Editing Third-wave feminism (section)

== Background ==
{{Further|First-wave feminism|Second-wave feminism|Feminist sex wars|Fourth-wave feminism}}
The rights and programs gained by feminists of the second wave served as a foundation for the third wave. The gains included [[Title IX]] (equal access to education), public discussion about the abuse and rape of women, access to contraception and other reproductive services (including the legalization of abortion), the creation and enforcement of sexual-harassment policies for women in the workplace, the creation of domestic-abuse shelters for women and children, child-care services, educational funding for young women, and [[women's studies]] programs.

Feminists of color such as [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]], [[bell hooks]], [[Cherríe Moraga]], [[Audre Lorde]], [[Maxine Hong Kingston]], [[Leslie Marmon Silko]] and the members of the [[Combahee River Collective]] sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of race.<ref name="Gillis" /><ref name="Heywood">{{Cite book|editor-last=Heywood|editor-first=Leslie|editor2-last=Drake|editor2-first=Jennifer|title=Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism|year=1997|publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]|location=[[Minneapolis]]|isbn=978-0-8166-3005-9|oclc=36876149|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/thirdwaveagendab0000unse}}</ref> Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa had published the anthology ''[[This Bridge Called My Back]]'' (1981), which, along with ''[[All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave]]'' (1982), edited by [[Akasha Gloria Hull|Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull]], [[Patricia Bell-Scott]], and [[Barbara Smith]], argued that second-wave feminism had focused primarily on the problems of white women. The emphasis on the intersection between race and gender became increasingly prominent. However, allowing third wave feminism to adopt the paradigm of intersectionality can erase the narrative of second-wave feminist of color who worked towards inclusion.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/344074469 |title=No permanent waves: recasting histories of U.S. feminism |date=2010 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4724-4 |editor-last=Hewitt |editor-first=Nancy A. |location=New Brunswick, N.J |oclc=344074469}}</ref>

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the [[feminist sex wars]] arose as a reaction against the [[radical feminism]] of the second wave and [[Feminist views on sexuality|its views on sexuality]], countering with a concept of "[[Sex-positive feminism|sex-positivity]]", and heralding the third wave.<ref name="end">As noted in:
*{{cite book |author1=Duggan, Lisa |author2=Hunter, Nan D. |title=Sex wars: sexual dissent and political culture |year=1995 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-91036-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/sexwarssexualdis0000dugg }}
*{{cite book |author=Hansen, Karen Tranberg |author2=Philipson, Ilene J. |title=Women, class, and the feminist imagination: a socialist-feminist reader |year=1990 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0-87722-630-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/womenclassfemini0000unse }}
*{{cite book |author=Gerhard, Jane F. |title=Desiring revolution: second-wave feminism and the rewriting of American sexual thought, 1920 to 1982 |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-11204-8}}
*{{cite book |author=Leidholdt, Dorchen |author-link=Dorchen Leidholdt |author2=Raymond, Janice G |title=The Sexual liberals and the attack on feminism |year=1990 |publisher=Pergamon Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0-08-037457-4}}
*{{cite book |author=Vance, Carole S |title=Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality |year=1989 |publisher=Thorsons Publishers |isbn=978-0-04-440593-1}}</ref>

Another crucial point for the start of the third wave is the publication in 1990 of ''[[Gender Trouble|Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity]]'' by [[Judith Butler]], which soon became one of the most influential works of contemporary [[feminist theory]]. In it, Butler argued against homogenizing conceptions of "women", which had a normative and exclusionary effect not only in the social world more broadly but also within feminism. This was the case not only for racialized or working-class women, but also for [[Female masculinity|masculine]], [[lesbian]], or [[Non-binary gender|non-binary]] women.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Judith |title=Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |pages=160, 9 |edition=2nd}}</ref> They outlined their theory of gender as [[performativity]], which posited that gender works by enforcing a series of repetitions of verbal and non-verbal acts that generate the "illusion" of a coherent and intelligible gender expression and identity, which would otherwise [[Gender essentialism#Gender performativity|lack any essential property]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mikkola |first1=Mari |title=Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-gender/ |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=18 June 2022 |date=18 January 2022}}</ref> Lastly, Butler developed the claim that there is no "natural" [[sex]], but that what we call as such is always already culturally mediated, and therefore inseparable from gender.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Judith |title=Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity |date=1990 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |page=12}}</ref> These views were foundational for the field of [[queer theory]], and played a major role in the development of third-wave feminist theories and practices.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rottenberg|first=Catherine|title=Judith Butler|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5173|publisher=The Literary Encyclopedia|access-date=18 June 2022|date=27 August 2003}}</ref>