 1998). Hole, "Doll Parts", Live Through This (Getfen Records, 1994). 2 in MY ©raft This project could never have come to fruition without the incredible support from my family and my community. Extra special thanks go out to Stewart, my mum + ken, the girls of meow records, the rated pg rollergirls, handsome, my incredible committee, and the bestest stitch n bitch a girl could ask for. 1. Pull out your markers or pencil crayons and glitter sticks and colour the award in. 2. Cut along the dotted line to remove the award from the page. 3. If you have the supplies, feel free to laminate said award (this step is optional) 4. Find a pin and attach this medal to yourself on the following occasions: a) When you're in a situation where you're going to have to meet new people. b) When you're feeling really awesome and want to show it c) When you go for dinner with a loved on d) When you are cleaning something really grimy 5. Rinse, Repeat. DEDICATION One of my favourite things about feminism is that we're encouraged to take the time to honour the lovely ladies in our lives who make a difference to our experience and our politics on a daily basis. This project is dedicated to the following women who push feminism forward and make space for the grrrls to come: Jesse, Alex, Jen, Theresa, Laura, Robyn and Karen. V *pH* May 13, 2008 i am beginning to dislike academia and feel like that scene in Juno when McGuff says to dad McGuff, "oh I'm just out dealing with things beyond my maturity level." (that's how i feel being here.) at first i had wanted the output of my MA to be a thesis, and then a anthology-thesis, and then a zine-anthologythesis, or an zine-thesis. i figured that combining a bit of my "street" with a bit of my "academy" might be a good idea, at this current point, at this specific 1:30am writing moment, i really just wish it was a zine through and through, so, i'm going to put it together that way. the next few weeks will be filled with downloading fonts, making photocopies, acquiring the perfect riot grrrl song lyrics, and cutting and pasting my own revolution. (what will a 15,000 word zine even look like?) i am going to chronicle my process of putting this "thing" together (we'll decide at the end what to call it) right here in these dear diary entries. They're like my progr/cess reports. They will be my guide post and tall tale letting you in on how i achieve(d) a third-wave zine/thesis/document in the academy.* that is, if they accept it <3 -fai (mf » » » » w h e r e I enter and why this isn't your same ol' t h e s i s < « « « « Much like glorified superhero stories, feminist coming-of-age stories follow the same lines of disillusionment, war within oneself, and the overcoming of the dark forces in our lives (adversities, oppressions, that feeling you just don't fit). Through this kryptonite and spandex-cluttered bildungsroman I would've hoped to have achieved either 1) a greater end where the world is safer because of my intervention or 2) this harried world of disaster and discouragement where no matter how hard I try I will end up in the spoils of ruin rather than the arena of feminist accomplishment. Where my feminist coming-of-age story falls is TBD. I'd like to guess it would fall somewhere in this superwoman outcome (rather than complete failure): my youthful inexperience provides a ETA: This is an updated version of the initial thesis proposal I actually submitted to my supervising committee. Let it be told that it wasn't my first proposal completed and is an amalgamation of about three or four drafts. It's hard to get to a proposal when you're unsure of what you're proposing and you don't have the language to say what you want to say. It has been modified to make it a bit more readable and to reflect a bit more of the comfort I have in talking about the subject(s) at hand. lack of self-confidence in my ability to achieve a greater end while my feminist-self assurance and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic knows I am capable of overcoming (and mastering) any disaster strewn in my way. To date I've collected a variety of personal experiences and text-based arguments from in and out of the academy that affirm the importance of story telling 4 and the sharing of these experiences when encouraging and inspiring others to stand up, create change, and make their worlds more habitable places. We're more ready to listen to someone when we know where they've come from. It some how validates our experience of them to know, even tertiarially, that they *really* experienced life and we can trust them to say something about it, rather than just relying on textual expositions about "them". Because I intend a laundry list of accomplishments with this thesis, I want to share my feminist coming-of-age story to two ends. First! I do come at this thesis and this project after an incredible amount of research, reading, and discussion, but I don't come to graduate work in gender 1. respelling of the word "girl", connoting aggression, studies because of it. I chose this strength, self-confidence, educational adventure because I am a etc., and rejecting the feminist, a third waver at that, and I connotations of weakness, wanted to do this work because of my meekness, prissiness, etc., usually associated with that feministy-adventuring spirit. I love riot-grrrl word; 2. (Internet) female culture, books about ladies, and nerdy Internet user who is up-todate with the latest, coolest diatribes about birth control: I love the things (blend of "girFmVsi power of collective voices for change, the representation of a growl "grrr") movement, resistance. I chose this project because the content, the context, the output is who I am intrinsically. I am providing a glimpse of how I got here and WHY? I'd ever want to be here as an act of "framing the argument". Second! Sharing my story is the basic Lit Review of this 5 said thesis. As a third-wave feminist document, this thesis attempts to challenge the idea of what is academic enough, or proper enough, to be printed inside the pages of a thesis. By placing my story first and foremost at the beginning of this text I am arguing that my experience, my "First Voice", is just as important, or more important, than the required lit review. This doesn't mean, however, that I didn't do my research: I emerged myself in third-wave texts, consuming them with an utmost fervor, and relied on them to "back me up". Because I see myself so much as part of this "movement" and read myself into their pages, this thesis is my opportunity to give back and give them more of a voice in the academy.6 My feminist coming of age story has a handful of starting points. I grew up in Terrace, BC, and whether it was my mom's volunteer projects with the Terrace Women's Resource Centre or my independent-grandma role models, I'm sure that I was inspired by feminism before I was in Junior High. When I started Grade Eight (1995) I defined myself with the cultural underground at my school. I began to dye my hair different colours and listened to Hole and Bikini Kill and Bratmobile and Eric's Trip. I knew skateboarders, drug dealers, and guys older than me that wore leather jackets, had long stringy hair, and shook while they smoked cigarettes: and they were only 19. One of my new high school friends, sick girl id, and I would wear riot grrl bandaids on our faces and wax angsty about Daniel Johns. We started zines and bands. Wrote bad (terrible) poetry. And read it to each other in class. Passed typed notes in the halls, crushed on the unliked beatnik teachers (the ones 6 Most of these texts are discussed throughout this thesis but can also be found in the epilogue/resource guide. 6 who expected more of us than anyone). In the moment I don't remember struggling with my feminism or what feminism meant to me. I felt that I was living it and despite being harassed and being called a lesbian in the hallways at school7, I persevered. I graduated high school and moved on. I kept going with the zine-making, took up DIY/crafting, and organized like a feminist-machine. I was lucky and privileged (the first one in my family!) to go to a Real University, where I was encouraged by my family to develop my brain and continuously discussed with them that this education wasn't just about getting a "job". I joined the women's centre on campus, participated in feminist activities, and contributed as much as I could to "the movement". My small-town eyes and heart got to meet people from all ends and points along the selfidentification spectrum: people in gender transition, radical feminists, radio-show hosts, Jewish lesbians, slutty union organizers, cute boys who missed Hazelton but still felt dedicated to their hometowns, sex theorists, and post-modernist academics. And then one of my cohorts from the women's centre who was taking a feminist political science class lent me her copy of Manifesta and my whole world changed. Within months I had begun to devour any piece of art, text, music, tv, cinema, food, live show, friend, interwebs, piece of clothing, craft, etc that reflected the ideas and culture the third-wave feminist movement. And everything fell into place: my politics "finally* fit somewhere and my day-to-day actions began to feel more 7 Note-1 don't take issue with being called a Lesbian, what I'm taking issue with is the fact that highschool is not really a hospitable place for a young feminist AND the conflation of feminism with being a lesbian It feels so elementary, and I guess that's where my highschool experience stoodtattle-tailing and joke-making 7 political. I spoke more fiercely about issues and challenged myself on a daily basis, taking charge of what I wanted and needed to thrive as a young, third-wave feminist. After a stint teaching English in Japan8 in hopes of paying off my ever-mounting student loans, I was back in Terrace, culture-shocked out, starting my own online shop, working in the transition house, and crafting on an almost minute-by-minute basis. Then all of a sudden my brand-new partner and I were packing our car, I was applying for my MA, and we were en route to PG to set up camp for two years for me to do my geeky third-wave masters. This thesis is the culmination of my third-wave coming of age story. Throughout this text, the Shania story9 of my feminism is in constant conflict with myself, the movement, the community, the theory, and "the man". This is an exploratory text; each word is an attempt to try something new, make a new model, and try out the established third-wave movement in a new environment: the academy, ((((here I'm going to be cliche'd ->))))) In the words of the famous Canadian, Marshall McLuhan, the medium is the message, and I challenge you to take note and let this format in. 8 Where I could never actually justify the colonization of the English language, even if I worked for a private Japanese eikaiwa For me, teaching English "abroad" is a classically colonialist thing to do, but such a fall back crutch for many Especially when I applied for jobs for 6 months post-University and could only get a job at Starbucks For stats on the number of ESL teachers in Japan under the JET Programme go to http //www mofa go jp/j info/visit/jet/participants pdf This doesn't include many of the private companies like NOVA and Peppy Kids Club, but is an indication of the #s 9 For more information on the "Shania Story" please see l<3huckabees, David 0. Russel (Dir), Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2004 8 I am a third-wave feminist. There, I've said it. Defining the third wave and even third-wave feminists is definitely a task not complete without a healthy dosage of stereotype about women/feminists/youth, but also somehow demands that the third wave and its pursuits to be dismissive, contradictory, and difficult to define. Like other social movements, the third wave is defined by its membership... but even There's lots of binarysounding talk in here., it's my intention to work away from the binary but it's like I have to rely on binaries (either of my creation or not...) to define what the third wave of feminism is...even when I'm referring to myself. My friend today said, "I want to get out of this oppression but have to use your language" or something like that...meaning to me that I want to work beyond the oppression but the only tool I have is the language I'm oppressed by. more so its membership is not necessarily defined by the movement. The third wave dabbles in culture and politics offered from the legions of Feminists, texts, and cultural products that come from previous "waves", as well as the same from other social movements. The third wave does not rely solely on one previous theoretical or practical framework but also explores interests from a variety of spectrums that any third-wave feminist would choose for themselves. For example, a variety of third-wave voices engage in anti-colonialist action, reproductive justice, antiglobalization movements, lipstick feminism, and "street" or "youth" culture (just to name a few). By engaging in such a variety of methods and pedagological or theoretical bases, third wavers intend to give back to the feminist movements or "waves" that this wave relies on for guidance and inspiration. I believe that third-wave feminism exists along a continuum of feminist experience, actions, and ideas. The third wave, second wave, or even first wave are 9 all specific cultural and theoretical areas of feminism that exist along this continuum, not in separate vacuums. In this case, the third wave has emerged as "part culture, part cause,"10 and has not been an easily identifiable movement. Even pinning it down as a specific generational wave proves nearly impossible when faced with such vast multiplicities. My thesis is not a project in dispelling the waves myth or to argue "for" third-wave feminism in this opposition (meaning I'm not arguing that the third-wave is a "better" wave than the second or first); rather I have tried to work away from juxtaposing my theory against that of the "mothers", as well as avoided pitting the waves against each other.11 This is a project that stays in the grey zones, in the contradictions. Michelle Miller, in her text Branding Miss G_: Third Wave Feminism and the Media, the most recent academic text theorizing the third wave in Canada, suggests that the point of critical inquiry is to push academics and feminists further into the discomfort caused by the grey zones as it facilitates greater reflection.12 She also argues that the third wave could ally itself both as feminist and academic with the belief in "the third-wave backlash" and the notion of a "joyless" second wave feminism is problematic academically and politically: third wave feminists can't be picking sides along the binaries.13 Throughout this text I attempt to explore the complexities in the argument that the third wave is some 10 Deborah L. Siegel, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007): 14. 11 Sometimes, though, to maintain the complexity of the third-wave argument and experience 1 utlize texts/voices that engage with the dichotomy of mothers and daughters. This is mainly because I want to push and challenge this framing as much as possible but still acknowledge that much of the thirdwave has relied on this conflict and continues to. 12 Michelle Miller, Branding Miss G_: Third Wave Feminists and the Media (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2008), 34 13 Miller, 21. 10 younger, prettier answer to the oppression of the second wave.14 Sometimes the argument is riddled with the self-exclusion of the third wave from the rest of the continuum and/or other times the response looks different in a myriad of ways (celebrating the togetherness of feminism(s), relying on certain tenets of other waves to provide a mirror to the third, etc). The uneasiness is part of the thesis. The third wave is also not concerned with being considered or appearing legitimate (or in this case, entirely "academic"). An aspect of typical third-wave feminist texts is the way that these texts assert their "illegitimacy" by compiling a variety of voices or a lack of sources on a topic to create an anthology, zine, or a blog: these texts reflect who the writer is and what they do/believe/see, not what they've studied or what people have studied and said about them. I wanted to complete this thesis in a third-wave format because if my intention is to write a thesis about third-wave feminism then the theory has to be the practice. Oftentimes women's studies/equality studies/gender studies departments and students get trapped in the expected format in academia. Our words get skewed and our intentions are just to produce information for the system even if we do something ground breaking. Third-wave feminism and feminists are so few and far between in graduate school because graduate academia is an inhospitable place. My experience of "graduate school" is that it's the place where I have been trained to be an adult, to be an academic, and we all know that kids need not apply. 14 This argument is puritanical in approach in "young feminist" texts like Katie Roiphe's the Morning After Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus (Boston- little, Brown and Company, 1993) Similar but less "damning" arguments are made in Manifesta (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000) when discussing "Girlie" representations in the third wave, and are also dispelled in Astrid Henry's Not My Mother's Sister Full citations can be found in the bibliography. 11 My main interest, third-wave feminism, continues to exist as an academic subculture. Similarly, women's studies, youth studies, and subculture studies are all marginalized in the academy. And, I am youth! I identify with youth-driven subcultures and experience-based projects and world-views. Sunaina Maira and Elisabeth Soep argued, "too often, the field of youth culture studies is itself taken as the epistemological folk devil of academic knowledge production."15 Kathy Bail argues that academic feminisms also disregard young feminisms and girlhood. This leaves our studies and interests couched in other disciplines like "youth studies" and "girl studies", and third-wave feminism is used as a contextual piece rather than the actual content.16 This thesis makes effort to carve out a place for these studies and work to be done by third-wave feminists in the academy.17 Another reason I wanted to put together a third-wave feminist text was because I wanted to play with "anthology" as a tool that deconstructs hegemonies. The anthology is a textual form that undermines power, patriarchy, and academic hegemony for a couple of reasons: 1. Anthologies, by bringing together more than one voice, illustrates that more voices are better than one; and, 2. Feminist anthologies create space for women to gather together a text with multiple voices that discuss and argue against patriarchy and the experience of oppression under 15 Sunaina Maira and Elisabeth Soep, "United States of Adolescence'' Reconsidering US youth culture studies," Young- Nordic Journal of Youth Research 12(3), 2004 248 16 The majority of essays/books (academic) used in my research fall under this category 17 As a side note, I am arguing that third-wave exists as a somewhat age specific category It is a movement so tied to youth-culture that those who choose to participate might sometimes "age" out I am also arguing that youth need to be given space to write about themselves and their ideas in the moment I think that "adults" lose some credibility to write of "youth" they don't identify with and should default and give youth their voice (I say this knowing that I am an "older" youth and believe that I am already losing touch) 12 patriarchy. Often third-wave texts are anthologies because this format offers the writer(s) and the reader(s) the opportunity to hear a variety of voices and concerns so that they, the reader, can determine the outcome.18 Because third-wave feminism, in general, eschews legitimacy and idea ownership, many of the movement's texts are anthologies.19 These anthologies often include introductions from the editor(s) but then quickly suggest that the reader and the writer(s) rely on the various entries to prove the thesis rather than the edited introduction.20 This thesis obviously isn't a true anthology (only one author!) but it pulls some themes and ways of knowing and doing from the anthology model. I like the idea of a text that plays with the expected anthology-structure, but also utilizes aspects from the dominant academic culture and knowledge system in ways that are fresh, challenging, and questioning in nature. This means that the traditional academic method is necessary and expected for any sort of graduate project; but confusing, unexpected, or "illegitimate" sources, paired with First Voice,21 and DIY aesthetic attempts to holds the majority in this project. These multiple voices/methodoligies are trying to say something big, even if the project is trying to be "thesis" free. This often also happens with third-wave feminist cultural artifacts such as the Chicks on Speed 2006 compilation, Girl Monster, which compiles a number of "girl monster" musicians (including le tigre, siouxie sioux, the slits, and cobra killer) as a way of honouring the "girl monster" pastiche 19 Previous "waves" also used Anthology to collect women's voices together A great example of this is Gloria Anzaldua and Cherne Moraga's text This Bridge Called My Back (Brooklyn Kitchen TableWomen of Color Press, 1983) 20 A specific example of this is in Turbo Chicks Talking Young Feminisms where the editors do not give specific direction in terms of the way that the text "turned out" and what they had hoped for it They reiterated often re letting the text speak for itself. Mitchell, Allyson, Lisa Bryn Rundle, and Lara Karaian (eds), Turbo Chicks- Talking Young Feminisms (Toronto- Sumach Press, 2002) 21 See Resource Guide for specific definition Fyre Jean Graveline, Circle Works- Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness (Halifax, NS Fernwood Publishing, 1998) 13 »Bring on the Third Wave I am an embodiment of third-wave feminism and this thesis is the documentation of the act of putting [my] third-wave experience on paper in an academic setting. Like Feminists before me, I am putting myself (my politics, my art, my theory, my feminism) on the page.22 But engaging in this work in a third-wave fashion/method is the crux of my challenge, and thus my thesis has tried to use the method/format/argument of a zine to embody and argue for, at every level, a thirdwave voice, look, and persona. Zines are the epitome of a third-wave textual and visual method. First utilized politically by American Punk communities in the form of fanzines,23 the zine as political and cultural product has been adopted by some young feminists as a product of expression or a consumer item and community building tool. Zines are noncommercial, small-circulation publications that are produced and distributed by the creators and are considered a "crucial third-wave feminist tool for activism and expression."24 They are a perfect working example of a girl-driven strategy for empowerment.25 Typically a zine is a photocopied, cut-and-paste text that allows the creator her own space for somewhat anonymous publishing and political voice. Kristen Schilt even argues that for many young women zines may be the only outlet 22 Historically speaking, feminist methodology is known for its strength in insisting that a woman's (and person's) lived experience must exist on the page, not simply a masculine knowledge (which is positioned as a "professionahzation" of knowledge or a specific ownership of thoughts 23 Though Amy Spencer suggests that the original form was from science fiction fan groups 24 Amy Spencer, DIY- The Rise ofLo-Fi Culture (London- Marion Bowers, 2005) 13, Mimi Mannucci, "Television, Generation X, and Third Wave Feminism A Contextual Analysis of the Brady Bunch" Journal of Popular Culture (February 2005) • 374 25 Kristen Schilt, "Til Resist With Every Breath'- Girls and Zine Making as a Form of Resistance", Youth & Society, 35 (1), 2003 79 14 available to them in terms of building community, speaking out, and staying safe. Presenting this kind of thesis to the academy has been a lot different than creating a zine on/for the streets. I have had different challenges,27 and while options and opportunities have been available, a sense of compromise throughout the process was always hanging in the air. I worried if the physical format of the thesis as a zine is unacceptable from the minute I submitted it to the Graduate Studies department..((((I guess if you're reading this in its defended, published, in the-library-form then it's made it through)))) because it doesn't follow the formatting guidelines subscribed by the academy/University? Do I change the format, reform it all back into single-sided 12pt timesnewromanisgross just so I can close this chapter of my life up and finish my degree? At my most foundational, theoretical and ethical level, changing the format of this thesis-beast would change the entire purpose for this project. The text/thesis and progress/attempt of my graduate work is to create space for third-wave DIY cultures and zines in the academy. They/zines are a punk and third-wave method and zine making is an accessible activist tool. Mimi Marinucci writes, "it is important to recognize that virtually anyone can publish a zine, and there is no mechanism in place to control content or credentials,"28 meaning anyone can utilize it, even academics. By using a zine format I have created a document that argues that hegemonic systems must pay attention to the formats that youth use, rather than reaffirming a negative relationship with these formats/ideas and maintaining an atmosphere to rebel against. 26 Schilt, 71-97. Such as this project's needing to be approved I cannot just go out and do it. 28 Marinucci, 376. 27 15 Last, by attempting doing this work as a zine I tried to establish a space for zine as a textual model of the third-wave in the academy and thus position my text directly in a subjective and narrative-based space. Maranucci argues that regardless of the appearance of a narrative, zines always offer insight into the subjectivity of those who control their content.29 Zines make no attempt at objectivity, and I want this thesis in zine format to make it clear and final that I am not be making an attempt at objectivity either. Unfortunately though, at the end of the road, creating a third-wave feminist zine for the academy feels like a joke and I'm the last one to get it. Technologically and physically speaking, attempting to make an academic zine has pretty much been a nightmare. The process of putting together the text for committee approval, sans images, text boxes, and the like, seems like a much tireless option, as including these things (images, text boxes, etc) has been a head ache for me. The copy you're reading all bound and single-sided in a University Library is a very different looking text than I intended. A geographical move for myself and the need to rely on computers to transmit addendums and changes between committee and self has definitely gotten in the way of "the zine". First, the computer-based images + tracking changes honestly crashes my computer every time. So, out of attempting to maintain a bit of peace and love in my life I have removed the majority of the images from the digital text. This way pages will load, I can email it to my committee without many difficulties, and I can get it printed at the University's copy centre via PDF: things I never really considered luxuries. 