Tidal Wave : How Women Changed America at Century's End

Rating:
Summary: Dissing on my feminist generation
Review: Simultaneously examining the first, second, and third waves of American feminism in her unprecedented volume, Sara M. Evans unwittingly squanders the tremendous potential from her initially good intentions.

Falling into the same 'post-feminist' trap readers are ironically warned against throughout the text, this book cannot unify second and third wavers. I certainly appreciate and have benefited from the work accomplished during this time period and am personally/professionally friends with individuals, but cannot see how a book ignoring my own generation's political activism is supposed to unify the two generations at large

Sharply contrasting with the glowing treatment given to herself and other second wavers, Evans only introduces the third wave as "recent participants in a world transformed by their mother's generation" (p. 213). In addition to implying that myself and others are really only interloping guests at 'somebody' else's social justice movement, this remark overlooks the critical perspectives we bring precisely as a consequence of growing up without legal segregation, with Title IX, Special Education, and many other programs which were only a dream for her generation.

While giving the 'riot grrrl' movement only one paragraph, she is oddly eager to devote much more book space to the faux feminists who made their public names attacking previous feminist theory (p. 221). Agreeing that it made for great mass media sensationalism, I do not accept this latter category as representative of my generation of feminist theorists, and am disappointed by Evans's stereotypes.

After ironically establishing how bias keeps women from being aware of their past (p. 38) she then specifically minimizes a feminism (which unlike the drivel by Roiphe, Summers, and Hoff) represented a major public resurgence of progressive ideas. Riot Grrrl theory argued that all forms of oppression are connected although patriarchy under girds this society. Just because something is different from her own generation does not excuse Evans from taking it seriously during the research process.

Other truly intergenerational feminist authors previously have argued the movement needs to make genuine efforts either to fully become or remain multigenerational, but Evans is blissfully oblivious to this necessity. In it's current state the book has no academic or personal redeeming quality and substantial revisions are needed to accord equal respect to all feminist generations.