Sara Felberg, BA International Relations & Politics

Defining Today’s Feminist Political Climate

Throughout history the popularity and impact of feminism has been understood in ‘waves’. The Suffragette movement being the '1st wave' and the sexual liberation movement in the 80s and 90s as the '2nd wave'. Some political theorist argue that we are currently in the ‘4th wave’ of feminism, but I argue against this. In today's neoliberal, capitalist society, feminism has become a commodity to be ‘brought and sold’ in shops and important issues are diluted by celebrities and the media. Whats interesting about my work is the impact that capitalism, the media, online culture and celebrity culture has had on a once prominent political movement. I argue that today's feminism doesn’t achieve nearly as much as 1st and 2nd wave did. It is due to this reason that the current feminist political climate should not be defined as ‘4th wave’ but instead, as Sarah Banet-Weiser has stated, ‘popular feminism.’ As it is the term ‘popular feminism’ that takes into account the neoliberal capitalist age we live in.