29 Marinucci, 375 16 The act of scissor/glue to this thesis to transform it into a zine is also a challenge. It is seemingly impossible to put together this text (as I did for my defense) and then make changes to it. If I had the opportunity to do this project over, or had hindsight at my disposal back in 2007 I would have chosen to submit the zine as more of an addendum, fine-arts, creative writing piece: as a true zine. I would have then compiled a shorter, "theoretical" essay to preface the zine, situate my work, and explain the importance of the "zine" to the "movement". But at that time presenting an amalgamated text, a third-wave academic text, the risky option, was what I wanted to do and this is me trying to follow through. I wanted to submit an amalgamated and challenging text because, for me, I felt that I would be contributing an act of resistance and suggestion for change to an academic institution/structure or experience. Making space for this challenge is critical because if I believe that because the current academic system is inhospitable to alt-anything then it's my duty as a person, academic, and feminist to infiltrate and disseminate as much as I can. A pretty obvious line of attack would've been to use this thesis to work with/against the binary system seen in our everyday activities and interactions with Patriarchy: I could've grappled with dualities and oppositions, pitting things against one another to find a site of confluence/conflict On the other hand, if I had strictly intended to follow the established binary structure to create change, I could have used my energy to work to do the exact opposite of a graduate studies thesis30 but would have recreated the same sense of oppression through the use of as in get the fuck out and not even attempt this project. 17 an opposition stance. By choosing to create this zine, somewhere on the spectrum between acceptance and total denial (or anarchy), I am trying to play with the hegemonic code, rather than just defying it. By working with the established model, challenging it, and recreating it into a zine or general representation of my third-wave feminism I am trying to make the thesis as "academic rule" work with my third-wave feminism. One part of academia that I have readily implemented in this thesis especially as a challenge to the expected structure is my adoration of theory32 and my honest attempts to wrestle with it. So, while I want to "destroy the system!" and "stick it to the man!", I also include geeky explorations of the theoretical constructions that I adore. This thesis is a compliation of essays that reflect my attempts to grasp "high" theory, but also my ability and desire to make it accessible (beyond the two copies in the library) and reflect me. Because third-wave feminism is most often concerned with personal choice as paramount and the celebration of conflicting theoretical areas, determining specific third-wave feminisms—like a movement/cultural/political/theoretical definition—is difficult, but a challenge I have tried to embrace. I consider third-wave feminism as a number of points along the feminist continuum, and throughout the zine build a background for third-wave feminism based on the work of other third-wave feminist writers. So often I feel that third-wave feminists (speaking with my third-wave hat 31 Such as the work of Andrea Dworkin or even third-wave theorists Astrid Henry and Kathy Bail who have pitted third wavers against their feminist "mothers". This, though, does not make them illegitimate sources. 32 such as cyborg theory, historiography, and genderfuck 18 on, I do mean mainly myself) attempt to totally ignore related theory. This could be because the theoretical aspects that were relied on by previous feminisms have created a measuring stick by which third-wave feminists are deemed as "not feminist enough" or not the "right" kind of feminist.33 In her book, DIY Feminism, Kathy Bail argues that the rigid forms feminist theory has created in the past has created the common perception of feminism as something you're expected to learn, not something you start out as having, being, or believing in.34 Continuing, she argues that the mass reliance on a text-based feminism has ignored the DIY feminism (the third wave) and those women who "want to be proactive and test out what they can do." By completely disregarding the hegemonic theory, as texts like DIY Feminism encourage us to do, we fall into the trap of oppositional feminism. And, as previously discussed, that is not something that I intended for this project.35 Also, not engaging in theory because "that is what our feminist mothers did" is a cop out. Third-wave feminists need to continue to embrace feminist history, sisters/brothers/others, culture, inspirations, politics, and movement and work together to maintain this motion of monumental change. 33 When, HELLOi There is no "right" kind of feminist...there are many different wonderful feminists/isms. 34 Kathy Bail, DIY Feminism (St. Leonards, Australia' Allen & Unwin, 1996): 7. 35 Bail, 8. Emphasis author's own. Confusingly, Bail only names women in this situation and does not consider the masculine role in DIY Feminism, or the ability to compose these outlooks as not gender specific 19 » T h e Third Wave and Difference I feel like I need to tell you I know this thesis sounds and is probably very "white" and even sitting down to write this section after MONTHS of consideration, I still don't know where to start. I'm worried that I won't get it (or any of it) right and am tentative about my ability to even wrestle with ideas like difference and race and how they are impacted by/impact third-wave feminism. I'm also nervous about tackling these issues and areas of inquiry while still being succinct and not pushing this section straight into another MA sized project, because, really, talking about difference/race and third wave is a monumental task and project (and deserves to be taken on as such)! But, if I'm going to try and complicate third wave and academic discussions about feminism, "youth" culture, and difference then of course a discussion must be included and woven in: so here I go! In this section I have a handful of smaller goals that will work together, in a complicated manner, to meet this goal: in the creation of space for third-wave feminism in the academy then that space must also include discussion of the complexity of difference as it relates with the third-wave. I will work to complicate the following: 1. How does the third wave explore, define, and advocate for/as difference? 2. What does the inclusion of difference and the third wave look like considering that the academy is a focal point for white feminism. 3. How, then, do white, privileged, academic feminists explore issues of 20 difference without repeating common exclusionary activities. 4. What could third-wave inclusion actually look like?36 These are lofty goals for a short section, but with feminist blogs, the small handful of third-wave texts on difference, and with guidance from Jessica Yee, I believe I can tackle this. Third wavers don't always recall previous feminisms as not-inclusiveenough. The third wave has its roots in the discussion of difference and in the continuation of monumental second wave texts that represent and are the voices of women of difference. In fact, the presence given to white-feminist writers combined with "the popular media's seeming inability to acknowledge feminism as anything other than a white middle-class movement has created a fairly whitewashed representation of the third wave."37 The third wave is a movement born out of the voice of difference and to give it credence as anything different puts the spotlight back on women of privilege. Still, third wavers, as they push up against this continued white-washing of feminism in North American media, sometimes recall previous feminisms as not inclusive enough. Most recently in response to a Newsweek article that showcased the "face" of feminism as primarily white and privileged, feminist bloggers responded by saying that "Young feminists are trying not to make the same mistake that some Second Wave white feminists made of being blind to race issues." And that although "there are millions of bad-ass feminists of color, and am I actually able to do it in this thesis 7 Ibid, 163. 21 many women of color do feel marginalized by feminism" because articles by and about feminist/ism(s) continue to marginalize and ignore women of difference.38 Basically, Nona is arguing that just because North American media continues to white wash feminism and leave women of difference out doesn't mean that young feminists are "blind" to race issues like the Second Wave.39 Even if the third wave roots in the activism of women of difference, responses like this see the work of the Second Wave in the continued white washing of young feminisms. Which isn't necessarily the case for everyone, but definitely a perception that young feminists are bumping up against and fueling. As positioned in Not My Mother's Sister, Colonize This!, and other feminist texts, the third wave shares a long history of oppression and resistance with previous feminism(s) and within the third wave, but ultimately seek feminist connection and community with other feminists who "get" or experience difference.40 But not all of the third wave does this, which can be frustrating because then the third wave continues to have a white-washed face, but also represents a multi-faceted politic that the third wave attains for: a "feminism [that] lies where other people don't expect it to".41 For the Third Wave Foundation, and other feminists (as discussed in Colonize This! and Turbo Chicks), being named as a feminist or naming oneself and one's actions as feminist or third-wave isn't necessarily a solution or a point of 38 Nona Willis Aronowitz. "What's Wrong With This Feminist Picture?", Girl Drive (http //www.girldnve com/2010/03/whats-wrong-with-this-feminist-picture/) 39 Even though other bloggers and feminists (like Jessica Yee) would say that the third wave is 40 Rehman and Hernandez, xxi 41 Ibid, xxin 22 departure, which further complicates the relationship between feminists of difference with capital "F" feminism and the third wave. For example, the Third Wave Foundation works to provide grants and support to leveraging the youth-run work that gives power to the difference, even if these organizations don't call themselves feminist, because to the Third Wave Foundation these organizations and youth do work that is Feminist and should be supported.42 So, then, the third wave identifies its politics of difference in places that are unexpected and usually not named (and thus considered) as capital "F" feminist nor academic. The challenge is then not how do we make third wave politics of difference fit into the academy, but that the academy needs to and must create spaces that welcome and encourage these voices if we are going to even hope at inclusion. Third wave texts and voices of difference (and other feminist voices of difference) are quicker and stronger in dismissing the academy and white feminists/isms than I am. Jessica Yee,43 an inspiration for me and my feminism, consistently reminds me and other third wavers that feminism is not recognizable solely in the academy and should be taken to the streets. As well, feminism is already on the streets, and it's time for the academy to recognize and celebrate that feminism. When embarking on this section I asked Jessica which texts and frameworks she would recommend to build an argument and space for third wave 42 Mia Herndon speaking at Barnard Centre for Research on Women Captured in the New Feminist Activism podcast from the Barnard Centre for Research on Women (September 16, 2009- available for free via iTunes and httpV/www barnard.edu/bcrw/archives.htm#podcasts) ^ To read recent commentary from Jess check out her guest blogging for Bitch httpV/bitchmagazineorg/post/fyi-world-intersectional-feminism-isnt-necessarily-anti-racist 23 feminists of difference in the academy. A text she suggested was one she was re-reading at the moment, Aileen Moreton-Robinson's Talkin' Up To the White Woman: Aboriginal Women and Feminism. While this text is not a third-wave feminist text, it is a compelling critique of Feminism and its discontents, and fits alongside a handful of other texts that examine and challenge capital "F" feminism.44 In Talkin' Up To the White Woman, Moreton-Robinson argues that "the middle-class white feminist academics, who advocate an anti-racist practice, unconsciously and consciously exercise their race privilege" by placing the experiences of middle-class white women at the centre of their texts and teachings.45 Thus follows practice that the feminist academics Moreton-Robinson writes about do discuss difference but in place of the "other" or "difference" and do not interrogate their whiteness. She further argues that by making "whiteness" invisible, privilege is normalized and naturalized while appearing to be culturally and racially neutral.46 And with this racial "neutrality" white feminists/academics exercise their race privilege "to make choices about how and when they engage with, have an awareness of, or ignore the cultural differences of 'Others'".47 In essence, and to relate these arguments to my thesis, by including discussions about "difference" as something separate or not integrated into my text I fall into this trapping and am "Othering", and by also not discussing instances of my white 44 A Canadian example of a similar text is Grace J.M W Ouellette's The Fourth World An Indigenous Perspective on Feminism and Aboriginal Women's Activism, Basics from Fernwood Publishing (Halifax Fernwood Publishing, 2002) 45 Aileen Moreton-Robinson, "Talkin' Up To the White Woman1 Aboriginal Women and Feminism" (St Lucia, Queensland- University of Queensland Press, 2000) 127 46 Ibid, 133-134 47 Ibid, 141. 24 privilege I am continuing to portray third-wave feminist space (and the content in my thesis) as racially neutral space, also a product of my white privilege. While this framing was never my intention and actually something I set out to work against, I'm left wondering how, then, do white, privileged, academic feminists (including myself) explore issues of difference without repeating common exclusionary activities? Moreton-Robinson concludes her work by suggesting that to "put a politics of difference into practice will require more than including Indigenous women in Australian feminism and allowing us to speak. It requires white race privilege to be owned and challenged by feminist engaged in anti-racist pedagogy and politics."48 Other strategies have been suggested in a handful of third wave texts. For example, in Not My Mother's Sister, Henry discusses mixed responses to both the Anita Hill case and feminist writing about black women, concluding that others have "tried to speak for black women but have done so only to further their own agendas" and had fueled a response from the African Women in Defense of Ourselves that "no one will speak for us but ourselves".49 Or, as Hernandez and Rehman suggest in Colonize This!, "we needed another woman of colour writing".50 Or as solidified in the anthology YELL-oh Girls!, by putting together a collection of Asian American teen girl voices, the editors and the girls are able to create a collective identity, voice, vision, and response to North American culture and society as they experience it and give back to it. By having an anthology that 48 Ibid, 149. " Henry, 162. 50 Hernandez and Rehman, xxiv. 4 25 they can call their own, "this anthology will be a lasting resource claiming a spot on our bookshelves that will serve as a reminder that we are not invisible, we are not alone."51 So, not only does the Academy and capital "F" feminism have to make space for these voices, but white middle-class feminist academics must also begin to or continue to interrogate our own whiteness and privilege: opening ourselves up to be challenged. And this, argues Jessica Yee, is something that third wavers, the academy, and feminists aren't doing. We may be engaging in intersectionality, but "things have been really fucked up, are still really fucked up, but most importantly that I don't have to keep swallowing the pill of "understanding" why they remain that way in many instances."52 Meaning, "we're working on it" and "well, they're white, what do you expect?" just isn't good enough: stop making excuses and do it. For me, this is the centre point of the third wave, DIY ethic, and takes the discussion out of bureaucratic feminist structures (or as Jess and other third wave writers suggest, out of the academy). Considering I'm working in the academy to try and bridge the perceived gaps between the "street" and the "tower", a combination of the above solutions is where I'm trying to fit my thesis, hopefully as part of the solution. My task list then includes the two main tasks of interrogating my whiteness as well as making space for the feminist voices of difference, both of which are a right challenge. 51 Vickie Nam, "Introduction" in YELL-oh Girls' Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American (New York1 HarperCollins, 2001) xxxi 52 Jessica Yee, "Feminist Intersection Contemporary Feminism isn't necessarily anti-racist" as on the Bitch blog (http //bitchmagazme org/post/fyi-world-intersectional-femmism-isnt-necessarily-anti-racist). March 30, 2010 26 To interrogate my whiteness is to question it formally and open myself and my work up for the criticism and the challenge. As I opened this section, I'm aware this thesis is a pretty white thesis, and I am a pretty white person. Despite my ethnic pluralities, I definitely pass as white and have often been afforded privilege because of my racialized appearance. In this thesis this is reflected in the topics I choose to write about, the communities I engage with on paper, and my initial (and sometimes still) white-washing or generalizing of third-wave voice/culture/feminism as my voice, my experience: the white voice, the white experience. In instances I've also gravitated towards the privileged arguments of others53 and have adopted them as my own, probably because they're most comfortable for me, and voices/arguments I readily access through my white privilege. For me, though, a solution to this isn't so much to hunt out examples of "Other" or "differentiated" feminism(s)/ists or third-wave feminists of colour, etc., because I agree with Moreton-Robinson that by doing so I am exercising my privilege to choose which "differences" I am highlighting. And, I want to honour the foundations of third-wave feminism as a feminism that engages/d as a feminism of "difference" from the get-go, meaning I can't assume that just because the topics/interests/contexts I discuss are all white because they reflect me, or are coming from my voice. It would be preposterous and pretentious of me to believe that just because I'm interested in roller derby or knitting and because 53 Here I'm not using others to mean the "Other", but the other people/writers/artists, all of them, that I write about in this thesis. 27 I'm white means that only white third-wave feminists are interested in these things. What I've tried to do is to remove and complicate the generalizations I've made via my privilege through this thesis by complicating sentences and providing more nuance to situations/voice. Admittedly sometimes I do slip and continue to rely on hegemonic structure/totalities, but rather than eradicate them completely, I want some to remain to reflect the growth of my voice and the difficulty I faced in actually creating this text. I know I didn't get it right all the time, and that isn't my goal (mastery), but exploration and complication and grey-zone uneasiness as the intended target. I may have not created space for "Other" voices, but this thesis follows third-wave practice by positioning my experience first (albeit complicating my experience) not because it's "more important" but to create space where I'm not speaking for "Others" and "their" experience by appropriating their voice(s) and experience(s) to make my text feel more "inclusive" and "safer" or to prove that I'm "not racist" or don't participate in the further oppression of feminists/women/people other than myself. »»»»From the Source»»»» Going into research for this project—beyond the personal anecdotal stuff—I was at war with myself and my previous experiences in the academy: all sources must be scholarly, peer-reviewed, and preferably not "public" or open source (ie., Wikipedia). The internal conflict I had over using song lyrics, vegan cookbooks, and third-wave porn DVDs as equally important and significant sources to "high-theory" and 28 academically sanctioned texts has been remedied, somewhat. As detailed in my bibliography, the sources I have used to support this project engage texts from across the binaried continuum from the academy to the street. I have used USbased academic texts such as Leslie Heywood & Jennifer Drake's Third Wave Agenda, Canadian-based third-wave texts such as Turbo Chicks and Branding Miss G_, and have in essence amassed a library-sized collection of third-wave academic texts. I have also engaged with non-academic texts that may or may not have actually integrated academically into this thesis: Bitch magazine, Bust magazine, knitting patterns by Vicki Howell, lyrics by artists such as Bikini Kill, tattoo work by Kat Von D, and music videos by M.I.A. I think that in this text I have found a balance between academic rigor and third-wave authenticity that has hinged on balancing a variety of sources. I have worked to build an in-depth account of third-wave voice and text in both the academy and out. Sometimes finding appropriate third-wave feminist sources from the academy has been a right challenge, particularly because young women and feminists are invisible in popular feminist and scholarly discourse.54 Also, youth studies, women's studies, and third-wave feminism have been similarly marginalized in the academy, making finding academic sources on these subjects difficult, though not impossible. Maira and Soep suggest that youth subculture identities have caught the attention of US-based researchers,55 and sources that look at generational feminisms, punk rock, zine culture, sexuality, boredom, girlhood, grrrl power, underground music, and skateboarding are easily Miller, 15. Maira and Soep, 252. 29 found when looking specifically at the United States. But when I attempt to bring Canada into the equation it is a bit of a tougher sell: alongside a small handful of third-wave academic texts, I become the Canadian product. > » l Know I'm a Narcissist, But...»> Sarcastically speaking, third-wave feminists are notoriously known for being self-centered and narcissistic: we only care about our individual rights and do not think about feminism as a whole or even work to energy to advance the "rights of women". Whether obvious or not, this is not the experience as documented in thirdwave feminist texts.56 Any time a third-wave feminist text or cultural product is "published" it is also for something beyond oneself. I mean, you do want someone else to read it and hopefully be inspired and moved to activism by it. My anthology is pretty self-centric. The introduction explains why I am doing this project my way and the essays all include experiential material about me. But it is not just all about me. I believe this project has social and academic implications beyond myself. First, if all is allowed, as far as I know my thesis will be the first one of its kind at the University of Northern British Columbia, as it is without a hegemonic thesis statement/thesis layout.57 This thesis does not fall in the realm of a project, as mentioned, and is essentially "thesis"-less. Second, I believe my thesis will be a working model of a type or kind of third-wave feminist text.58 It offers an example and explanation of how and why to incorporate academic environments, texts, and 56 Such as Manifesta, Grassroots, Third Wave Agenda, and Turbo Chicks. Full citations on these texts can be found in the bibliography. 57 This is my pre-revisions understanding of what the text looks like. Post-defense this text reflects more and more a thesis. Reflection on this previously when I discussed the unzine-ing of the text. 58 Though not hegemonic, but slightly "authentic". 30 products with non-academic musings, creations, and communities. Third, this project tries to make space for someone in academia to be absorbed in the process of many different subject areas and topics rather than promote further the importance of the one mighty idea. And lastly, this text tries to more space in the academy for design and publishing art as a recognized self-learned skill in conjunction with academic readiness and rigour. Overall, I am super excited, grateful, and pumped by the outcome. I believe that by being created in a somewhat-Canadian context (in that I have Canadian citizenship and this project is being completed in Canada, but have relied on the litany of third-wave texts which are American) this text has further implications for third-wave feminism in Canada and can be seen as a handbook for "sticking it to the man!" and "raising a little hell!" in Feminist contexts where the third wave is just a little sister to the legions of feminist theory and experience. 31 19 third wave feminism, techno-culture activism, and cyborg futures. SJ June 8, 2009 J*T " I originally wrote this section as a paper for the first feminist theory class I have ever taken. At the time I wanted to take on a theoretical area not yet really explored by third wave theorists/academics and work with dispelling myths about third wave, defending myself and my movement to the death. But I never got there (to the death part, or the defense part...) The version in your hands has been heavily edited from my original conception and attack. I find that my voice and writing style have changed a little from that time and my eagerness to finish my thesis has outweighed my ability to fight those little battles with my thesis supervisor Q? I agree with her suggestions about my polemic-ness and also see a handful of generalizations I'd painted on any feminism, theorist, etc., I could get my hands on. In editing the text I've aimed to make it more complex, pull out and pick on myself when I become too predictable or jerky, and perhaps, in the end have changed my argument to reflect general textual themes. Throughout the editing process • I've also tried to maintain as much of the "new grad student" sound as possible to try and keep the sound authentic and process oriented. I want the journey to the last chapter to read like an exploration of self, thought, and style. Lastly, I chose Le Tigre's epic tune, "Get off the Internet" as my motivating art piece because even though I advocate for technology as a tool used by the third wave to positive, feminist ends, sometimes it feels like we're too on the net...or, I am anyway. p.s. this was also written before twitter, the "social media revolution", and the enormity of the internet-based obama campaign (including the onslaught of Facebook)...l'm not sure what changes in terms of feminism (we're still doing things the same), but I feel self conscious of the fact that everybody's talking about social media and the internet right now!! "Yeah, I could be a cyborg, but I damn well better be perfect '*° One of the original riot grrrls and representatives of my alternative feminisms, in personal telephone conversation, April 10, 2007. I appreciate the guts to say, yes, sure, I can be part machine, but I won't settle for anything less than perfection. 