History Repeats Itself

I was particularly intrigued with Ms. Ruhl’s presentation because it has opened my eyes to criticize our society’s traditions. The class, including myself did not know about the waves of feminism. The first waves of feminism show the struggles women have faced with being property to men. If you were not married, you owned nothing. They children, land you owned and even the clothes on your back were all property of your husband or whoever owned the property you stayed on. If you were divorced, you might not even have clothes off your back. Women were given terms such as miss, if you were unmarried and typically in conjunction with not having sex, and mrs. for women who were married.

The second wave women were dealing with reproductive freedom and job equity. Although they made tremendous strides, we are still faced with the same problems today. The new term Ms. was created to not create a divide in society, although it still had negative connotation back in the day. If you were referred as Ms. if was because you were known as a spinster and un-marriageable.  

The third wave has to deal mostly with the governments choices of the female body, and the government is predominantly male. Big topics for years have been pro-life vs. pro-choice. Men are given the right to decide something their body does not undergo ever in life. Other topics include pornography which is directed toward a male viewing, it objectifies women. Men have been given power over females for years and now that women are standing up for themselves and it’s something new.

Feminism is an elusive term in our culture. It is social and political equality for women and men. Also another definition is a social justice movement for gender equity and human liberation. Many people today if you were to ask them would not say they are feminists because over time it is known to be a negative group to be associated with. Becoming a feminist means that acknowledge that we live in a patriarchal society and not many people are willing to believe that. People see what they want to see in our society. Have the ways of feminism been skimmed over because society refuses to acknowledge them? Because history hasn’t shown women in power what are we to expect? Perhaps this is why feminism is terrifying to men, we typically learn history to make sure we don’t repeat our past.