34 The third wave of feminism has a bum rap.61 Whether it is because we third wavers have alienated ourselves from capital "F" Feminism by trying to rebel against our stifling feminist mothers, or because dominant media sources have exploited a rift in the movement at the expense of our cohesion to then prove that "hey, look! Feminism isn't legitimate! They can't even get along!",62 or even because our feminist mothers have been considered "too dowdy" to get this "next generation" of feminists, one thing is for sure: feminism is both alive and in trouble.63 Climbing out of the hypermasculine 1980s (please raise your hand if you remember shoulder pads, American Psycho, and Miami Vice)64 and initially populated by post-boomer thinkers, actors, and dreamers, the third wave arrived not only in Rebecca Walker's proclamation of this new wave of feminism,65 but also in the timely arrival of the Riot Grrrl Manifesto.66 Since the beginning of my time, Riot Grrrl has been synonymous with my definition of feminism.67 Riot Grrrl was even my introduction to feminist culture. From the emancipated cock-rock of Yes, slang A definition of "bum rap" can be found at the Urban Dictionary (http //www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bum+rap), accessed April 10, 2007 63 This is not intended to be a binary opposite, nor will "alive" and "in trouble" be pitted against each other within this paper. 64 For more information on hypermascuhnity in the 1980s please see Pancho McFarland, "Hyper-Masculine and Misogynist Violence in Chicano Rap" in Bad Subjects, Issue #61, September 2002 (httpV/bad eserverorq/issues/2002/61/mcfarland html); Erica Scharrer, "Tough guys" the portrayal of hypermascuhnity and aggression televised police dramas" in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Fall, 2001 (httpV/www entrepreneur com/trade)Ournals/article/81767327 5 html): Jessica Andrade, The gender politics of female action heroes in television and films, Undergraduate Thesis - Women Studies, University of Washington, 2003 (httpV/hdl handle net/1773/2099) 65 Astrid Henry, Not My Mother's Sister Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism (Bloomington- Indiana University Press, 2004) 14. 66 Riot Grrrl Online is the best place to find any and all information on Riot Grrrl- http.//www hottopic.org/riotgrrrl/ 67 And, sadly, post-feminism 35 Sleater Kinney to the anti-violence anger in 7 Year Bitch, the glammed-out baby doll embodied by Courtney Love,68 and even down to the long-haired mopeyness of Julie Doiron from Moncton's fuzz grunge band, Eric's Trip, I connected with something about the subculture these women represented, even if they did not identify as Riot Grrrl. I liked their fun outfits (something I felt being in a northern town could not afford me), their loud, angry, upset, opinionated voices, and their no-bullshit attitude. These grrrls were doing what they needed to do, what they felt was important, and they were rewriting the rules of punk rock, grunge, independent zine publishing, the over-glammed 1980s fashion industry, and the violence in their scenes: they were taking a stand against the Patriarchy. And I loved it. Unfortunately, according to Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, two of the first theorists and commentators on the third wave, the fact that I was born in 1982 means I'm too young to understand the language used in their publication, Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism, when it hit the presses in 1997.69 But it also means that I fall outside of their definition of who fits the third wave because of when I was born.70 As I've mentioned previously, I see the third Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake coin Courtney Love as "one public figure who demonstrates some of the contradictions that third wave feminism rings together...the punk rock musician who bridges the opposition between 'power feminism' [third wave] and 'victim feminism' [second wave]", p. 4. 69 Ednie Kaeh Garrison. "U.S. Feminism-Grrrl Style! Youth (Sub)Cultures and the Technologies of the Third Wave." Feminist Studies 26, no. 1 (2000): 141-70. Other texts do make mention of the Third Wave as being generational younger (Garrison, p. 142), or simply write in a way that engages other Third Wavers to set their audience (as is with Baumgardner and Richards's text Manifesta). 70 in their text they define the Third Wave as those feminists who came of age in the late 1970s through the 1980s, p. 2. 36 wave as a "young" feminist movement, so concur with their reasoning at that time. They were speaking about themselves, in their generation, at their time. Rather than sticking the wave to those feminists born between 1963-1974 or even in a generation that encompasses generation X, Y or Next, I find it more helpful to define the general tone of the third wave as "youthful".71 This may exclude feminists as they "age out", but I consider "youth" to refer to youth issues, youth culture, and youth voice. A complication with defining the wave strictly by age or birth date, rather than by "youth" or "youthfulness" is that their definition of what kind of feminist I am based on my age supercedes what kind of feminist I am because of what I believe in, politicize about, and stand for. Also, by defining the third wave as a strictly generational category it definitively divides this "next generation" or "third wave" of feminism from the continuum and simply reproduces and encourages the dividing and separating that keeps feminism and feminists divided. By encouraging a reframing of the third wave as a "youth"-based or "youthful" feminism then individuals and feminists can decide if it's a feminism they want to engage with. Defining "youth" outside of an age or generational category is definitely up for debate and relies on one's personal definition of "youth". For me, and in the context of third-wave feminism, I define youth as the intellectual and emotional space prior to "adulthood". A time when "idealism" is more important than "responsibility", defining yourself/identity as "different" or "counter" to the Heywood and Drake, 4. 37 average/what it expected, and/or when doing something yourself and with immediacy is seen as a better solution than waiting through the bureaucratic hoops of accomplishment. Capital "F" feminism and the media that reports it has defined "young" feminists as women who are "now 'empowered' enough to get Brazilian bikini waxes and install stripping poles in their living rooms," leaving "veteran feminists [to] accuse young women of turning their back on feminism's history and turning back the clock."72 "Young" feminists have responded to this criticism by responding to Capital "F" feminism and the feminisms around them. For example, most recently at a talk at Barnard Centre for Research on Women, Mia Herndon, Executive Director of the Third Wave Foundation, argued that the work of the Third Wave was founded on "radical" belief that "young people are active" and "grew out of a moment that really challenged this notion we were apathetic and we were not engaged in the work."73 Basically, the third wave was a reaction to the negative view that these young feminists weren't active, so the third wave created action, created their own definition(s), and worked to dismantle the patriarchy. Hoping to move beyond the generational and oppositional definitions, a cyborg future for third-wave feminism and historiography would encourage definers to think in of feminism(s) and the "generations" or "waves" as more fluid Deborah Siegel, Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007): 10, 4. 71 Mia Herndon speaking at Barnard Centre for Research on Women. Captured in the New Feminist Activism podcast from the Barnard Centre for Research on Women (September 16, 2009: available for free via iTunes and http://www.barnard.edU/bcrw/archives.htm#podcasts). 38 and connected. Ednie Kaeh Garrison suggests that the Third Wave is best not posited as a generational category. I believe the question of who counts as the Third Wave is much more complicated and layered; there are important differences between historical specificity and generational specificity. The "third" is the mark of historical specificity, and like the marker "second" in the Second Wave, it is not simply a sign of generational descendence. When we automatically assume "third" refers to a specific generation, we actually erase the significant presence and contributions of many overlapping and multiple cohorts who count as feminists, and more particularly, of those who can count as Third Wave feminists.74 Third-wave feminism (like other feminisms, and feminism in general) is a historical category and needs to be treated as such. If we were to "action" what the historical category of third wave would look like, it would include both removing age as a strict defining category, and perhaps encouraging youth to be a listed definition on a long list of definers that would also include taking over male-based popular culture, Girlies who reclaim girl culture that is a reaction "to an antifeminine, antijoy emphasis that they perceive as the legacy of Second Wave seriousness"75, punk rock, and technology as an immediate extension of the movement's political self. The third wave has latched on to the internet and its associated technologies (computers, social networking online, iPods, MP3 Players, etc) and as such has been ghettoized by feminism, "main-stream" media, and the academy! The study of third-wave action, access, and success with the internet 75 Garrison, 145. Baumgardner and Richards, Manifesta, 80. 39 as a feminist tool has not been taken seriously by those who study feminism. Despite this, non-academic feminist studies of the use of technology, technoculture, hacker subculture, and cyberfeminism have proliferated. When feminist in nature, this work tends to focus on the idea of cyberfeminism and, more specifically, the gendered use of the medium. This work simply begins to skim the surface of the role of third-wave feminism in relation to techno-culture as activism. It is here with the use of the internet as a third-wave activist tool that I want to discuss the reciprocal relationship between the third wave and technology, and its result as a mode of activism and resistance. Using academic sources, contemporary examples, and often my own experience, I use this space to discuss how third-wave feminism relies on postmodernism and embodied politics to confront existing notions of third wave as an individualizing feminism. Last, turning back to activism, I argue that by applying cyborg theory, third-wave feminism can begin to bridge the unintended gaps in the waves of feminism and political activism by creating an engaging and distinct (and new!) language and method for action. "One Web designer actually told me that focusing a discussion around the topic of porn sites 'insults' the Internet, prompting me to ask him if the Internet 76 As in using a quote from the Bust Lounge would not necessarily be equated with academic knowledge or writing, let alone a "legitimate" source for such research, as is also the case with Wikipedia, the open source community encyclopedic project. 40 gets jealous when I use the microwave. -Chuck Klosterman77 JJ Computer technology did not quite root itself in popular culture and use until •••••••••••••••••••a the mid to late 1990s. Computers and the internet It should be mentioned here that not every girl in Canada had as much access to the internet in the 90s as now. Library computer programs were just developing and computer labs in schools were still new.. .and we had dial up. Also, youth who were doubly marginalized by living on reserve or even more rurally are just getting basic access now and taking BEBO and Facebook by storm... It would be fair to say that we've left a lot of young people behind and that stats like the 2007 stats can one, may reflect only certain Canadians and communities. are a bonafied consumer item in Canada: personal computers can be found in many homes, and computers, with internet access, sit in most of our schools, youth centres, and libraries. And, according to StatsCan, in 2007, ninety-six percent of persons aged 16 to 24 went online.78 Like many young women, I spent most of my teen years in the 1990s grappling with this new technology and the seemingly fast paced and constant change of hardware and software, meaning I had to adopt new technological methodology, teach myself how to use new programs, and sometimes let others go because • I could not afford to acquire or even learn how to use • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ^ them. Both software and hardware seemed as if they were growing exponentially \? beyond my ability to use them. Once I had mastered a new code or word processing program, there would be something new and somewhat different to Chuck Klosterman, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (Now with a New Middle) (New York: Scribner, 2003), 110. 78 Stats Canada Canadian Internet Use Survey, Thursday, June 12, 2008. (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080612/dq080612b-eng.htm) 41 try your hands at. With the constant change, and the media's portrayal of computers and the internet as the technology to completely change the lives of those with access,79 it began to seem like one could never keep up with the grueling pace of technological change and that before we knew it we would be doing absolutely everything on the internet: from ordering pizzas to chatting online with a library resource expert to utilizing health services we could not receive in our communities or even attending weddings virtually. While younger and younger people are using the internet, from three-yearolds playing their new Spongebob games to young feminists engaged in gURL.com or espousing their politics via Twitter, the hyperspeed of technological change is eclipsing technical engagement by previous feminist generations. It is as if the youth orientation and "new" feel of the internet means that the second wave or "older feminists" are not using the internet because they are too slow for it.80 But we know this isn't the case. Young feminists and the third wave are not the only ones using the internet to create change, and our use of the internet does not surpass the importance of previous technologies. Recently, in his text Future Hype, Bob Seidensticker argued that computers and the internet are not changing our lives beyond the realm of any technology that came before. He suggests that the idea that technological growth is exponential is also bogus. Whether it's telephones, the car, or the refrigerator, he implies, if we were 79 Chuck Klosterman argues that we know the internet is changing our lives "mostly because someone in the media has uttered that exact phrase every single day since 1993", p 110. 80 Rather than arguing that if the Second Wave is not using the internet they are not utilizing it because they do not need to 42 stranded out in the woods, or post-apocalypse, it would not be our emails or crackberries81 or blogger.com client we would miss. It will be the nontechnological things, like our families, friends, and personal communities we would long for.82 If modern technologies and techno-culture provide North American culture83 with no more opportunities than previous technologies, why are those who use technology, so obsessed with making it the answer to modern problems? The internet is often wrongly seen as the only technology that is democratized: "everyone has access, everyone can get access".84 The internet as a resource enables young people to access information and to develop a space that can legitimize feminist issues. In accessing this media young people can alter the "controlling role of adults and other authority figures in the production of youth cultures and in the selection of political issues in which young people become involved."85 Aside from just using the internet because it's considered as a new, mythologically limitless "frontier", or because it promises great advances in access to knowledge, third-wave feminism engages in techno-culture as a type of computer guerilla warfare: a way to build community, increase knowledge translation and transfer, and strengthen networking skills to then use within physical and political (subculture) communities. 81 Slang for BlackBerry that implies a reflection of their addicting and overtaking nature. Bob Seidensticker, Future Hype: The Myths of Technological Change (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006). 82 83 The audience of Seidensticker's text. 84 When, as mentioned above, we know this isn't the case. Garrison, 152. Also note, as previously mentioned not all youth have access to the internet, let alone libraries or universities. Regardless a large number of Canadian youth do have access. 85 Third-wave use of the internet is made up of a variety of feminist communities. On either end of the community spectrum are Riot GrrrI and Cyberfeminism. In my constant conflation of the third wave and Riot GrrrI, I make connections between third wave and Riot GrrrI methods and theory. Like thirdwave feminists, Riot Grrrls attempt to define themselves in small circles, either through individualization or the creation of niche, subculture communities. This includes small circulation zines, independent record labels, small clothing companies, and web or e-zines. Also, these hybrid texts of Riot GrrrI combine politics and style, and have been significant to the formation of third-wave movement cultures because they are both popular and sub cultural. These texts, such as Riot GrrrI e-zines and websites "operate as an interface between different third-wave cohorts." Perhaps overwhelmed by various approaches to feminist and youth subculture nomenclature, the general understanding of feminism and the internet has been mostly equated with cyberfeminism. Like third-wave feminism, cyberfeminism engages with technological tools, but rather than focusing on guerilla computer use, cyberfeminism concerns itself with getting more women on the internet and letting them be heard. This can be seen most clearly in the Canadian non-fiction anthology, Technology with Curves: Women Reshaping the Digital Landscape, whose authors were "committed to doing their part to ensure that women make a full and meaningful contribution to shaping technology." The authors believe that the internet is a vital tool for living and that the virtual voice 44 (both individual and collective) can echo and influence: the more virtual voices out and the more users that take use or make space, the greater the potential shift in ownership and technology improving women's lives. Moving from established community methodology and theory, third-wave use of the internet also encourages and builds new communities. Third-wave feminists organize a lot like second-wave feminists by not resting on a hegemonic definition of "woman" or "women": they also utilize networks among their varied groupings or sub-groupings. The composed third-wave movement is disparate, unlikely, multiple, and polymorphous. The lesson that the third wave learned from the second was that gender is not a mutually exclusive category: "Feminist politics has to take into account the many differences that make up the category 'women' and to recognize that these differences are all part of a feminist politics."86 Internet-based subculture entrepreneurs, crafters, and forum users also bring together a disparate grouping of people (gender identification need not always apply) to create third-wave communities, both online and offline. Doreen Piano argues that through the alternative economic use of the internet, subculture-based entrepreneurs create links with each other because their multiple uses of technology create a different kind of producer/consumer relationship. It is this new relationship that creates a new community, whether the consumer also creates or even consumes at all, because the relationship is also tied to the transfer of techniques, relationships, and feminist thought. 45 Third-wave crafters on the internet often use Craftster for their site of networking and community building (check "You Make Me Want to Crochet?" for more craft-talk). Founded by Leah Kramer in 2003, "Craftster is a forum for people who love to make things but who are not inspired by cross-stitched home sweet home plaques and wooden boxes with ducks in bonnets painted on," and engages with those who run with scissors and can break the "rules of crafting with [their] fellow rebel DIY'ers." Currently 93, 360 people are members of Craftster, and while not every member produces and posts to the site, the members that do often do so repeatedly and build common relationships with other Craftsters. Within the Craftster forum there are numerous areas where members can browse and post, such as themed tutorials, places to post completed projects, craft swaps (based on a gift economy model which involves a sense of trade and gifting fellow crafters with your wares), and city boards which provide local tips for crafters and call outs for crafting meet ups. By being a member (members get posting privileges, and membership is free) one can participate in the forums and contribute to the open source information transfer on Craftster. Anyone who 1. likes crafting, 2. has access to the internet (and an email address), 3. has heard about Craftster, and 4. is seeking an environment where they can connect with other crafters/learn about crafts can become a member. In theory this could mean that the personality and projects found in the boards include participants regardless of age, gender, race, class, and geography, providing a variety of contexts and experience. Unfortunately, no 46 conclusive research has been done looking strictly at the levels of diversity and inclusiveness found on the site, meaning we are unable, at this point, to test Craftster's intentions and success in being "inclusive".87 Another classic example of third-wave use of the internet for building community is the Bust Lounge. Part of the online portion of the Bust magazine empire, the Bust Lounge is a self-moderated message board, meaning that those who use it guide it. There are no moderators or rules and if a new user needs information on how the Lounge functions s/he is encouraged to head to the Community Forum or the Newbies thread. In these places users can ask other users what the process is for starting a new thread, posting, or any other thing that they wish. There is no cost to the Bust Lounge and it covers areas typically associated with third-wave feminism such as "Working Girls", "The F-Word", and "Our Bodies, Our Hells." It is within these forums that users create community by sharing their emotions, their desires, and their frustrations. With the ability to receive feedback on your thoughts and contribute to an open body of personal knowledge, and with the guidance of pre-determined themes, trendy/popular/important areas of feminist thought can be explored and help to determine the current voice of feminism(s). The Bust Lounge, while it does not have any strident guidelines, is self-moderated by the members of the Lounge. Members work collectively to deter negativity and abuse (such as 87 However, this doesn't mean that they aren't inclusive, it just means that no research has been done so we don't know One survey that looks more broadly at Craftster include Ellen_NameMedia's Craftster Survey personal attacks and unwanted posters such as "outsiders" on the lure) ensuring the Bust Lounge remains a semi-anonymous and accessible space for community members. Sometimes in these third-wave online communities, safe or trusted spaces are not guaranteed. An example of this are pro-anorexia sites which, for the most part, have been the victims of a media, medical community, and advocacygroup uproar that rallied internet service providers (and the providers of free webspace) to remove them. Many of the creators of these pro-anorexia sites have provided personal webspace and made their content available only through them, or have posted the backlash on their websites as an inspiration to maintaining their site and the proanorexia. Karen Dias argues that the response of the creators "attests to the fluidity of these spaces and the resilience of their users,"88 but also uncovers the paradox that, while these spaces are intended to be "safe", ultimately these women do not have control over their spaces. This example an serve as a reminder that the notion of a "safe space" isn't always tenable on the internet. In essence, "others" have access to your material/content and by building relationships, community, and a sense of identity through the internet users feel "safe" because they connect with others who share similar experiences.89 Without resorting to the dichotomy of safe vs. notsafe/dangerous, as well as fueling the fire regarding the internet as an unsafe space for young users of the technology, I believe the contradictions and 88 Karen Dias, "The Ana Sanctuary," Journal of International Women's Studies 4, 2 (April 2003): 36. 89 Much like Consciousness Raising groups. 48 experiences regarding safety create a context and an opportunity to discuss what the role of the internet has in a sense of secureness. The third wave's use and engagement of techno-culture is limited to Western economic frameworks and often associated with consumerism, not politics. It is also criticized for not only being an exclusive, "first world", nonmovement, but also for strictly working within the dominant cultural and economic system it is trying to oppose. With all of their attempts to differentiate from Second Wave texts, third-wave writers and activists continue to receive these same criticisms: their feminisms are "mainly a first world phenomenon generated by women who... have limited interest in women's struggles elsewhere on the planet:"90 this feminism is self-centred, exclusive, and uninterested in the "real" struggle. Critiques of third wave as a social and economic replicant of western, white, second wave feminism and consumer society miss the point.91 Third wave may be based in Western political contexts but just because third-wave feminism engages with popular culture, techno-culture, and the media does not mean that this feminism is not "serious" enough or unconcerned with "real feminist issues". Third-wave feminist websites, such as DigitalEve and Webgrrls International, tend to unabashedly promote capitalist self-advancement in the name of Feminism, or assume that their work has a worldwide application when it usually does not.92 Heywood and Drake argue, "these charges misunderstand 90 Winnie Woodhull, "Global Feminisms, Transnational Political Economies, Third World Cultural Production," Journal of International Women's Studies 4, 2 (April 2003)' 76 91 And perhaps sets up another barrier to research about third wave technoculture 92 Woodhull, 77 49 third-wave work, which can be understood through an examination of how the lives of post-boomer women and men in the US have been impacted by economic globalization and techno-culture."93 The idea of using consumerism, even if it is an alternative form, to connect with someone culturally, economically, perhaps holistically, is often seen as still using consumerism. In the third wave there is a struggle between knowing that consumerism has its evils (through the tie to anti-globalization movements), and being a cultural producer and consumer, who engages in consumerism and the selling of consumer items. How is one expected to find the balance between surviving within (or without) this global capitalist economy and the possibility of supporting it through utilizing it for said survival? It seems that, when the internet is concerned, third-wave feminism is willing to put the global economic struggle and our anti-globalization politics on the shelf. The third wave is somewhat comfortable with interrogating patriarchy, gender, and feminism even if they continue to be troubled by the reliance on this system they are trying to dismantle.94 Third-wave feminists are stuck in further feminist ghettoization because their methods, first-world status/conception, and culture are not seen as inclusive, political, or radical. Almost as if the third wave is just giving into the master plan re: consumerism and identity rather than doing something with meaning or impact. There are also economic benefits when the internet is used as a tool for 93 Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, "It's All About the Benjamins Economic Determinants of Third Wave Feminism in the United States," Third Wave Feminism A Critical Exploration, eds Gillis, Stacy et al (Houndmills, Hampshire- Palgrave MacMillan, 2004) 14 94 Dnscol, 189 50 political and cultural mobilization. Third-wave feminists are informed by experiences of gender equality (somewhat) in the context of economic downward mobility: women seem to be treated the same as men,95 but are still making less and it's still a hard fight to equality in the workplace (particularly because no one wants to talk about it anymore).96 In addition to the wage gap, class difference means that there remains limited access to computers when considering cost and the mythologized need to constantly replace one's components and software.97 On the other end of the spectrum, computers are increasingly becoming an affordable commodity and saleable need. In the last few years the prices of computers have dropped low enough for "mass" consumption, even if this means that by purchasing a computer one contributes wholly to global capitalism and the lack of factory standards in other areas of the world. Also, compared to activities such as attending conferences on feminism, or even attending university to practice feminist action, making an e-zine is relatively cheap way to create a "selfproduced site for expression for those without access to or interest in mainstream forums."98 Because of the personal power equated with having access to such a large voice, e-zines are often produced by young people "marginalized by poverty and geography, attempting to forge new communities beyond their This echoes the claim of post-feminism, the backlash, and anti-feminism Ibid, 15 97 Piano, Doreen. "Congregating Women- Reading 3rdwave Feminist Practices in Subcultural Production " rhizomes 4, no Spring 2002 (2002) , para.6 98 Anita Harris, "gURL Scenes and Grrrl Zines: The Regulation and Resistance of Girls in Late Modernity," Feminist Review 75 (2003)- 45 96 51 locales."99 This engagement in tech no-culture helps to creates a secondary and alternative economy. Through websites such as Craftster.org, Etsy.com, Bust.com Girl Wide Web, and the Frida Loves Diego distro, sub cultural entrepreneurs are "utilizing the language and technological practices of the market in ways that counter dominant values often associated with selling and distributing goods such as profit, efficiency, and marketability."100 By utilizing DIY practices, third-wave feminists use the internet to communicate through the production and distribution of feminist-oriented goods. This production and distribution, with feminism in mind, then becomes a mode of resistance to mainstream culture as well as a form of creative and political expression by "contributing to the expansion of women-operated sites in electronic subcultural publics and in a sense de-colonizing the more commercial aspects of the internet by using trade practices that do not rely on profit".101 It feels so 80's/Or early 90's To be political/Where are my friends?102 -Le Tigre Le Tigre, electroclash third-wave bastions, proclaimed that their peers and their listeners need to "get off the internet". This song reflects that feminists are somehow holed up myspace-ing each other and not politically organizing like Ibid, 45 o Piano. 101 Piano para. 4 and 5. 102 Le Tigre, "Get off the Internet" from Feminist Sweepstakes. 100 52 they previously did. But after the obsession with the newness of the internet fades away, the use of techno-culture by third-wave feminists moves beyond the realm of the information superhighway. How did the promise of a "space where young women can communicate and organize together outside surveillance, silencing and appropriation" come to represent the loss of a feminist generation to the internet? Often the discussion of feminist methods, theories, and tactics revolves around legitimacy, and it becomes even more difficult when young, learning, and growing feminists are being distracted by legitimacy and the defense of one's non-legitimacy in someone else's eyes. Riot grrrls. cybergirls, "leftist thinkers", vegans, third-wave feminists (Second Wave feminists!) are often faced with questioning their methods to the degree where they begin to question their legitimacy. By creating its own spaces on the internet and fostering its own communities, third-wave feminism creates a sub cultural-environment where its personal models of agency are legitimized. This creates an environment where the third-wave can discuss its "click" and respond to the criticism in its own way, with third-wave methods. Third-wave feminists and activists use the internet to network with people both in their communities and beyond. Patricia Zimmerman said that "picket signs alone are not enough,"103 but in that same vein the third wave also knows that the internet is not enough. Third-wave feminists use the internet as a tool for activism and connection, but do not solely rely on it. One example of this is the 103 As quoted in Garrison, 163. 53 group the Vancouver Feminist Action Project created on facebook.com.104 Those who have a facebook account are welcome to join the Vancouver Feminist Action Group.105 This allows members of the group to show their affiliation and gives them a place to set up events, start invitation processes, communally post photos from their events, and leave comments or start discussions. While this activity for the Vancouver Feminist Action Group does happen online, the physical organization of Vancouver Feminist Action Group continues to host events and engage in discussion with physical communities, even if the invitations are electronic. In essence one can connect with VFAC online but then participate with them in the community, face-to-face. Another third-wave site that encourages the physical connection of community and commonality is Etsy.com. The site allows users the opportunity to create wares and crafty projects to post online in the form of an item for sale. This item, while searchable on the internet, and purchasable through the internet (usually using PayPal), can also be found via word-of-mouth conversations, can be purchased from the seller directly (if the seller happens to live in your physical community), and allows for further opportunities to meet in person (and Etsy'rs do meet up!), such as purchasable workshops, such as the Etsy Labs which offer group workshops through Etsy.com and studio-space utilization for a low monthly fee. Etsy also has suggested to its "users" and "shop owners" to create street teams. These users/shop owners get together, face-to-face, in public and 104 And Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/feministsdancebetter A third-wave feminist group that formed to bridge the gaps between the waves and nonfeminists. 105 54 organize craft fairs, craft workshops, and spread the word about their wares, DIY, and buying local handmade goods. My personal experiences of internet-based community capacity began when I created a print zine in the mid-1990s. When I first began to make my mark on the internet, back in 1995, Google was not on the radar, nor were automatic web design clients, or Myspace. Trained strictly on html code to build websites on free servers that placed my actual site title somewhere past the fourth or fifth 7", I began to transpose my print zine, the Underground Lemon, in e-zine format on the internet. It was easy to master a simple slew of code including the

the and the as well as to secure myself an email address and a variety of internet "friends" and "networks" which brought my zine not only new readers, but also creative writing contributors and bands that wanted to be included for their own coverage. I met a number of bands and writers via the internet was able to travel to physically meet others who wanted to be involved. I also got to promote my zine beyond my sleepy northern town. In the fall of 2005, while living in Vancouver, a friend and I began to strategize via Craftster on starting a Vancouver Craftster group. Meeting biweekly, monthly, and sometimes simply by craft-store happenstance, the VanCraftster group is testament to the powers of networking online and getting together physically to make crafts, learn new techniques, and build a community of like-minded individuals. While my relocating North several weeks after we initiated the VanCraftster group has meant that I have not been able to physically 55 participate, I do live vicariously through the Flickr photo group and stories from my friend that include crafting together for craft fairs and getting together to shop for supplies. The simple act of using Craftster and the internet to build relationships and groups to invite others to join in this new approach to feministinspired community crafting and bringing people together in a physical sense, but still continuing to maintain an internet-based network, gives testament to the power of third-wave feminism on the internet in bringing people together for the long run. / like to think/ (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology/ where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over/by machines of loving grace. -Richard Brautigan Even though third wavers are actually making new friends and contributing to the feminist movement through the internet, it has been claimed that the problem with third-wave feminists organizing on the internet is that the third wave is not engaging in "real" feminism because being on the internet is not equated with a physical bodily reality.106 Previously being lauded as that place in the future where one's gendered reality will not be automatically imposed within its "Real" feminist activism is discussed in a handful of third-wave texts including Deborah Siegel's Sisterhood Interrupted, Michelle Miller's Branding Miss G_, and Baumgardner and Richard's Grassroots. 56 environment,107 the internet is that place where users could pass as any gender one chooses, especially the opposite gender, or to appear gender free.108 Generally, though, people who have used and will continue to use the internet have not typically chosen to eschew their non-internet gendered bodies.109 Stacy Gillis suggests that there are three versions of the promise of gender dissolve on the internet: a body in cyberspace is a physical body erased, technology is always sexless, and consumer relationships are beyond gendered binaries. But even with the click of a keyboard key, embodied patterns of gendered behaviour resist revolutionary change: bodies do not simply become genderless because the internet or capitalist consumer culture says it will be so. Often gender identity is reaffirmed through third wave use of the internet, as can be seen with the online erotica community, SuicideGirls. While the women who post their erotic profiles on SuicideGirls often do so in a manner that is both symptomatic of subculture and alternative identity, the way they post their erotic material falls in line with the ideals of dominant consumer and capitalist culture.110 The way they use their bodies reaffirms dominant gender identities and their gender identities, as well as supports a consumer paradigm that relies Meaning, when you log onto the internet you don't have to select a box for your gender and pronounce your gender identity to the internet. 108 By not selecting gender when you subscribe to sites/content, speaking without gendered terms in your online posts, not having a gendered picture of yourself as an avatar. 109 1 can't seem to find the source on this. I'll keep looking but may have to generalize it out a bit more, .drati 110 Dr Hulya Demirdirek and Angehque Lalonde, "Thinking about Sex and Commodification through SuicideGirls com," UVIC Anthropology Department Colloquium Series, Lecture/Seminar, March 10,2007. 57 on gender difference to make a buck.111 As mentioned above, despite working within both the dominant gender paradigm and reaffirming traditional consumer relationships, the Suicide Girl's third-wave activities need not be disregarded for not being completely separate and only working against the dominant paradigm. They are still establishing a community based on DIY ethic and creating space for women's voice and body in self-created internet pom-type presence, despite the incomplete feminist goals. Due to the reaffirming of gendered physical bodies that third-wave feminism on the internet cannot create a separate, non-physical future. What happens instead is that a cyborg-like body, a techno-body is created within the third-wave environment both online and off. The body being a social construction does not exist in a fundamental sense, but is the "site of the mutually constructive interaction between discourses about the body and the materiality of specific bodies,"112 and the third-wave body is this body. The third wave exists as a cyborg body because of its comfortability in "both" bodily realms (of body and not of body). Third wavers can switch between physical activity and internet-based activity as needed and often use the different environments to support and sustain the other. Considering a third-wave feminist future, the combination of online and offline communities is integral. The third-wave feminist extension as an effective form of Feminism on the internet needs to be recognized and supported by other feminist movements. 111 ibid. Anne Balsamo, Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women (Duke University Press, 1996): 163. 112 58 While cyborgs exist outside of feminist theory, Donna Haraway could easily be crowned as the grandmother of the feminist cyborg movement. Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto suggests that cyborgs are rooted in dichotomous/boundary breakdowns: the breakdown between human and animal (to become one category: organism), the leaky distinction between organism and machine, and the imprecise boundary between the physical and non-physical.113 A cyborg, then, "is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction."114 Cyborgs are perfect for future theorizing of the third wave because they are everything all at once, and yet nothing definable at the same time. They do not represent a physical or nonphysical reality, but rather decide to stand somewhere along the continuum between the binaries of physicality, materiality, technicality. Cyborg futures also confirm that a monolithic feminism or theoretical hegemony do not exist. By applying a fictional future Haraway uses the cyborg to challenge feminism to "search for ways to study the body as it is at once a cultural construction and a material fact of human life."115 Similar to third-wave feminism on the internet and the bringing together of disparate individuals, especially through Riot Grrrl, cyborg theory will work for feminism if (cyborg) feminists "argue that 'we' do not want any more natural matrix of unity and that 113 Donna Haraway, "Cyborg Manifesto" in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Vincent B. Leitch, et al. eds. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001): 2271-2273. 114 Ibid, 2269. 115 Balsamo, 33. no construction is whole...116117 Third-wave feminism and its feminists are already techno-bodies, we just need to empower these agents "to work on behalf of the right social change."118 By working through a multitude of discursive and experiential fields, third-wave feminism is building communities and networking together a desired cyborg future. Somewhere in these connections between bodily reality, rioting against binary understandings, gender-fucking, and a simple, perhaps Utopian, desire to change our spaces and experiences of oppression, third-wave feminist cyborg bodies are among the cybernetic meadow; we are the machines of loving grace.119 116 Haraway, 2278. For further discussion on intersectionality and feminism please see Naomi Zack's Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave Theory of Women's Commonality (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005). I left out discussion about intersectionality here because I felt I would be opening an uncontrollable can of worms. 118 Balsamo, 156. 119 Richard Brautigan, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968). 117 60 I wrote this short essay for a class I took in the fall of 2007 on pornography. The class was offered through the gender studies department at the University and focused on literature (novels) about eroticism and was supplemented by critiques of second-wave feminist texts like Andrea Dworkin's Intercourse. I used this essay as a way for me to explore pornography in the third wave and to give feminist pornography power while simultaneously recognizing and appreciating the basis of Dworkin's claim: we're FUCKED. In this essay I rely a lot on popular constructions of the second wave and "play right into the popular misconception that second-wave feminism was dour, frumpy, and frigid" (Snyder, 179). This reliance on the notion of the second wave as "anti-sex" is classic third wave theory in the sense that it sets the third wave separate from the second. I think it is important in this essay to keep that third wave voice, but also work to point out the problems with this approach throughout the text and, at the end of the day, build a text that tries to accept the complexities and to push third wave claims of inclusiveness and contradiction to their max. "Crazy as it may sound, the feminists of Generation X are sitting in bed rationalizing our dildos. "181 Whether it has been through my research or just my general recollection of the recent feminist past through my life, I yearn to agree with the assumption that the second wave of feminism was anti-sex, anti-porn, anti-choice when it came/comes to sexuality. But to agree with these assumptions (as is the typical third wave thing to do) is actually doing feminism (third wave or otherwise) a disservice: "It is revisionist history to conflate second-wave feminism as a whole with the so-called antisex feminists and third wavers with the pro-sex side. Such a depiction reinforces the commonly accepted caricature of second-wave feminism as antisex—a view that is clearly overly generalized, inaccurate, and reductionist to anyone who has more than a superficial understanding of the movement."122 > » » ouch. Third-wave feminism earmarks sexuality as a central theoretical and practical tenet of the third-wave movement. Due to the splitting of the third wave from the second wave (as in MOTHERS vs. DAUGHTERS!!) third wavers have been eager to mention this split when it comes to sex: the third wave wants it and the second wave won't let them have it. The third wave response, though, does lack the looking back and checking in. The second wave was split on this issue and the third wave is not Mern Lisa Johnson, "Jane Hocus, Jane Focus: An Introduction " Reprinted in The Women's Movement Today An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism, Eds Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, Greenwood: 2005, 385-88 122 R Claire Snyder, "What Is Third wave Feminism9 A New Directions Essay", Signs- Journal of Women in Culture and Society 34, 1 (2008) 179-180 63 actually doing anything different: third wave pro-sex theories and actions are a direct result of the pro-sex ranks of the second wave.123 When it comes to sexuality and more tenuous areas of inquiry like pornography and sexual agency, third-wave feminist responses are premised on their self-conscious dismissal.124 Third wavers are growing up with sexual agency as a day-to-day measure, rather than something "to fight for".125 Because of this "it's there if you want it" approach to sexuality and consumer items,126 the third wave "fuck the pain away" is a peaches song. Peaches is a feminist-cock-rocker/electro clash bastion and her albums, songs, politics, music videos, lyrics, and forever growing pubic hair are alluring, attractive, and empowering to grrrls in dance music. It's music to fuck to. To feel empowered to, etc. The use of her song in the tragicomic, Lost in Translation, is juxtaposed with this sad, tired, and modern Japanese strip club. Sexuality and sex are so removed from the object that you have to reach back to connect to the subject. This chapter isn't about reconnecting with some lost part of our sexuality (all hippy-dippy-like) and earth mother making love, etc: it's about fucking. Young women fucking. How we like to fuck. What we like to fuck. Who we like to fuck. Fucking we like to watch on TV, etc. Also, the double meaning with Dworkin's Intercourse, as mentioned above. We're fucked by Patriarchy. Despite our "freedom of choice" or comfort with sexuality/sex, let's keep it political: we're still stuck in patriarchy and there doesn't seem to be a win. Epic Fail if you ask me. • • HMi^H HM^H IMHH^ M M ^ H M M mmm "feel[s] entitled to pursue their pleasure in ways which an earlier generation of women might not have felt so comfortable in doing or may have been prohibited from 123 Ibid, 179. Such dismissal can be seen in the work of Roiphe as discussed in Astrid Henry's Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-wave Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004): 9 1 . 125 125 Ibid, 1C 109. 126 Susan Faludi, "Backlash," In Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present, edited by Miriam Schneir, 454-68. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. 124 64 doing altogether."127 Like every generation of women before the third wave, young women also grow up in a contradictory and complex age regarding sexuality. Young women are bombarded by an increasing number of visual, cultural, and social images and experiences that are both aplenty and inherently conflicted.128 Because of these mixed messages, the third wave moves beyond being confused and will "lay claim to feminist consciousness even as they engage in rituals, careers, sexual practices, and cultural politics that [are taken] to be decidedly 'unfeminist' according to standards of second-wave feminism".129 The third wave then make claims in a feminism that is built as the binary opposite to its "foremother", rather than immediately stand up on its own. It is because of third wave reliance on the hierarchical model of previous political, social, and philosophical movements tied to feminism that this wave readily goes into combat mode. In an attempt to counter the duality that arises in the feminist "sex-wars" and in the debate between the different waves of feminism, Fuck the Pain Away will try to explore what sexuality means to third-wave feminism and how third-wave feminists and those individuals culturally associated with third-wave feminism work with sexual topics, such as pornography and sexual agency. Using the pornography debates from the sex-wars of the 1980s as a point of departure, I will combine gender fuck, 127 Henry, 109, when discussing a "new sexual breed" of feminist An example of this is recent commercials from Dove cosmetics. In the past few years Dove, a somewhat "natural" soap company that is owned by the conglomerate Unilever (which also owns such companies as Axe), has shifted their advertising to showcasing "real" beauty and the "real" woman, as well as creating advertising that is in criticism of the beauty industry itself This sort of commercial promotion comes with a confusing tone because while the message is great, critics and users alike are still unsure if Dove can live up to the hype it offers 129 Alice Walker, To Be Real- Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (Norwell, MA Anchor Press, 1995)- 281 128 65 queer, and third-wave cultural and sexual theory with the cultural accoutrements of the third wave to argue that at these intersections resides, even perhaps momentarily, an opportunity for third wave feminism (or feminism in general) to advance the feminist pornography debate and reframe and reestablish the positive importance of sexuality to third wave feminism. Focusing on the porn debates of the second wave, Frances Ferguson argues that the "all or nothing" approach to the pornography debates created an atmosphere of illogic which asserted that "being opposed to censorship also involves endorsing pornography" and visa-versa.130 This structuring of the debate, continues Ferguson, has meant feminists (and non-) on both sides of the debate have created the division between pro-pornography and pro-censorship, as well as arguing that the readily available category of feminism is relatively stable, and thus infallible and measurable.131 This, then, means that pornography has been viewed as the key factor in the "what makes you a feminist?" contest.132 Rather than rhetorically puzzling about what the debates would look like if they dismantled, jumped out of, or renovated their boxes, third-wave feminist scholars have argued that the third wave has already moved beyond the box and that is where feminists should be focusing their attention.133 The strength of the pornography debates, like the highlighting of violence and misogyny towards women as a possible product of pornography, 130 Frances Ferguson, Pornography, the Theory- What Utilitarianism Did to Action (ChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press, 2004)- 42 131 Ferguson, 42 132 Which has also been part of the difficulty between the third and second-waves in terms of political and cultural communication A litmus of feminist criteria is not where third wave feminists want to go 133 See Manifesta by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, as well as "Que(e)rying Pornography" by Wendy O'Brien 66 carries important weight when we look at the role of pornography in our current place within feminism and society. But, in terms of current day feminist politics, the debates, and what fueled them, are not what I will look at here. A feminist scholar may be able to banter around names such as Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon, and Robin Morgan, perhaps to conclude that the debates have determined how young people have entered into feminism or how they have countered their position against it.134 Katie Roiphe, author of The Morning After, a scandalous book about date rape on American campuses, has fueled the debate by basing her arguments against the legacy left behind by MacKinnon, Dworkin, and Morgan.135 Seemingly reviewed more times than read, Roiphe's text became a lynch pin in the debate with second-wave feminists and their views of sexuality/pornography, rather than, perhaps, creating new space for theory and practice to be born. Astrid Henry argues that Roiphe and the third-wave response to her work have fueled the division between the second and third waves of feminism. She suggests that third wavers habitually repress the knowledge of previous feminist generations, and keep second-wave and other earlier forms of feminism "in their place" (as anti-sex regimes) so that the third wave has something meaningful to bump up against.136 Henry writes, "Rejecting the so-called victim feminism of Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, with its focus on the danger of rape and women's lack of agency and power, third-wave feminists have instead celebrated 134 As does Henry in her text, pg. 90. Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. 136 Henry, 107. 135 67 those aspects of second-wave feminism that assert a woman's right to pleasure;"137 and probably with the fallout of betraying their feminist mothers. Linda Williams suggests that, "for women, one constant of the history of sexuality has been a failure to imagine their pleasures outside a dominant male economy."138 Third wavers would agree considering pleasure, but removing pleasure from pornography would argue that the dangers of sexuality and pornography in this modern age still stand, just as before, in this patriarchy. While feminists may be able to question and transgress pornography, it continues to exist as the product of the patriarchy. Despite this the third wave argues the discontinuation of the characterization women in this patriarchy as 1) "not in control" and "victims" of pornographic situations, or 2) that those who consume sexual materials (ie. pornography) are unable to be "good feminists". If there's something our feminist mothers have taught us, it is to be proud of who we are, know the risks, but choose identities that we find fulfilling, somewhat risky, and definitely have fun. 139 Moving past Roiphe, theorists and practitioners in third-wave feminism have urged the third wave reengage with ongoing feminist discussions about pornography. Because third-wave feminists have come of age in an era where sexuality is served to young women as in-yer-face as ever, third-wave engagement with pornography and sexuality seem like a natural continuation of their bodies and 137 Henry, 88. 5138 Linda Williams, Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" (Berkley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1999): 4. 139 "I walk home in the morning light, my mother says whatchya gonna do with your life? Oh daddy dear you're not the fortunate one, and girls just wanna have fun-un..." 68 their politics. Linda Williams suggests that to come to terms with pornography, feminists need not only to acknowledge the force of reaction [in individual feminisms and politics] but to also move beyond responding merely with their guts and to consider "turning the important methods and insights of feminism on a genre and ideology that is most transparently about sexual difference as viewed from a male perspective".140 As a movement, though, third-wave feminists need to go back and respond to these visual and literal texts in a way that is from the gut, but also much more inclusive of media literacy and fandom. Third-wave feminists have experienced images that have been misogynistic and/or harmful towards women, but now can be seen as cult classics (David Lynch's Blue Velvet or David Croenenberg's Crash), reclaimable (the cock-rock wielding battle axes of the American group, The Donnas), or even campy (the body-hair-inducing dance moves of Peaches) and celebrated (beauty tips in Bust magazine on how to embody Selma Blair's buxom character from the film, A Dirty Shameu^ ). The third-wave gut reaction is not to banish porn and "masculine" or heteronormative portrayals of women's sexuality to the gutter (like anti-sex/porn feminists have) but rather to do whatever the individual faced with it chooses to do. And the necessity of choice is apparent. Williams, 5 The beauty oriented spread in Bust Magazine can be found in the October 2007 issue 69 I WHOA? WHAT » 0 YOU MEAN BY CHOICE? 1 The notion of choice when a woman "chooses" activites and behaviour that is subjective and oppressive is highly contentious. I am not using choice to the disregard of the impacts that patriarchy, abuse, oppression, heteronormative behaviour and expectation, and internatlized oppressions have on (young) women. We are continuously globally fucked by Patriarchy. But, can feminists effectively make a choice for positive pornography when pornography is a patriarchal and oppressive construction? The answer is definitely complicated, but would be YES. I think that I can choose to consume pornography and can choose to produce it, but also be aware of the oppressive nature of the work/consumption. Feminism affords the opportunity to create alternative spaces, new spaces, and margin(s)/al spaces for our own definitions and versions of pornography and fucking. I I Merri Lisa Johnson, somewhat of an "expert" in the realm of third-wave feminisms, television, and sexuality, has argued that "pornography has become a litmus test for feminists, a measure of one's commitment to the cause of overthrowing the patriarchy or of one's pleasure in chic transgression against establishment feminism."142 Still party to a binary version of a choice, third-wave feminists "reject the constraints of political correctness on representations of desire"143 and create their own answers to a decision they may or may not (or maybe even might kinda want to but with certain conditions) make. Third wavers are also uninterested in the difference between erotica and pornography that so fueled the debate for the second-wave and have moved towards creating a feminist pornography that is heavily influenced by marginalized or non-normative sexualities.144 Now, instead, the debate is no longer about who is on top and how much power each person holds within that Merri Lisa Johnson, "Pornography, Feminism and," The Women's Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism 246-8: 246. 143 Merri Lisa Johnson, "Pornography, Feminist," The Women's Movement Today, 248-250: 248. 144 Ibid.. 70 position (or how the person on top is taking advantage of the helpless victim on the bottom), but rather what other positions can they get in, why are there only two people (??) involved, and how can we make this look completely different from our mother's (or father's) sex? Boundary crossing becomes the norm, rather than the exception. Choosing transgression by adopting the pro-sex and anti-censorship reigns from the feminism of the 1980s, third-wave feminists build away from the anti-sex claim of overbearing misogyny in pornography and work towards breaking "free of traditional sexual imagery that fetishizes male ejaculation and puts women in a subordinated role."145 Similar to feminisms around them, third wavers are politically and personally "pushing for an adequate theory of sexuality that takes into account second-wave feminist critiques of intimacy and institutionalized sexuality while simultaneously forging an individualist feminist that embraces disruptive sexualities and advocates an entitlement to pleasure and erotic knowledge."146 By creating their own pornography,147 third-wave feminists are dismantling the clear boundaries between the different kinds of sex so that they can avoid the hierarchies of privilege and rigid identity categories.148 By creating third wave pornography and literature 14b Ibid, 249 Merri Lisa Johnson, "Sexuality", The Women's Movement Today An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism 303-307- 303 147 Not as an opposition to other feminist pornography, but in opposition to the forced consumption of the Patriarch's pornography 148 Johnson, 249 146 71 the third wave further prove "that our lives, our identities, and our sexualities can coexist with unabashed, hard-core pornography."149 Using the internet—the best place on the earth to find porn, and a more thirdwave specific venue for porn dissemination—I will highlight a few examples of thirdwave pornography below. I've chosen to use porn base on KaeLyn's description from Feministe: "feminist porn represents a diverse cross-section of people and is woman-friendly, queer-friendly, open to many interpretations of beauty, and is, at best, political and woman-owned."150 KaeLyn does not specify this definition as being third-wave feminist porn, but uses third-wave argument to justify the exploration of different kinds of pornography and their implications to the sexuality/feminist debate: So theories and pontificating aside, let's add reality to the mix. The reality of what women, even feminists, find pleasurable is not always politically correct. Sexuality is not neat and clean. I have talked to many feminist women who struggle to balance what really happens behind closed doors and what they feel the bedroom politics of a "good feminist" should be. Enjoying BDSM, strap-on sex and sex toys, genderplay, rape and incest taboo, mainstream pornography, and other "deviant" sexual taboos with a consensual partner does not make a person a "bad feminist" or a hypocrite. To the contrary, feminism is what gave me permission to love sex, with myself and with others, to embrace my sexual orientation, and find out what turns 151 me on. KaeLyn provides a number of examples of feministy porn in her blog, but three out of the five (nofauxxx, veganporn, and erotic red) are all from the same creator. So, I Amber Dawn & Trish Kelly, With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005): 8. 150 "Feminist Porn: Sex, Consent, and Getting Off," Feministe (http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/07/23/feminist-porn-sex-consent-and-qetting-off/), last accessed June 10, 2009 151 Feministe. 72 went hunting on the internet, which in the huge world of online XXX is a big place. And a difficult place to find feminist pornography (does this mean that we're not consuming actual feminist porn?). I trolled the Bust Lounge (and found a few good examples) and Googied "feminist porn" and "third wave pornography" and came up with a few more. Below are three examples I found that I've defined as third-wave pornography based upon the following criteria: 1. The sites/venues were created by self-identified feminists. 2. The pornography itself was created by self-identified feminists. 3. The participants in the pornography were not coerced or forced into participation. Extra points if the participants created the pornography themselves (ie. self portrait work, self-conception, etc). 4. The pornography and language on the site/venue furthers the discussion about pornography, through text, photo, or video. 5. The site/venue encourages and insists upon community building and the DIY participation of those photographed (giving the participants space for their opinions/voice). 6. The pornography highlights culture, fashion, and identity statements typical of the third wave: tattoos, geekery, "girlie", pin-up redux, genderfucking, etc. (The pornography I use to exemplify third-wave porn does not fit all of the above criteria, but each site exemplifies aspects of the above criteria and I explain detail in each example). 73 >»THIRD-WAVE PORN EXAMPLE Erotic Red (http://www.eroticred.com/) "Sexy, Natural, & Fun Menstrual >***. Porn" •* a* Erotic Red features homemade sexy, natural, & fun menstruation porn created by a variety of hot k>w models of all shapes and styles on their periods! Messy masturbation sessions, period journals, tampons, pads, menstrual cups, washable cotton pads, sea sponges, free-flowing, toys, outdoors, blood art, period sex, mm menstrual product talk, oh my! Enter for indie porn made by passionate models who aren't shy to say, "Kiss me, I'm menstruating!" lilroticRed.ccgra To put it bluntly, Erotic Red is a prime example of third-wave feminist pornography. 1. The first page of the site (main page) sends those who claim they are under the age appropriate for this material to a feminist sexual education website: Scarleteen (http://www.scarleteen.com). This shows that Erotic Red is connected to or at least respectful of feminist education for girls. 2. Once you enter into the site a heading reads "We feature hot models doing something neat & natural that you'll rarely see in porn—having fun and getting off while menstruating". The site owner/creator claims from the beginning that Erotic 74 Red\s not a typical porn site, that the "hot models" (oh, porn speak!) are in a natural environment and having fun while doing something unexpected and different: menstruating. 3. Sarcasm and feminism together at last: "Did a pack of horny sex-positive feminists really create the most offensive adult site ever made? How could this be?" hahahahahaha, yes! 4. Erotic fled proclaims its niche status in the internet-based porn world and how it as a site and a community wants to change the perception of porn and women's bodies (and how we enjoy/play with them). "We're not here to sell menstruation as a gross-out fetish, but to show that it is a healthy, interesting, and fun part of the lives of all female-bodied folk. We're happy to shake up silly old taboos and encourage every woman to love her body and sexuality- every day of the month." • -u» . . - »THIRD-WAVE PORN EXAMPLE #2 « « Pink & White Productions (http://pinkwhite.biz/PWWP/) "Porn for Pussies" Pink and White Productions creates adult entertainment that exposes the complexities of queer sexual desire. Taking inspiration from many different sources, Pink and White is dedicated to producing sexy and exciting images that reflect today's blurred gender lines and fluid sexualities. Pink & White Productions is an example of queer/feminist 75 pornography. It also fits as an example of third-wave pornography for the following reasons: 1. "I believe there's a lot of room and need to create adult content that's real, that's respectful and powerful ... I think it's the perfect place to become political. It's a place where money, sex, media, and ethics converge." Quote on the "about" page from the site's creator/main director, Shine Louise Houston. I appreciate that it is implicit that the work/community is political and that the political and ethical intentions are there in the creation. 2. The Website has a public forum where site users can sign up for a username and post content including a list of the most important Queer Sex Dates in history,152 "Pink & White Productions = Evils of Capitalism?"153 where participants discuss the com modification of queer culture in the form of pornography, and a lively discussion about the number of women of colour in the company's films.154 All of these forums and the others on the site are acting as ongoing commentary on the content and the voices on the site. Responses range on the spectrum of "good" vs. "bad" and posters engage in "difficult" subjects (those I assume that aren't usually talked about on internet porn websites. 3. Gender in the films is not defined by traditional gender roles in either heteronormative or queer relationships and communities: "Gender roles blur and shift and defy easy categorization, and the sex is always relentlessly hot."155 4. People who want to participate can sign up online and are considered "Models".156 The form reflects the complexities of third-wave feminist and queer gender identities. Future models can select "boi", "female bodied", "androgynous" and more from the list (you can select more than one). There's also a field where you can select your proper pronoun and a larger data field where you can select the different kinds of sexual activities you want to perform or would like to partake in (including potential on screen partners). 5. Pink & White productions have won a number of Feminist Pornography Awards including Best Picture in 2009. 152 http://crashpadseries.com/forums/topic.php?id==118 http://crashpadseries.com/forums/topic.php?id=108 154 http://crashpadseries.com/forums/topic.php?id=40 155 Description of the Crash Pad Series http://crashpadseries.com/wordpress/photos/ 156 http://pinkwhite.biz/PWWP/model/ 153 76 »>THIRD-WAVE PORN EXAMPLE #3 « « East Van Porn Collective (http://www.eastvanporncollective.org) "A thought-provoking and genre-bending look behind the scenes of what might be the world's only underground DIY anarcho-feminist porn collective." The East Van Porn Collective (EVPC) is my only Canadian-based example of thirdwave feminist pornography. To date, the Collective exists solely in their documentary, Made in Secret: The Story of the East Van Porn Collective. I'm unsure which came first, the Collective or the Movie, but one thing is for certain, the EVPC is my favourite example and I still have to see the film! 1. EVPC utilizes post-structuralist and post-modernist approaches to the way they 77 promote their film and project. They refuse to label the film as either documentary or drama ("But like most binary labels (male/female, gay/straight, etc.), the term documentary can leave out as much as it reveals about the true nature of what it describes"),157 and implore the viewer to be a participant and create another framework or category to fit the film into. 2. The language the collective uses about WHY they created their film revolves around the idea of a group of people wanting to make a film about a group/activity in their culture group that may or may not exist. Rather than searching to find that group they wanted to study they became (or always were) the group they were searching for. They filmed themselves and by some weird twist of fate even began to live the story they were trying to tell. 3. In an article from The Tyee about the EVPC, a collective member, Professor University, waxes philosophical about the porn industry and democracy. "The need to reclaim one's sexuality from the maw of commerce and exploitation is an ongoing and constant battle. And in a way, it isn't the sex that is the interesting part, but the collective aspect: the need for a process where everyone has a voice and the right to take their pants off in public."158 The Collective calls it, "this is what democracy looks like naked". 4. The whole process was/is really DIY. The film was made by people with little or no film experience and the Collective had no money to make it a reality but the film was/is a huge success. The Collective stresses the DIY aspect in their literature to other, possibly, budding erotic film makers: "The power to tell our own stories and create our own realities is entirely within our hands. It's time to seize it."159 » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » So, then, what is holding third-wave feminists back from full frontal sexual/political/pornographical theory and practice? Wendy O'Brien suggests that third-wave feminists are bound by the language and discourse around sex/identity and the bastions of implicit classification.160 Not only do third wavers have to East Van Porn Collective, Made in Secret The East Van Porn Collective, film screening fact sheet for the 19th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 2005 (http7Avwweastvanporncollective.org/london.pdf) 158 Paraphrased by article author Dorothy Woodend, "Porn People UNTIE1", The Tyee November 4, 2005 (httpV/thetyee ca/Entertainment/2005/11/04/PortUmte/) 159 East Van Porn Collective, Made in Secret film screening flyer (full citation above) 160 Wendy O'Brien, "Qu(e)erying Pornography Contesting Identity Politics in Feminism," 78 defend their bodies and actions, often in terms they did not create or wish to use, but it feels that even to do so is recreating the wheel. The third wave is not "beyond" pornography, and by embracing it the third wave refuses to shut down the discussion about our bodies and our sex.161 Much like post-colonial discourse and third-wave pedagogy,162 third wave discussions contain productive tensions that need to be mulled over rather than avoided because of fear of confrontation. O'Brien provides a long list of ways that third wavers and other associated theorists and practitioners can remain in this sticky space long enough to clear some air and make some pornography. Some items on her list include moving beyond the polarization of the debate (ie. it's not about pro-sex, anti-sex anymore, it's much more complicated), resisting the oversimplification of terms and arguments, avoiding discursive competitiveness, recombining "sex" and "gender" as theoretical components, and interrogating "the terms that have functioned as the mainstays of pornography analysis and debate."163 Basically, the third wave needs to take those things that are fixed and stick them into flux. One way that I prefer to jumble up some hegemonic code is to fuck with it. Considering the overtly sexual content of this essay, a little fucking is not necessarily out of place. But, how does one actually fuck with hegemonic code, and how does one do so without trying to define a binary opposite? Does "fucking" with the code mean that you are opposing it, and if so, who is constructing that opposition? And, Stacy Gillis, Gillian Howie, and Rebecca Munford, eds. Third Wave Feminism. (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004): 122. 161 O'Brien, 123. 163 O'Brien, 123. 79 whose hegemonic code do you fuck with? Is there such a thing as feminist hegemonic code? Are they bad, bad girls/grrrls and boys/bois? There are a number of ways that you could fuck with the hegemonic code (aka the PATRIARCHY!!!) Three of my favourite ways to engage in this behaviour are GenderFuck theory, queer theory, and cultural practice and maybe, just maybe, break down all the fibres with a hard bat, resoak in some refreshing water, and reform these sheets of paper. The complexities of sexual preference and personal identity will thrive once the third wave have the mind capacity to think of a dildo'd grrrl who embodies the "dildo-as-phallus" paradigm simply to announce the "arbitrariness of the hegemonic phallus=penis construction, while attending to the rigid logic of the phallic economy."164 Or, perhaps, when identifying as either a grrrl or boi does not matter, and embracing phallus as theoretical symbol can create space for "queer or straight butch and femme identities that traverse the theoretically spacialized continuum once more."165 Maybe the third wave can take on queer identity and politics not necessarily to promote their sexual preferences but to utilize a somewhat fluid set of theory that subverts heteronormativity (and Patriarchy). Third wavers want to "transform" feminism166 and in terms of sexuality, engaging with pornography is one of the ways that we can achieve transformation and change. Pornography is a fantastical text and site where "anything goes", and therefore, whatever you want from it also goes: including fucking, theoretically, 164 June Reich, "Genderfuck: the law of the dildo". Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (1992, Fall): 15. 165 Reich, 122. 166 Henry, 109. 80 physically, fulfillingly. By fucking with pornographic texts and texts/responses to/politics about pornography and third-wave fucking can begin to transform and change not only pornography and its viewers, but also feminism. 81 OwcM? third wave historiography and the DIY crafting movement Out of all of the different cultural and political components of third-wave feminism, I choose crafting as my #1 love. I have been crafting since before I was a feminist, which is a LONG time (I like to think I came out of the womb with an embroidery hoop in my hand or something). Being a crafter I've been impressed by the crafting movement in North America since the publication of Debbie Stoller's Stitch n Bitch. That book, combined with my joining Craftster.org and Etsy.com, armed me with knowledge about crafts and what other people were making/doing...but I also got to see the rise of huge craft communities and use that energy, action, and excitement to fuel that movement in my community. Austin in particular is an incredible place. I was afforded the opportunity to go there to present at a Gender Studies conference and fit in a few days to interview/hang out with my crafting heroes/idols: founders of the Austin Craft Mafia. Jesse-Kelly Landes, Tina Sparkles, Vikki Howell, and Jenny Hart. For me, Austin has had an incredible role in fueling craft in North America and was the obvious choice to do my crafting research. My time, research, and experiences in Austin reframed the way I approached my arguments and inspired me to try to accomplish an incredible change and movement. R. Claire Snyder recently wrote that the third wave isn't yet a movement...but 10 years ++ into the history/experience of the third wave if we're still at the point of arguing if we're a movement or not, crafting is definitely the place where the movement meets...this crafting feministy movement is slowly contributing to economies and culture in North America..and my experience is that if you're not part of it....you're missing out. xo c "We don't need sophistication, we just make the things we like, every reason to make music, 9-to-5 don't make you right, we'll be playing every night and I'll be punk for the rest of my life." 168 It had rained and hailed golf balls all morning, but by the time the sun started to warm up the concrete streets of South Austin, we began to hear the deep-seated rumbling of Hot Rods from every direction. "I'm beginning to think that you brought me here because of all the cute guys," I joked. Spotting, yet again, another greaser, Vickie Howell laughed sarcastically, "yeah". I had come to Austin to meet with Vickie and other members of the Austin Craft Mafia. The Austin Craft Mafia formed in 2003 to unify indie crafters who owned their own craft businesses for the purpose of supporting one another and their craft activities. They also created a website and encouraged other crafters and communities to work together to support the craftiness of one another.169 The Austin Craft Mafia has been credited as being a major player in the current Craft revolution and I have looked up to them since their inception. I wanted to interview the women of the Austin Craft Mafia because they have been at the forefront of the crafting movement from the get-go. They were out there 168 Bratmobile, "I'm in the Band" from Girls Get Busy (Lookout Records, 2002). Rachel Lambel Johnson, Internet Marketing Strategies for Indie Crafters (Portland: University of Oregon, 2007): 16. 169 84 .yjO^i ^ygf N pounding the pavement at the time the movement took hold and they are probably the most documented craft group in the current movement. Embarking on this leg of my research, I didn't realize the extent to which graduate students, independent media, and even the producers of the Martha Stewart show had already studied this new wave of "craft" beyond the selected few (Debbie Stoller, Austin Craft Mafia, etc). As I'm putting this thesis together Faythe Levine is criss-crossing the planet promoting her new documentary Handmade Nation, an in depth look at the craft movement; Indie crafters are being invited in droves to publish craft books;170 and ReadyMade magazine just printed its 41 st issue! These texts are creating a rich craft discourse by following the basis of the craft manifesto- make stuff.171 Throughout my work on crafting I root myself in these texts and the more general discourse of the DIY crafting movement (including crafts!). I am interested in how crafters are involved in "history making" as well as how they have been historicized by the discourse. How are their contributions viewed? How are they being viewed? How are their lives being recorded? Can their work be considered part of an overarching historiographical narrative? What happens when you throw feminism into the mix with DIY? Is DIY inherently feminist? And 170 Heidi Kenny of My Paper Crane is currently working on a kid's book for Chronicle She discusses the process on Lovely Little Deer (httpV/alovelylittledeer blogspot com/2009/05/interview-with-mypapercrane-and html): The Naughty Secretary Club just published a self-titled text through North Light Books on homemade jewellery, Kan Chapin's book The Handmade Marketplace a guide to selling your crafts online (it's also illustrated by the indie crafter Black Apple) is already listed on Amazon ca and it's release date is 2010. 171 The most agreed upon Craft Manifesto is credited to Ulla-Maana Engestrom of creator of the Hobby Princess Blog (httpV/ullamaaria typepad com/) and can be found on the Make Zine. http //www makezine com/04/manifesto/ 85 what impact on feminist historiography (and youth studies) does the movement and its stories have? DIY is an essential part of third-wave feminism. Rooted in punk rock communities, DIY ("Do-It-Yourself") was a term that came to represent young people (usually) who participated in the punk rock "scene", but also gave back to the community by organizing events, volunteering, and adding to the movement through self-created projects like zines, crafts, clothes, albums, etc. Amy Spencer writes that while DIY has spread to a variety of subcultures around the world, it has maintained its ties to punk rock and has often been a social and political strategy to bring punk rock to non-punk subcultures.172 In short, all DIYers are inherently "punk-rock", but not all "punks" have been seen as DIY. Third-wave feminists are tied to punk via the movement's origin: Riot Grrrl. Most young feminists have placed the beginning of the third wave with the Riot Grrrl movement.173 Riot Grrrl174 identified itself at a time when the Washington, DC and Portland, OR based hardcore scenes were gaining notable attention. Historically the "DC Hardcore Scene" has been identified as utterly misogynist175 and women who participated in this scene often played the part of "coat rack" for their boyfriends, also experiencing unwanted negative sexual attention and sexual violence. This issue is examined very briefly in the film American 172 Amy Spencer, The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture (London: Marion Boyers, 2005). What's interesting, too, is that newer texts often recognize the communal birth-time of third wave and riot grrrl and situate their high school years in this space, but older texts which look at third wave often see the rise of third wave from a dissent from second wave feminism. 174 Or, "riot grrl" or "gurl" 175 In riot grrrl history, the DC scene and the Portland scene are often recorded together, namely because riot grrrl rooted in these two cities, not specifically because these were the only American cities to be the home to hardcore movements and cultures. 173 86 Hardcore, where members of the DC Hardcore scene suggest, "that's just the way it was," when confronted about the treatment of women (and their girlfriends) by the scene.176 This nonchalant misogynistic attitude was rife in the hardcore community, but young women saw themselves as part of the community and were not able to find a safe space to fit. And so, in 1991 during one hot DC summer filled with the culture-jamming of "girl", the Riot Grrrl Manifesto was borne at a Riot Grrrl conference and subsequently published in the Riot Grrrl Zine.U7 This marked a space for feminism to DIY. >»"you make me want to go away, you make me want to crochet!"178<« During the 1990s the third wave began to produce its texts. A handful of popular third-wave anthologies proliferated179 and academics (some of them third-wave) responded.180 On the DIY front, cut-and-paste photocopied zines were the piece de resistance. Like today, there was little textual integration and discussion of feminism focused on the spaces between the feminisms and definitive "waves" or "generational" misunderstanding and strife. The discourse proudly placed itself in the "next generation" of feminism by "attempting to fit the legacies of any lessons from the women's movement of the 1970s into their own American Hardcore- The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986 Sony Pictures Classics, 2006 177 Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson, Whatcha mean, what's a nne? The art of making zines and mini-comics (Boston Graphia, 2006) and Amy Spencer's DIY The rise of lo-fi culture (London Marion Boyers, 2003) 178 Julie Rum, "Crochet", Julie Ruin (Olympia, WA Kill Rock Stars, 1998) 179 See Rebecca Walker's To Be Real- Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1995) and Listen Up- Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (1995) 180 See Third Wave Agenda- Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (1997) and Hypatia special issue on third wave (Summer 1997) 87 lived experiences."181 The way that third-wave texts of this period have been historicized has highlighted the generational divide and waves paradigm.182 In print, third wavers and their "mothers" are eternally at odds with each other and the third wave has been constantly been referred to as "misremembering" an "extremely narrow version of the history".183 Arguably this is because the third wave has created a version of second-wave activity for the whole of feminist history.184 Such texts as Katie Roiphe's The Morning After have been hallmarked as "seminal" third-wave texts by historiographers and academics, but have simultaneously faced strict criticisms for reifying a "hegemonic" feminist history: What I found most unrecognizable in Roiphe's text was the image she painted of feminism as a puritanical, regulating force. For Roiphe, feminism was like a stern mother telling women how to behave. She described feeling constrained by feminism, her individuality and freedom curbed by its long list of rules and regulations.185 Also writing in the mid-1990s, Deborah L. Siegel argues that Roiphe's text had a severely limited historiographically because Roiphe's "desires for mastery overwrite any attempt to keep a dialogue moving."186 Third wavers were continually portrayed as needing to be on top and needed to rebel against their 181 Catherine M. Orr, "Charting the Currents of the Third Wave," Hypatia 12, 3 (Summer 1997): 30 182 For examples please see Heywood and Drake's Third Wave Agenda and Stoller's Stitch n Bitch 183 Orr, 32. 184 Deborah L Siegel, "Reading Between the Waves' Feminist Historiography in a 'Postfeminist' Moment," Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (University of Minesota Press, 1997)-59. 185 Astrid Henry, Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third wave Feminism (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004)-1. 186 Siegel, 59. "mothers". It is here in the challenging and argumentative "reclaiming" of WHO IS?? JUDY CHICAGO AM) WHY ISN'T SHE MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER?? feminism that appears the social conundrum of "post-feminism": that "young women in feminism" have either dropped out of the fight or never joined the ranks at all. Prior to the welcoming of Here is a small list of fabulous feminist Artists who have engaged with CRAFT in their art: Joyce Wieland, Faith Ringgold, # Andrea Vander Kooij, Vivienne Binns, Miriam Schapiro, and of course, Judy Chicago. (CHECK 'EM OUT!) a new millennium, a number of dissenting feminist voices that participated in the muchneeded intergenerational conversation took a self-reflexive turn and went underground.187 It Chicago best exemplifies the intersection of craft and art in the 2nd wave. Her use of craft defines what is feminine in her art work (and what is feminine is supposedly NOT ART). By integrating craft she also attempts to rearticulate public and private spheres. You'll see her most famous work, The Dinner Party, all over the internet. was there, in this 'post-feminist' underground, I chose not to go deep into the art vs. craft debate because it's opening a can of worms that I think is a little removed from the DIY movement. For Jenny Hart being seen is an artist is important, but you can read about her experiences below. How she defines herself (as an artist or a crafter) is unclear, but I'm still not sure that the >»"Cut, Paste, that DIY expanded beyond the zine and the mixtape. Third wavers began picking up tools they identified as that of domestic oppression and their self-liberation was sealed with knitting needles, scissors, sewing machines, and crochet hooks. Dominate! 188 99 The "new millennium" offered dreams of 187 Ibid. Rachel Lamble Johnson, Internet Marketing Strategies for Indie Crafters, MA Thesis, Art Administration, University of Oregon, 2007: iv. 188 89 capitalist futures to many North Americans who were "free" to determine their power by consuming and could then become technologically enhanced! North Americans could achieve anything! North America had survived a predicted technical meltdown (Y2K) and the much-anticipated ending of the world (some religious figurehead had forecasted year 2000 would be the "end") and people were told to believe that they could buy both happiness and love. And then, in the first few years of the millennia, George W. Bush "won" the presidency of the United States, 9/11 happened, and "America" went deeper into its existential crisis. Third-wavers and crafters began to feel out of touch; "in a post-modern, post-mechanical world of cell phones and text messaging, of pagers, computers, email, Palm Pilots and Blackberrys and video iPods, time to be 'out-of-touch' with the world and in touch with the self is often hard to come by."189 For third-wave feminists, DIY crafting became a venue and activity to help them "deal" with both the stresses of the modern/consumer-driven life and post-modern identity crisis; it allowed them to feel grounded and made space for more "nests" and it offered the possibility of being in control of your working life.190 Within the DIY craft movement this sentiment is much shared. In the introduction to the book most credited with "bringing knitting back", Stitch n Bitch, Debbie Stoller wrote, speaking of young women in her cohort, "in an age when so 189 Pace, Lisa A., Changing the World One Stitch at a Time: Knitting as a Means of Social and Political Activism, (University of Akron, 2007): 3. 190 For more information on Judy Chicago you can check out: Helen Molesworth's article "Cleaning Up in the 1970s: The Work of Judy Chicago, Mary Kelly, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles" in Reinventing Conceptual Art, Michael Newman and John Bird, Eds (Hushion House, 1999):107122; and, Lauren Rabinovitz's article "Issues of Feminist Aesthetics: Judy Chicago and Joyce Wieland" in Women's Art Journal (1, 2): 38-41. 90 many of us sit in front of computers all day long, we may feel the desire to create, to touch, to make something tactile with our hands. And in these uncertain, anxious times, warm handmade scarves and cozy sweaters feel protective and comforting."191 And, as Kim Werker, editor of Crochet Me and Interweave Crochet, suggests, the post-9/11 world has encouraged people to "come back to valuing home and family more than they have in decades and so the 'home arts' are resurging in popularity".192 Despite the role of this discourse as the "inspirational craft book", the need for connection and grounding can hit closer to home. Faced with a challenging personal journey, Jenny Hart began embroidering in the summer of 2000. Trained in Fine Arts, she had been thinking about embroidery for some time and while at home she found some scrap sheet and asked her mom to show her some basic stitches and completed a pale outline of her mom's image: "I got instantly addicted to it, because it was so relaxing and it was such a depressing and stressful time of my life. I embroidered for 3-4 hours a day for the next five years."193 Like Hart, Stoller also found her craft (in this case, knitting) addictive.194 Much like any hobby that makes someone feel good inside, crafts can be hard to put down or move away from, even just to take a bathroom break or to grab a coffee. The visceral connection with materials and the emotional reliance on an 191 Debbie Stoller, Stitch n Bitch, 11. Kim Werker, Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution (Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, 2007): 41. 193 In interview with Jenny Hart. 194 Stoller, 7. 192 91 inviting and positive finished piece or process of some sort has led to some groans of, "I wish I didn't have to go to work," or, "I wish I could spend all of my days doing this." And once crafters have faced their addiction to their craft and their undying need to do it everywhere all the time, two questions arise: "can I quit my 'job'?" and "am I still a feminist?" The answer to both of these questions is, positively, yes. And YES PLEASE! At the time of writing my revisions I was working as a customer service drone in a call-centre for a gigantic American cell phone company because it was the only work I could find, but paid enough to barely pay my bills and at least let us buy a few groceries. At work I was reminded constantly that I had to "be nice", "the customer was always right" and that I was stuck in a job that would definitely go NO WHERE. Never so much in my life had I wished, dreamed, yearned to not have to put on my headset and take phone calls but be at home knitting or sewing or doing any other crafty or domestic thing to make the awfulness of my day job go away. And yes, there is privilege in the ability to just up and quit a McJob to follow your dream (and usually end up making less money) to save your brain, and not everyone has this opportunity, but is it too audacious to say that some people dream of doing something better, anything better than placating infuriated customers who went over on their day-time mobile minutes or who actually didn't want whip cream on their mocha?195 Further note, I didn't leave the call centre for a better job by the time this has gone to print. I went on Maternity Leave instead with an open invitation to return to the call centre. 92 In his coverage of the Slow Movement, Carl Honore suggests that the consumer environment has pushed and pushed people to work harder and buy more and more. In more recent times, he argues, women have been the first to ask for a more balanced work life: "women are especially eager for work-life balance. Recent generations have been reared to believe it is their right and duty to have it all: family, career, house, rewarding social life. But 'having it all' has turned out to be a poisoned chalice."196 In essence, women (again) have You say y o u want a revolution? Too b a d it's b e e n appropriated! This is a theoretical conundrum that I daren't even begin to crack, a sense of chicken or the egg. Who created crafting in the modern era. Crafters, or those making money off our need for goods to craft with? Sure, Michael's is hopping during the Christmas Craft season, and you can get Ed Hardy brand temporary tattoos, and Martha Stewart makes incredibly awesome permanent pens and glitter for those gingerbread creatures. If we buy their supplies to fuel our movement is it even a movement anymore? And what about all those indie craft supplie sellers like SchoolLocker (who has an etsy store) or even The Regional Assembly of Text (Vancouver)? Further work needs to be done on craft appropriation and the movement....hm, phd? Anyone? been given the short end of the modernist stick. In response third wavers have been driven to crafting for connection and control over their own lives, families, communities, and economies. DIY crafters have reconstructed their own subcultures to encourage an alternative economic environment to Capitalism and "working for the man". Concerns about consumerism are a significant pillar of third wave discourse and response. Often capitalism and/or globalization are seen as more 196 Carl Honore, In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Changing the Cult of Speed (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004): 193. 93 powerful than patriarchy They "recreate the sexism, classism, heterosexism, racism and imperialism that third-wave feminism struggles against."197 Corporate America not only creates and sells the things DIY crafters and the third wave try to ignore, but capitalism has not made space for the new social and economic geography that is emerging in America.198 Corporate America can't DIY; "it's influencing existing manufacturers and existing companies are trying to figure [it] out but they can't. They truly can't pierce it. Not because we [DIY] don't want them to, they don't get it."199 So instead of trying to make them fit, sacrificing one's creativity is not on the to-do list when looking for employment. By being DIY, third-wave feminist crafters can build an economic structure and safe space to match their needs; in essence, creating a feminist work environment. Sometimes, though, this does mean contributing to the capitalism and consumerism machine. The third wave may be able to create their own altindustry, facilitate gift economies through trades and swaps rather than the straight-out purchase and sale of goods, and create a product that capitalism can attempt to copy but never truly replicate, but the entire industry hinges on the assumption that someone is buying something.200 In his text, The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism,20^ Matt Mason argues 197 Shira Tarrant, "Consumerism" The Women's Movement Today, volume 1, 68. Richard Florida, "The rise of the creative class: why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race," Washington Monthly (online), May 2002. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html 199 Interview with Jenny Hart. And more often than not we're buying something that someone has been exploited to make for us. 201 Matt Mason, The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism Free Press, 2008 (http://memphisdodgeball.com/pirate.pdf): 12. 198 94 that "D.I.Y. encourages us to reject authority and hierarchy, advocating that we can and should produce as much as we consume." But the third wave is still consuming (!!). Jean Railla from Get Crafty wrote a piece for Murketing last year questioning the rise of consumerism in the crafting movement but didn't really come to any conclusive answer. Her main question: "Isn't the whole point of modern crafting Do It Yourself — not Buy from Someone Who is Doing It Themselves?'202 In a forum on Get Crafty highlighting the post and started by Jean herself, crafters responded in a resounding, "we agree!"203 Complications and concern arise when considering that DIY feminism could simply just be reframing capitalism, but aside from Railla's post, the movement seems silent on the self-criticism. We know we're selling products, but there is a lack of accountability for admitting we're still in the same machine. Most crafters and commentators have chosen to see puzzling the question as enough204 or disagree with the premise all together. An article posted on Etsy's online magazine, The Storque, by Etsy user twiststyle argues that even if the movement is consumerist, we're changing the world in the process so it must be OK. Have you noticed how the definition of consumerism is being Italics author's own. Jean Railla, "What Would Jesus Buy?", Murketing (The Journal of), January 22, 2008: http://www.murketing com/journal/?p=997 203 Jean Railla, "Has Consumerism Taken Over Crafting7" Forum thread on Get Crafty started January 22, 2008: http-//www.getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=10368&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= &sid=335e9c86e4137bd088214f57b8ecce50 204 See "Craftivism, consumerism and spending money on recycled goods" from Polka Dot Rabbit (Friday, April 4, 2008): http://rabbitwithpolkadots.blogspot.com/2008/04/crativism-consumensmand-spending.html: and "American Consumerism" by Etsy user twiststyle (July 4, 2008)' http://www.etsy com/storque/craftivism/american-consumensm-2001/: and "Crafting, Consumerism & Cooptation: Materializing an Utopian Idea" by Etsy user Vanessa (February 9, 2008): http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/crafting-consumerism-cooptation-materializing-autopian-idea-1134/. 95 interpreted by those of us in America who consider ourselves part of the so-called Indie Movement? This movement has been initiated, motivated, propagated by us - and folks like us from all over the world. Us, being the people who care more about the personal part of the property. Us, being worldwide consumers, AND artists, crafts people, activists, punk rockers, back woods weavers, dirty potters, knitting divas, computer nerds, and so much more. We, being one weird bunch coming together to create something and succeeding. Succeeding because we are working together across our opposite occupations, mismatched philosophies. We are the buyers and the sellers who are bringing the world back to By teaming up a field of identity (like "knitting diva") with "worldwide consumer" DIY crafters are able to make consuming and capitalism OK because we're participating in "ethical consumerism". For the DIY craft feminist movement "ethical consumerism" is the purchase of goods/services from someone the buyer determines to be "ethical".206 In a more feminist context this could involve choosing to purchase feminist products over non-feminist products, which is relatively easy to do in the world of Etsy. Ethical consumerism is not without its complications from the definition of "ethical" to determining where to draw the line on what you will and will not consume due the level of ethic? And how is it more ethical to consume an item made by a single mom in poverty in Pensylvania compared to a single mom in poverty who's making something for North America consumption with her hands in a South East Asian factory? And how do we even conceive of Etsybased shops of handmade goods that are based in countries most often "American Consumerism" by Etsy user twiststyle (July 4, 2008): http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/american-consumerism-2001/ 206 A more generalized definition can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical consumerism 96 devastated by Western Industrial Capitalism like Sri Lanka, India, Colombia, and Taiwan?207 At this time I do not have the answers but compel crafters and feminists to ask themselves these questions. Despite the complexity it seems that or most crafters being armed with the knowledge that someone you can physically and emotionally connect with made what you're consuming allows for a feeling of consuming but not participating in consumer or capitalist culture. DIY crafters and third wavers are trying to undermine capitalism by creating relationships capitalism never intended.208 Surprisingly, DIY crafting has emerged as a feminist movement, not a situation of domestic drudgery. Crafting's response to feminism has focused on feminisms of the past but has not been totalizing in fashion like other historiographies would suggest third-wave discourse to be: third-wave feminists see their experiences as inspiration for being crafty. Crafting, knitting, and handicrafts have always been recognized as "women's work" and have been looked down upon and devalued.209 DIY crafters see that devaluation as a jumping off point for their recognition of crafting and perpetuation of the craft. Howell—a craft designer, yarn designer, freelance writer, TV show host, and super mom—grew up with a crafty mother in the period of the 1980s when it was not okay for women to be crafty. "Women were expected to be in the boardroom 207 These are definitely legions of academic works for future projects! If you want to find out how many Etsy shops and crafters who have them are in these countries go to http://www.etsy.com/shop local.php and put in a country/location of origin. 208 Ben Holtzman, Craig Hughes, Kevin Van Meter, "Do It Yourself...And the Movement Beyond Capitalism" in Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective TheorizationE6. Stevphen Shukaitis et al. (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2007): 45. 209 Debbie Stoller. Please hear her interview on the CRL Podcast with Vickie Howell, Episode 6: Femiknits (December 13, 2007); http://www.vickiehowell.com 97 and that was that, but now," she says, "the good thing is that you can be in the boardroom and have your project in your briefcase. I feel so lucky to be part of that," even if, she continues, "it's still not widely accepted." "You'll never get it, I guess this shit is too new. '*10»»»»»»»» Third-wave feminists are beginning to come up from the "underground," paper cutters in hand, and other some feminists sometimes don't get it. Crafters may experience negativity or outright disapproval by those who, on other fronts, share similar political and social values as crafters. For Vickie Howell, it was the crafting that got in the way. "It's really interesting about how in the feminist community there are pockets of it that we211 both experience huge negativity from for doing what we do, which is really shocking to me. I had women walk out of spaces where I would be having knitting groups." Regardless of whether these women actually left for a multitude of other reasons like being late to pick their kids up or having an instantaneous case of food poisoning from lunch, what's interesting and important about this perception is that as self-identified feminists and crafters both Stoller and Howell feel like they're working against the feminist mold and that capital "F" feminism isn't welcoming their version of feminism. In fact, in this example, Howell's own expression of feminism seems to be expelling other feminists. Which, at the end of the day is a significantly negative experience for Howell, especially when she thought that by identifying as a 210 211 Le Tigre, "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo", This Island (Island Records, 2005). Howell is referring to Debbie Stoller and herself. 98 "feminist" there would be some sense of synergy with other feminists and women through her own activism. For many DIY crafters being a feminist or identifying openly with feminist politics is almost a given. "Doing-It-Yourself" and creating a personal economy and community is inherently feminist. Jesse Kelly-Landes suggests that, "I think it would be very important if we said, 'no we're not feminists', I think that would really turn things on its head." Feminism is central to DIY crafters, even if as Tina Sparkles suggests, "I don't know if it's always necessarily there." For Howell, being a feminist comes first and being a crafter comes second, but infusing her crafts with her politics is not necessarily the aim of the day, especially when business is at hand. As a businesswoman I know it's not smart to lay out their personal selves on their sleeves. But if you were to scratch the surface you would see where my politics lie. I do things obscurely to give shout outs to feminism. With Rock,212 I made sure there were as many yarns named after women as men. So there are little ways and maybe no one gets it but me but it's one of those things I do for my own soul. Women (and Feminists!!) continue to have a harder time gaining ground in the business world, which makes being DIY even more pressing for a feminist agenda because it makes a space where not participating is a choice and empowering. For DIY crafters, DIY can carry different meanings but continuities are apparent: use what's already available to you, don't depend on "the man" to get things done (do-it-yourself!!), and create things that reflect yourself. Most 212 One of Howell's Yarns with South West Trading Company. 99 important, though, is that you must "be" DIY: it must be who you are, even by default. Landes, a coordinator of Stitch213 and Austin-based DIY crafter may have discontinued her clothing line, Amet and Sasha, but, for her and many others, being DIY goes beyond the things that she makes. DIY is integral to myself; I no longer have crafts or products so to speak because I felt very strongly about doing things on my own terms. I thought a lot about the value with what I made was that I was doing it myself. Anyone can go buy mass produced clothing and that's not something I want to do. I think I have a hard time not being self-sustaining. I feel more empowered when I'm taking care of myself in my own way, even if it's not the most profitable way. Howell, considering the role of DIY as integral to her life, agrees: Absolutely, I think that's the foundation behind everything I've done, arguably in my entire life, but especially in my career. I do everything, still to this day I do most of own publicity, everything I do is pretty grassroots, I think that doing it yourself really infuses the creativity in what could just be seen as a business. Sublime Stitching, Hart's pro-embroidery company, is DIY from the ground up. When considering her business model, Hart sees her business as an extension of her DIYness: The things I'm putting together, all the blocks, were there but they weren't put together in this way. My business has been forged from every aspect of it, from the website to the name to the aesthetic to the design to the manufacturing, none of these are cookie cutter things, every single thing has been created and come into being as an innovation and a further evolution for the industry. As can be seen in the work of Landes, Howell, and Hart, DIY permeates a whole life, but it also permeates all of the crafty business as well. It effects the choices 3 An annual stitch-oriented craft fair in Austin, Texas. made regarding product, audience, and promotion, as well as who to employ and why. DIY crafting is more than a site of personal identification and guiding principle for crafty work. The number of young women who participate create numbers enough to warrant a movement,214 meeting a few times yearly for trade shows and gigantic craft fairs,215 and any quick visit to Etsy.com reassures that there are more than a few independent crafters out there. One of the barriers to identifying as a movement is that the act of producing and contributing doesn't often come with the time or need to step outside yourself and peer in. Also, because on the surface the movement appears to be a simple confluence of ideas and "products" it is neither recorded as a political or social movement, nor necessarily a feminist one. Howell suggests that there is broader cohesion because we can "connect with the common denominator being craft." As Howell suggests, with DIY craft and third-wave feminism, it is connection through the crafty world (ie. Online via Ravelry216 or at the Renegade Craft Fair) that is paramount. Often, the "outside of the box" imagery that DIY crafting lends itself to, does not tend to provide a recognizable image of an established "movement", and for those on the "inside" who propel and contribute to this movement, it's still too fresh and fast paced for strong recognition of its outward political goals. 2,4 The over 90,000 members ofCraftster.org, 500,000 members on Ravelry.com, and 250,000 sellers on Etsy.com (stats on all of these can be found on their sites). 215 Like Got Craft? and Bizarre Bazaar. 216 An online knitting land, www.ravelry.com 101 It's so early, and I thought this might be the downward curve a few years ago, a lot of us talk about it at fairs, is this going to be a trend that'll fizzle, will it blow up and go mainstream? And I've been really fascinated by it's slow burn and I think that's because it affects so many different things. I think we've reached a point where it's endowable and important.217 Once DIY crafting is recognized as a "movement", DIY crafters are able to work together, cohesively, to implement social, political, and economic change. And boy, do they want to create change. The simple act of picking up a crochet hook has been emblematic for change in DIY communities and for work in general.218 For Tina Sparkles, founder of Sparklecraft, being DIY means staying small and making your own socially positive and environmentally friendly choices. I feel that if I did do that [go into mass production] that I might not have control over what happens, who does it, is it ethical, are the people that are making my products being treated well and I haven't felt confident in any of the routes that I've been presented that it would be good, so I have not done that...If I found an option that met a certain set of requirements then I would do that...speaking as a person that has made over 5000 guitar straps, I can hand that off to someone else. For Landes, too, concern about one's ecological and personal footprint is paramount. I guess right now what I care about is making food, part of it is that I love food and I love to cook, but also part of it is that there is an ecological aspect to it and I think that clearly it is the foundation of our lives and I think that we can make a huge difference in our lives 217 Jenny Hart. For more information on the work revolution please see Rob Walker's "Handmade 2.0" in The New York Times Magazine (December 16, 2007): http://www.nytimes.eom/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html?scp=1&sq=handmade+2.0&st=nyt 218 if we eat locally and seasonally. And, it's important that my career has a positive impact in the world, having a bakery or a food producer can really help and I think that locally produced food is going to get crazy important. Both Sparkles and Landes are concerned with sustainability of their DIY activities in general and have, with cohorts, helped to establish and organize an annual craft fair in Austin, TX, called Stitch. Stitch is not your simple church-basement craft fair and has the outcome of sustaining and advancing the DIY craft movement. DIYers from across North America flood to Austin to meet fellow business owners/crafters, get their word out, build community, sell product to individuals and/or independent stores, and support one another. Stitch's "importance is in creating awareness locally and nationally and hoping these sorts of people and their businesses thrive."219 Despite the growth of the movement and the "openness" to gender, DIY crafting seems to remain "women's work. In writing her Stitch n Bitch books, Stoller set out combat the negative stereotypes attributed to knitting by both "the man" and feminists because she felt that any work deemed "women's domestic work" was immediately belittled and looked down upon simply because women did it, not because the work was oppressive or belittling. The continued association of craft with the subjugation of women continues to disappoint feminist crafters and DIY'rs. This is because non-DIYers just don't get it. Also, because the definition of a DIY piece as a "product" can be a grey and arguable delineation, people are unsure of how to conceive of 9 Jesse Kelly Landes. 103 women's DIY crafts. At an art show of her work in New York, where her Iggy Pop piece was hanging, Hart explained that "a guy looked at it and actually said, 'where'd you get a kit for that?' and I thought it was so interesting that that is how deeply ingrained in people's minds it is that if you work in this medium [embroidery] it is only viewed as being craft or the result of a kit or a step-by-step how to." If it looks like craft viewers expect it to remain in the craft genre and have a need to make it themselves. Part of the movement towards a solidified DIY craft movement is ensuring that these crafts, businesses, and lifestyles begin to garner more respect, not only because the participation of the crafts in the "world" are departures from the way the place of "women's work" is understood, but because the act of viewing traditional women's work outside of the home creates more opportunities for discussing and engaging with work and craft. At the end of the day, though, the role of DIY crafts as "women's work" is facing a bit of a gender challenge. While DIY is still a female-dominated field, men do participate, even in crafts that have been historically associated with women. Speaking of gender in the DIY craft world, Howell suggests that the gender imbalance could slowly disappear. Obviously right now it's still very female and that's something myself that I'm really trying to change. It's sort of strange because it's such a "woman" power thing and it's really oppressive to only make it a female thing and I try to bring in cool, often straight, smart hip men who are creative because it's so important. I can see it branching out a little but it's really slow. I'm always amazed when I leave my little community and when you step in any direction most people don't consider any handicraft male, and there are people 104 trying to break that but it's still a long way to go...it's still an archaic community. Men who participate in the DIY movement may not necessarily be anomalies and are quite successful given that their crafts are not easily seen as traditional women's work. Such sites as Threadless and Etey were not created by women but have been wildly successful and supportive in contributing to the DIY community at large. Some men, too, create their own crafts and sell them through Etsy stores and have a strong feminist presence. Craig Hunter of Cubist Literature220 is definitely one of my most favourite DIY crafters in the world. His work encompasses a wide range of drawings, one-inch buttons, hand sewed appliques, screen prints, knitted goods, and handspun yarns. He creates engaging, popular, and entirely DIY articles to support himself not only economically and socially but also politically. Not surprising, Hunter's understanding of DIY does not waver from other feminist DIY crafters in that he holds strong ideas for what DIY is: "You'd be surprised how many people claim to be DIY but aren't really. DIY just isn't knowing how to sew or knit. It's about having a strong desire to do something and then doing it by yourself. OR with others. But having a total grassroots approach."221 Regardless of gender, DIY crafters often meet in physical and online communities to support each other and their work. Considering both the Riot GrrI 220 www.cubistliterature.com Craig Hunter, "My Legs Will Soon Grow Back," Cubist Literature Blog (http://cubistliterature.vox.com/library/post/my-legs-will-soon-grow-back.html) 221 105 movement and DIY crafters, Hunter blogs, "I just think it's really inspiring the way these women (sometimes men) came together because they had a desire and an idea and a message. And we made something happen. They made a lot of things happen. And they inspired, too."222 Amongst many DIY crafters, building a community is number one on the to-do list, and this is what they should be remembered for historically. >»"We don't want our boring jobs to keep us paying bills forever, so what are we waiting for?"<««« The DIY craft movement is so new and so present that studying it is hardly a traditionally historical endeavor. Very few academic texts exist and the materials that form the burgeoning DIY historical record are often patterns, transfer books, eco-yarn, calendars, and one inch buttons: artifacts. Because the materials that are representative of the DIY movement do not resemble other traditional historical documents (like government documents, polemics, or photographs), taking a look into current theory and practice in the DIY craft movement will allow us to determine which "texts" need to be considered "historical artifacts" in order to make space for the recording of its history and the recognition of it as a "valid" movement. How does one, then, "make history" of the DIY crafting movement or thirdwave feminism in general? Who are the people that will stand out, if anyone, what will they have "done" in the movement, and what will be their legacies? 106 More specifically, what effects will be remembered as important to the movement? Most DIY crafters do not see themselves, personally, as "historical actors", meaning their specific personal movements do not carry an intended historical weight. Despite the grand scope of being labeled a historical actor, some crafters mentioned feeling "incredibly honoured" if they were remembered as people who made an impact in their space and time. DIY crafters see their main historical concern in voice and community: "One of the reasons I'm doing this Craft Core book is that the only reason to have a voice is to better your world or community, so if I am and it's being documented, it all means something that would be great."223 Third-wave DIY crafters already feel a sense of historical connection with their forecrafters and their techniques, designs, tools, and communities. This historical connection is not one that "stopped" with post-feminism, especially when we consider feminist historiography. Feminist history is far from "dead" and it can be recognized in DIY crafters' activities, historians and historiographers just need to view and study it from where the DIYers are doing it. Aside from recognizing voice and community building, the DIY crafting historical record needs to focus on the internet, craft fairs, the actual "products" the crafters make, and how people are using the products, from the bottom up. When recording third-wave crafting historiography it would be damaging to rely solely on contemporary academic texts about the DIY crafting movement: zines, crocheted shawls, vegan glycerin soaps with plastic animals inside, and vinyl bracelets 223 Vickie Howell. 107 need to examined to determine if they have left a lasting legacy for DIY crafters and third-wave feminism. DIY crafters want to be remembered for creating communities, being active and pro-active on the internet, having more interest in the community at large, and as the generation who "decided that we were done with McDonalds and big boxes and that we want an alternative and hopefully that will take hold and something positive will come out of it."224 Jesse Kelly-Landes 108 (ltddM famboefy my first voice and experience of the highway oftears 225 109 When I first wrote this essay I was beginning to think more about race as experienced by the third wave and young feminists across Canada. Often because the third wave is typified as a white, middle-class feminism it is harder to find north of the Canada-US border. I wanted to explore why my feminism might be the same (or different) and look closer at the experiences young feminists in Canada deal with, advocate around, and gather together to discuss. This creative essay exemplifies a few (definitive) qualities often recognized as third wave: personal concern for race/racism, creative anthologizing, disregard for formal grammar (just do it as it feels right, who really cares about artistic merit/quality), self-criticism/mirroring, and the importance of First Voice. This essay also fits as an example of third-wave as practice: a) it would seem out of place smack dab in the middle of a random thesis, b) it speaks from the heart of the writer (me), and c) it contributes to the anthologizing of experience done by the third-wave. I speak with no outward authority on this subject and speak of my experiences; and the third wave, the individual is the utmost authority for themself. Most importantly, this essay also tackles issues and activism that spans the waves continuum. Third wavers have been seen as "girlie" or "do me" feminists by the academy for quite some time. But third wavers engage with issues that are considered "real" issues. They speak out against injustices and recognize their place as oppressors/the oppressed. This is my space to explain how second-wave issues have affected me as thirdwave. I mean, what happens when a white girl is concerned with an issue like the Highway of Tears that affects so many Aborigianl women and communities? Women who go missing on the Highway of Tears are everyone's issue: third wavers need to be reminded...need to look at the racial implications of colonialism on these small, rural communities and the perceptions that ensure these women continue to go missing. i grew up on the highway of tears, that long, winding, oftentimes narrow stretch of road, the road that we thought began on the pacific, crawling out of the ocean, rolling like a wave from our dreams of the pacific ocean, some distance land called the east, but was so obviously to my west, orient to what? i thought, that road, the underwater road to the west, with its yellow embossed line must, it must, travel on to haida gwaii. surely the highway went beyond the islands of prince rupert. i grew up on that embossed yellow line, sometimes double thick demanding its division of sides, sometimes letting one side dominate the other, and often times checked, blinking in the car mirror as you drive far, far away to somewhere more civilized, somewhere not so isolated, some where with more cities and towns with multiple high schools and school course divisions, the only course divisions we saw were intro to mathematics, communications twelve, and the kids in poverty, kids with trauma, kids who were not welcome by the dominant system, the patriarchal, western, white education system, kids that are statistically deemed to not graduate or even make it past grade 10 un-pregnant. i believe that those who didn't recognize this system, and to this day probably don't, did not see those divisions the way i did, and maybe the way others did too. it's the inability to identify ourselves as colonizers that make me afraid of the highway, the blinking yellow divider highway, that flash of mustard smeared on concrete toast an indicator that anyone can cross to the other side. when i was between the ages of six and ten my parents lived on a farm, a 111 farm they could raise pigs on (but never did), out in a suburb of my northern, isolated town, a neighbourhood more isolated with all of those lonely, dark roads with secrets and ghosts and tales of past frights, this time of my life is not a memory-tactile time, my dreams and fantasies often have become skewed with my idea of what "really" happened in my experiences out there in the woods, trees and darkness and pits for livestock blood and cabins with ghosts and compost piles with the associated grizzly or deer and aurora borealis that take the shape of eagles, eagles from the tattoos so permanently imprinted on the arms of men in the 80s. northern women in the 80s. eagle tattooed on my memory, six years old. i believe in this time period i began to have premonitions, that said eagle was possibly a connection to an ancestral understanding in my world view, six years old around a fire adults with whiskey and pilsner breath and i'm staring straight at the sky connecting with an image outside of me. i dreamt of wolves in packs grey as the night and the gloomy days of winter flying through my bedroom window yellow eyes like that highway line, my family taking stock of my house, eating my dad's concocted sausage surprise, thinned with canned soup, the wolves relegated to "dream" status: popular culture, dominating patriarchy of school, white school, and parents who say, "it was just a dream", there is no way my dream of wolves shacking up in our rural trailer represented a reality for me or my family, i did not wake up with wolves in my bed: wolves in my head, instead. i remember one more dream one more premonition of mine from this period. 112 these images so real and so scary to this day that i'm not sure if they are reality or fantasy, they definitely blur that binary-ed line in popular conceptions and understandings, how to start a tale that makes you shudder, that when you drive up to the road behind the airport to look at more aurora borealis, this time green, and not taking shape because i've just turned 24 and i've got my story on my mind, for the first time speaking of my fears of being on that stretch of road, not specifically the highway, but the one of the many things that ties me to the highway, general, performative, traditional narrative would say: white woman, petite, thin, spiky bleach blonde hair, jeans, cut off vest, black cowboy shoes, collarbone that jutted just so far out, vest was black, she was wearing some leather and silver jewelry, ears pierced, no studs, gelled hair, 80s northern inspiration, taxi driver, kalum kabs, driving late, weekend night, out on the town driving home the drunks, using highway 16 (it does wind its way right through town) as her main thoroughfare to the bars and the customers, ferry island! fairy island! in-between bridges of new, nestled in the fury of the skeena river, trails, camp ground, pond filled with tadpoles and frogs, it's summer, it's hot, there are people in the park, drunk people, angry people, homeless people, families, yet, camping alongside a place stewing with fear, she gets a call on her radio, pick up ferry island, she is strong, not worried, doesn't even think there would be a problem, she is not naive: when you are faced with constant danger, being afraid is not a choice nor a reality, or is that just a cliche, she drives down the gravel drive, down into the beginning of the park, it's black and 113 now i'm nervous telling this story, i wonder if the way i frame the victim as nonaboriginal and the perpetrators perhaps not aboriginal, but rough, tumbly, rural men with power to hopefully reclaim, the men, both drunk, need a ride out to behind the lake, out to where rich people live in A-frames with docks, out to where rednecks live in the bush with guns, my mom always warned me of these rednecks, they open the cab door and that taxi smell gushes out into the hot summer air. this is where my memory fades and i get caught up in the thought of beer breath, strong biceps on woman driving taxi, quite dark threatening roads up behind the blinking lights of the kitimat- terrace airport, somehow the men threaten the woman to the point where she isn't driving, they're driving, and she's restrained in the back seat, i'm 25 now and shaking telling this story, what would it have been like formulating this image between the ages of six and 10. in the back seat they take her up to the chain link fence behind the airport, along that long stretch of road, i can remember the exact spot, i always think to get out and look, maybe something is there, her black ripped t-shirt, her jewelry, a ripped up shoe, some hair, they pulled her out of the car and tied her to the fence, i think they had raped her in the car and beat her and hurt her. i can't remember if she resisted so violently she maybe could have been free. where was there to go up there on that long stretch of seal-coated gravel road, blinking green lights of airport, sullen flashes of northern lights, twinkle of sorry and sad stars, they tied her to the fence, rope somehow manifested and 114 beat her more, they assaulted her further and then cut her body up with a knife hanging on the fence, on the road so close to the highway we have now given the moniker of highway of tears. i don't know if this actually happened in other people's realities and have been afraid to dig into the archives of the local paper, head back to 1989 or perhaps 1992, and see what i can find, did i hear the story on the local evening news and was so traumatized i wrapped it up in my head and made it a full story, or was i there, feeling like an out of body experience for this woman so brutalized on a chain link fence in my rural, isolated neighbourhood, my town, fast forward more than ten years, i have a degree, i am armed with some sort of knowledge, i am armed with a token of injustice towards alternative world views, i feel i resisted the whole way through, resisted that academic ivory system i so disdain and have tried to grapple with, i return, having found my cliche'd self in asia, tesol. i return to that highway, nyquil induced student rate greyhound ticket ride north to my home, wake up in hazelton, crisp fog and mist settle over me, i'm home, what have i come home to? i've come home to the term "highway of tears", i've come home to work in a transition house, trauma counsellor, i've come home to be one of the voices working to stop violence against women, i'm home three weeks, i'm in the job ten days fax through machine requesting, where is young woman, 22, missing, don't tell anyone just yet, we need to make sure she's not hiding out, or in our transition house. 22, two year old son, dating 40 year old creep, father of son, drug dealer, rapist, destroyer of futures, owner 115 of most of community buildings, leerer of anti- violence worker, yeeps. i went to school with 22 year old girl, felt so personally affected by missing woman, young woman with child, transient woman, addicted, rumours swirl, i begin to hate the rumours and begin to argue against them, it is not those rumours that made her go missing, it is her "high risk lifestyle" that was so deemed out of context, can we begin to talk about race, can we begin to talk about age, can we begin to talk about 40 year old partners of young girls, weeks pass, 2 year old child of missing woman in the custody of 40 year old partner, voices in transition house begin to echo past stories of the highway of tears, past clients who were once picked up by the person committing the crimes but escaped, other past clients who have also gone missing on the highway, a highway so connected with the rest of canada and the other women going missing along the concrete stretches of communication road to bind this country brought together over barrels of champagne, drunk on nationhood and an emphasized federal state, it doesn't only happen here, a national crime of colonialism (don't tell me it's a postcolonial experience, post-colonialism does not exist), fast forward again to early 2006. even another woman has gone missing, people are talking about pickton, the numbers of women, the stories, the gossip, the rumours, and the experiences told about the highway, families disappearing, young women, mothers, aunties, young-white tree planter traveling by thumb to family oriented music festival, people hitchhiking because every other time, every other numerous time you hitchhike you get picked up by someone safe, 116 someone nice, perhaps someone who buys you lunch, perhaps someone who will drive you to exactly where you need to go, maybe even your auntie, government begins to feel the pressure, the pressure from victims' service workers, from transition houses, from communities, from artists, from feminists, from voices and aboriginal communities along the highway: something needs to be done! so a symposium is held, in the prince george civic centre, hundreds of people attend, angry people, sad people, other surviving victims, families of those lost to the highway, community representatives, indigenous communities, non-aboriginals, souls, recommendations are made and a few dollars and sunk into a highway of tears coordinator, to carry out the recommendations of the symposia we226 met with highway of tears coordinator, with victim service worker, we made a space, we gave each other an space, a first voice place a circle, a circle that felt like it worked, we provided food, we engaged in ceremony, we smudged and we talked about the importance and the impact and the significance of this teary highway, of the symposia, and of the work of the coordinator, people shared emotions, tears, anger, and restraint when discussing the impact of this highway on the group, we created an act of resistance, we created a circle in such a linear, row- oriented environment, we burned smudge on a campus where sweet grass and sage are so affiliated with a sweet grass of an illicit kind, alternative and pot-smoking we get labeled by professors, we provide food to feed our ancestors (being non-aboriginal i still 26 our Circle Works class. 117 feel that i have to give credit to indigenous ancestors, that i must thank the ancestors of this land), food to feed our community, a venue for community voice, women meeting and men meeting, people meeting!, to discuss important issues of our community: that is resistance of the most important kind, that day we created change, we released feelings and reestablished a community, extending the process of coming to terms with buried loss and anger.227 we were invited to discover ourselves in relation,228 and reaffirming that we are all part of the larger cycle of life, the highway of tears affects/ed the class, the gathering that day...those who live the highway, who travel the highway, we came together in a circle, caring for each other, sharing with each other, and reestablishing our connection with community.229 we were empowered by taking action230 and by utilizing our first voice, we acted, we resisted, we created a venue for others to do so too! late night, close friend is reporter for newspaper, young woman missing for three weeks, reporter's phone rings and it's a young man, a friend from the regional district saying a burned out car had been found and tied to the 40 year old partner of missing young woman, perhaps someone's remains inside, what an end to the story of such a hideous crime, is the crime brought on by a serial killer as everyone thinks, or is the crime the national crime a crime of racism a crime of poverty a crime of misogyny a crime so embedded in our society and 227 Fyre Jean Gravelin, Circle Works (Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2003): 156. Ibid, 152 229 Ibid, 164. 230 Ibid, 202 228 118 dominant patriarchy that we could all plausibly take the blame? reporter and i contemplated going out there, up the copper highway, up the dirt road to mining valley, late at night, shuddering, thinking what we could find, what we could discover, we nervously shuddered and thought of the consequences. 10 o'clock in the evening, weeknight, star reporter for the isolated town times and feminist activist of the bustling transition house hunting out in the woods, flashlight, camera, and self-defense courses in tow. searching for some clues, some answers, some reassurance that the plague of the highway resides in situations, single accidents, and is not manifest in the widespread fear that our highway was safe, no, we hoped that 40 year old partner was to blame, not colonialism, nor misogyny, nor crime of poverty and race, we tittered, what an awkward sight if we got caught, i shudder now. crime still unsolved, body yet uncovered, young child growing up in the home of 40 year old partner, drug dealer, criminal creep, picks up his new 19 year old trophy treasure and i still to fear for the future. 119 %X& (Mm." epilogue and resource gui4e An undertaking of this kind could not have been achieved without an incredible amount of research and hard, hard work. When I started this project just over two years ago231 the end result I had in mind was going to look very different. I was just as interested in the intersections and connections between third-wave feminism and the academy, but had wanted to express my feminist/academic wanderings in the form of an academic thesis. Much like "You Make Me Want to Crochet?" I wanted my project to stake a claim for third-wave feminism in academia and historiography within a Canadian context. Aside from a general lack of Canadian third-wave sources, I'm not sure what originally distracted me from this path (though it was probably something shiny). This was the first lesson I learned about graduate work: it is almost imperative you complete and exit the work with a different mindset and way of knowing and being then when you began. Completing this thesis and looking both at the journey and towards the future allows me to reminisce somewhat and get a little misty-eyed about the whole experience of producing a work that not only studies the intersections between activism/ists/feminism/ists and a book-bound and "objective'Vscientific culture, but actually tried to create a working model of how that intersection makes a space in this specific cultural place and time. There is a growing Zeitgeist of similarly minded young feminists making spaces in and outside of the academia. As my research progressed it became harder and harder to keep up with the continuous publishing of texts from a 231 three years ago? This has taken what feels like forever that's for sure! young feminist, third-wave voice and the culture(s) that surround it: knitting books, art shows, movies, albums, and blogs. What I want to explore in this epilogue/resource guide is what inspired me along the way to completion: what did I read?, what did I listen to?, what did I watch?, and how did I participate in my community? More often than not third wave is often only found in urban centres, leaving small cities like Prince George and even smaller ones resting north of here as unexpected happenings of young, savvy, feminist resistance and experience. I imagine what I would have wanted to know at the age of 14 about the world of feminism beyond my postered bedroom and Hole CD and wish the access to the theory, the experience, and the dream of young feminism on our terms can be liberating for those practicing and thinking in the hinterlands. Or, is that too cliche? > » » A C C E S S and P R I V I L E G E « « « Those who have the opportunity to attend post-secondary institutions experience privilege and those who are unable to attend are considered marginalized.232 Despite this framing, the division between privileged and marginalized isn't compietely dichotomous. For me privilege is something I know I have access to: I'm "white" and because of this I'm given space to have a voice. But the grey area would ask, how do anyone (including myself) decide what privilege looks like for me? I am a rural young woman who spent a number of her adolescent 232 For example, a recent program funded by the Federal Government of Canada, You Can Go!, aims to encourage those on the "margins" who do not have ready access to Post Secondary Education the support and tools needed to get them into school(s). For more information on You Can Go please see http://www.youcango.ca 122 years with a single parent on social assistance, going to an "inner-city" school, and barely meeting the requirements for high-school graduation and not meeting any requirements needed to go to university. I climbed the ladder through postsecondary avoiding courses and schools where I needed Math or French 11, and amassing an uncontrollable amount of student loan debt. And here I am, participating in a graduate program, a very privileged place. And, it's been a struggle. I still don't know what I'm doing here from a class perspective and struggled for the first while trying to explain to my family what I was doing (studying about feminism) and what I want(ed) to be (a feminist). But, at the end of the day, regardless of access and privilege, I think that this project would not have been completed outside of the academy. The situation of this messy third-wave thesis inside the academy is also important for carving space for those who might not have come here in the first place. In short: get learning. Whether it's in a post-secondary setting, going to the closest library, or learning from your community elders (or even HGTV233), keep learning. Make the system and the material you're consuming see you as their privilege (because it's true) and keep ploughing forth: the system needs you to change it because heaven knows it can't do it on its own. » > » » F I N D SOME F R I E N D S « « « (and get them doing things together) My adult life has been defined by the following situation: me packing all of my Home and Garden Television. 123 stuff up and moving to a completely different community to tackle something I've set out to do. Sometimes that has meant moving with a partner (as did moving to Vancouver the first time and moving here to PG) and other times it meant taking off on my own (as did moving to Japan). But every time my need to find people/friends/community would get me on my feet again. It's as simple as leaving the house and smiling at EVERYONE. Someone will ask you who you are and as soon as you can pay for a coffee or take out that library book you've made a friend. And, usually they're for keeps. When I moved to Prince George I put my tactics into action as soon as I could and made a poster calling for the first meeting of the Prince George Craft Collective. Ten people showed up! Four of them are close friends to this day. The Collective is now defunct but has led to the creation of the Prince George Stitch n Bitch (going strong for over a year now) and a circle of friends large enough to warrant a private Feminist Craft Camp.234 It is really important to remember that if the community you live in doesn't have the activity or social circle you want then you, solely, are responsible for it's creation!! Finding friends in new communities and environments has also helped me through this project. Graduate school is stressful and making friends who will make you dinner, listen to your whining, or talk out your theoretical issues is integral to completing a project like an MA. Who knows? They may even give you a great idea! Which sadly never actually happened because of scheduling conflicts! But the feeling was there! > » » » G E T ON THE INTERNET<««« Being "isolated" often means just that, you're isolated. I'm lucky to have met a number of young feminists in Prince George and have won them over with cupcakes, blogger, and lots of compliments but sometimes there are these two things I just need to rely on the internet for. Up-to-date feminist commentary on the world: - Feministing http://www.feministing.com/ - Shameless Magazine http://www.shamelessmag.com/ - Waves of Resistance http://www.rebelles2008.org/en/node - Jezebel http://jezebel.com/ - Sarah Haskin's Target Women http://current.com/target-women/ - What to Expect When You're Aborting http://myabortion.tumblr.com/ - GRRRL Power! Girl Studies at UCF http://girlsstudies.blogspot.com/ - BUST Magazine http://www.bust.com - Bitch Magazine http://bitchmagazine.org/ - Riot Grrrl Online http://www.hot-topic.org/riotgrrrl/ - Third Wave Foundation http://www.thirdwavefoundation.org/ - Guerrilla Girls http://www.guerrillagirls.com/ - The Miss G_ Project http://www.themissgproject.org/ - Girls Make Media http://girlsmakemedia.blogspot.com/ - Hoochie Woman Feminist Magazine http://issuu.com/hoochiewoman - gURL http://www.gurl.com/ - The Girl Project http://www.thegirlproject.org/ Craft Help and Discussion: - Craft Zine http://blog.craftzine.com/ - Do Stuff! http://leethal.coloredlights.net/zine/ - Crafting a Green World http://craftingagreenworld.com/ - Craftster http://www.craftster.org - Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com - ReadyMade http://www.readymade.com/ - Instructables http://www.instructables.com/ - Etsy http://www.etsy.com 125 At the very least by finding access to the internet235 for feminist and activist pursuits you can meet other people and have your thoughts validated by the interwebs. If you want to publish your own content online try these sources: - ISSUU http://issuu.com/ (publish your own magazine to the web) - Blogger http://www.blogger.com (a google company, Blogger is great for having your own blog). - Tumbir http://www.tumblr.com/ (a quick blogging platform, less story based then blogger). - Flickr http://www.flickr.com (a photo posting site) - YouTube http://youtube.com (for posting your multimedia!) > » » » M A K E SOMETHING«««< Whether it's putting together a zine about your own experience, starting your own community group (like a stitch n bitch OR pick up basketball girlz), or just making cookies and bringing them to one of your classes, the production of something tangible to give to future friends and your community starts a lifelong bond to that simple, generous offering. After making your offering and someone says something positive about it (because they will) the response that builds community is, "want to do it with me?" or "want the recipe?" or "wanna join?" For inspiration on being DIY and making "things" to send out into the world to reflect yourself and your ideas/culture/politics check out Amy Spencer's The Crafter Culture Handbook (London: Marion Boyers Publishers, 2007); Robyn Goodmark's Girls Rock: How to Get Your Group Together and Make Some Noise (New York: Billboard Books, 2008); Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards' Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005). I'm sure there are other texts you'll find along your 235 If you're in Post-Secondary you can usually get it at the school, or even in your high school, or community centre, or a friend's house. way but these have been the most instrumental for me. >»TAKE STOCK IN THE PROCESS<« Looking backwards, thinking ahead, and interrogating the space I'm in right now I believe this project has been a success. I believe I have completed what I set out to do236 and now only time and consistent legwork on my part will tell if the text inspires other third wavers or young feminists to take their cause to the academy. If I did it all over again I don't think I'd change anything (except maybe NOT work full time so that I could immerse myself in the project more and finish faster). In the wake of R. Claire Snyder's recent article on the third wave where she argues that the third wave isn't a movement237 I think that the third wave needs to continue to submit contradictory, confusing, and exploratory work into the world of academia, because obviously it's still OK to say we're not here. I think, too, that my exploration of the zine and the thesis as a third-wave amalgamation was difficult to conceive and put together technically. At this end I'm not sure there is another way to approach it (I wrote my pieces first and then wove in the drawings). As I mentioned previously, doing the entirety of the zine on the computer at the beginning was a bad idea.238 I spent a tremendous amount of time (hours and hours) drawing and scanning and rescanning and putting them into the text and then after the draft-thesis rounds I printed out the final "text" copy and hand drew all over the place. I cut pages up, reglued them 236 Aside from my complete failure to make it look like a zine. Snyder, 193 238 And as mentioned, this final "to the printer" copy is without a lot of the hand drawings. 237 127 as I saw fit, and zine'd it out, including hand drawing all the page numbers. Deciding not to be tied to a computer-based process, so that everyone could see the zine as it progressed, saved me an incredible amount of techno-stress. And it was more zine-like anyway. Using my hands, tape, glue, scissors. I'm not sure, looking back, if I'd change the "article'Vacademic structure of the pieces or the overarching narratives. Of those academic things I believe NEED to be part of this project it is the research, the argument(s), and the metanarratives. I also don't think my thesis has been completely "thesis" free as originally planned. But, I feel that the argument and thesis, while foregrounded in the intro-section, has also been argued the whole way through and that the reader, the academy, and myself leave with the knowledge that the third wave IS HERE! And this is what we breathe, eat, sleep, and produce like in the academy, (thanks for having me!). >»»»»READ/LISTEN/SEE EVERYTHING YOU C A N « « « « « Even though I identify as a third-wave feminist, doing my thesis on myself and third wave still meant that I had to do a lot of research and consume a lot of feminist culture just to keep myself motivated through the stressful runs. And, working full time throughout the run of graduate school also meant I needed to do whatever I could to stay connected to my topic even when I didn't have time to read a bunch of texts. I found that movies, music, magazines and the internet helped with this. It allowed me, when combined with the "academic" texts and 128 articles, to have a well-rounded understanding and experience with all that makes up third-wave feminism. I also tried to pay attention to anything a teenage girl would be consuming through North American media and culture and also consumed those things. It allowed me to not only have knowledge to contribute to the debate, but also to be aware of what messages are still being fed to young women. Below is a list of culture-items that kept me going and inspired me as well as a list of those texts I read and devoured. MUSIC (in no particular order) Le Tigre, Peaches, Metric, Gossip, Robyn, Yelle, The Blow, YACHT, Bratmobile, the GirlMonster Compilation from Chix on Speed, Northern State, Tegan and Sara, Mirah, MIA (!!), Crystal Castles, Neko Case, Julie Doiron, The Organ, Pan de Sal, Peachcake, Sleater-Kinney, Snoozer/Snuggletooth, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Julie Ruin, The Knife, and more recently, Fever Ray, Bat for Lashes, Spinnerette and Lily Allen. MOVIES + TV (in no particular order) Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know, anything Stephanie Savage touched like The O.C. and Gossip Girl; I also rewatched old favourites like Ghost World, Tank Girl, 10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That, Mean Girls, Josie and the Pussycats, Saved!, and Clueless; Girls Rock! The Movie; Persepolis; LA Ink; RollerGirls (TLC Series); Don't Need You (documentary about Riot Grrrl); Death Proof; Twilight (it's probably the most popular girl-oriented flick/series to come out since I've done this project); Juno; Jennifer's Body, Whip It!and probably countless more films I've forgotten about over time. MAGAZINES (also in no particular order) I have always loved magazines but during this process there were a few I read religiously including Teen Vogue, Bust, Bitch, Nylon, Shameless, Under the Radar, Readymade, CRAFT, Knit. 1, and Blue Print. BOOKS (the more traditional bibliography) "The Costs of Separation: The Birth Experiences of Women in Isolated and Remote Communities in British Columbia." Canadian Woman Studies 24, no. 1 (2004): 75-80. Abrams, Lynn. "Knitting, Autonomy and Identity: The Role of Hand-Knitting in the Construction of Women's Sense of Self in an Island Community, Shetland, C. 1850-2000." Textile History 37, no. 2 (2006): 149-65. 129 Agnew, Vijay ""Race, Class, and Feminist Practice "" In Open Boundaries A Canadian Women's Studies Reader (2000), edited by Barbara A and Lise Gotell Crow, 134-46 Toronto Prentice-Hall Canada, 1996 Alinsky, Saul "The Education of an Organizer" In Rule for Radicals, 63-80 New York Vintage, 1989 Andrews, Maggie, and Mary M Talbot, eds All the World and Her Husband Women in Twentieth-Century Consumer Culture London, New York Cassell, 2000 Aragon, Janni "The 'Lady' Revolution in the Age of Technology" International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 4, no 1 (2008) 71-85 Aronson, Pamela "Feminists Or "Postfeminists" 7 Young Women's Attitudes toward Feminism and Gender Relations " Gender & Society 17, no 6 (2003) 903-22 Bail, Kathy, ed DIYFeminism St Leonards, Australia Allen & Unwm, 1996 Ballard, J G Crash New York Picador, 1973 Balsamo, Anne Technologies of the Gendered Body Reading Cyborg Women Durham and London Duke University Press, 1996 Banet-Weiser, Sarah "Girls Rule1 Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon " Critical Studies in Media Communication 2 1 , no 2(2004) 119-39 Bannerji, Himani "Introducing Racism Notes Towards an Anti-Racist Feminism " In Open Boundaries A Canadian Women's Studies Reader (2000), edited by Barbara A and Lise Gotell Crow, 26-32 Toronto Prentice-Hall Canada Inc , 1987 Barker, Martin, Jane Arthurs, and Ramaswami Hanndranath The Crash Controversy Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception London and New York Wallflower Press, 2001 Bassett, Caroline "Virtually Gendered Life in an On-Lme World " In The Subcultures Reader, edited by Ken Gelder and Sarah Thornton, 537-50 New York Routledge, 1997 Bauer, Nancy Simone De Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism New York Columbia University Press, 2001 Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards Manifesta New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000 Young Women, Feminism, and the Future Grassroots A Field Guide for Feminist Activism New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 Berger, Melody, ed We Don't Need Another Wave Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists Emeryville, CA Seal Press, 2006 Blackman, Shane J "'Poxy Cupid i' an Ethnographic and Feminist Account of a Resistant Female Youth Culture The New Wave Girls" In Cool Places Geographies of Youth Cultures, edited by Tracey Skelton and Gill Valentine London and New York Routledge, 1998 Bleach, Anthony Charles "Girls Consuming, Girls Creating Teen Films of the 1980s and Third- 130 Wave Feminism " Dissertations Abstracts International, Section A The Humanities and Scial Sciences 64, no 12 (2003) 4245 Brandt, Di Wild Mother Dancing Winnipeg University of Manitoba Press, 1993 Brookes, Anne-Louise Feminist Pedagogy An Autobiographical Approach Halifax, NS Fernwood, 1992 Brunsdon, Charlotte "Feminism, Postfeminism, Martha, Martha, and Nigella " Cinema no 2(2005) 110-16 Journal44, Buszek, Maria Elena Pin-up Grrrls Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture Durham Duke University Press, 2006 Butler, Judith Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity Hew York Routledge, 1999 Campbell, Lisa "Grrls Plugged In How Canadian Rural Young Women Are Using the Internet" Canadian Woman Studies 24, no 4 (2005) 167-70 Carlip, Hillary Girl Power Young Women Speak out, Personal Writings from Teenage Girls New York Warner Books, 1995 Chesler, Phyllis Letter to a Young Feminist New York Four Walls Eight Windows, 1998 Conrad, Lettie "Third Wave Feminism A Case Study of Bust Magazine " (MA Thesis, California State University, 2001) Costello, Cynthia B , Vanessa R Wight, and Anne J Stone The American Woman 2003-2004 Daughter's of a Revolution-Young Women Today New York Palgrave 2003 Creese, Gillian and Veronica Stong-Boag "Introduction Taking Gender into Account in British Columbia " In British Columbia Reconsidered Essays on Women, edited by Gillian and Veronica Strong-Boag Creese, 1-17 Vancouver Press Gang Publishers, 1992 Cullen, Dallas "The Personal Is Political Third Wave Feminism and the 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Mary Lorenz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir Doing Everyday Life Ethnography as Human Lived Experience London Copp Clark Longman Group Ltd , 1994 Douglas, Ann Canuck Chicks and Maple Leaf Mamas Women of the Great White North Toronto McArthur & Company, 2002 Douglas, Susan Where the Girls Are Growing up Female with the Mass Media New York Random House, 1994 Drill, Ester, Heather McDonald, and Rebecca Odes Deal with It A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a Teenage Gurl New York Pocket Books, 1999 Driscoll, Cathering "Girl Culture, Revenge and Global Capitalism Cybergirls, Riot Grrls, Spice Girls " Australian Feminist Studies 14, no 29 (1999) 173-93 Easton, Dossie, and CAtherme A Liszt The Ethical Slut San Francisco, CA Greenery Press, 1997 Edut, Ophira, ed Body Outlaws On Body Image and Identity Seattle Seal Press, 2004 Faludi, Susan "Backlash " In Feminism in Our Time The Essential Writings, World War li to the Present, edited by Miriam Schneir, 454-68 New York Vintage Books, 1994 Federman, Mark 2004 What Is the Meaning of the Medium Is the Message In, http //individual utoronto ca/markfederman/article mediumisthemessage htm (accessed November 24, 2006) Findlen, Barbara Listen Up Voices from the Next Feminist Generation Revised Edition ed Seattle Seal Press, 2001 Fixmer, Natalie and Julia T Wood "The Personal Is Still Political Embodied Politics in Third Wave Feminism " Women's Studies in Communication 28, no 2 (2005) 235-57 Forsyth, Louise "What Do We Need Now Celebration7 Commiseration7 Or New Boots for Walking7" In Open Boundaries A Canadian Women's Studies Reader (2000), edited by Barbara A and Lise Gotell Crow, xix-xxx Toronto Prentice-Hall Canada, Inc , 1998 Garrison, Ednie Kaeh "U S Feminism-Grrrl Style' Youth (Sub)Cultures and the Technologies of the Third Wave " Feminist Studies 26, no 1 (2000) 141-70 Genz, Stephanie ""I Am Not a Housewife, But " Postfeminism and the Revival of Domesticity" In Feminism, Domesticity, and Popular Culture, edited by Stacy Gillis and Joanne Hollows, 49-62 New York Routledge, 2009 Gillis, Stacy, Gillian Howie, and Rebecca Munford, ed Third Wave Feminism A Critical Exploration New York Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 Gillis, Stacy and Joanne Hollows Feminism, Domesticity, and Popular Culture New York Routledge, 2009 Gillis, Stacy and Rebecca Munford "Harvesting Our Strengths Third Wave Feminism and Women's Studies " Journal of International Women's Studies 4, no 2 (2003) 1-6 "Genealogies and Generations The Politics and Praxis of Third Wave Feminism " Women's History Review 13, no 2 (2004) 165-82 Gilmore, Stephanie "Looking Back, Thinking Ahead Third Wave Feminism in the United States " Journal of Women's History 12, no 4 (2001) 215-21 Girls, The Guerilla The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art New York Penguin, 1998 Gledhill, Christine "Pleasurable Negotiations " In Feminist Film Theory A Reader, edited by Sue Thornham, 166-79 Washington Square, NY New York 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