D R A M A++Q U E E N

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T A B L E++T A L K

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R E C E N T L Y

In a league of their own
By Joan Walsh
Even Dusty Baker told her to get a life, but one baseball fanatic and her daughter wouldn't think of missing spring training
(03/26/98)

Scouts' dishonor
By Andrew O'Hehir
The straightest arrow of them all: My friend the gay Scoutmaster
(03/25/98)

Wedding Bell Blues
By Deborah Garrison
Poems of edgy urban working wifedom
(03/24/98)

The Spock touch
By Dwight Garner
More than just a bestselling child-care guru, the late doctor "Spock-marked" a generation with his politics
(03/23/98)

Worse than it oughta be
By Sara Nelson
"As Good As It Gets" is just one more pathetic male rescue fantasy
(03/20/98)

ARCHIVES

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Mamafesto
By Camille Peri
Why it's time
for Mothers Who Think

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BY LORI LEIBOVICH | The event was billed as an Event -- not just dinner and a conversation with Gloria Steinem, but an evening of startling revelations and fascinating stories from the trenches of young feminism. "You've read the articles. You've seen the coverage. But do you know the real story?" asked the mouth-watering press release. "Contrary to popular belief, feminism is thriving among Generation X. To prove it, Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, is coming to answer the questions no one has dared to ask about a generation few understand."

The tireless, iconic women's rights advocate was in San Francisco to raise money for the Third Wave Foundation, an organization that supports programs that educate and empower young women. The name Third Wave refers to feminism's latest incarnation, the First Wave being the early women's movement of suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; the Second Wave, the heady days of the ERA and the founding of Ms. magazine, when Steinem and her sisters took to the streets and to the newsstands.

Third Wave has broad, admirable goals. Foremost, the organization aims to be truly inclusive, in an effort to right the wrongs of the Second Wave feminists who were criticized, fairly, for being almost exclusively a middle-class white cabal. Implicit in all Third Wave literature is the catchword "diversity." Third Wave claims members are of all races, religions, colors, sexual orientations -- and yes, genders. Far from the days when Steinem quipped, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," men are welcome here.

But Third Wave is also an attitude. Lipstick lesbians, riot grrrls and sex positive Susie Bright acolytes are encouraged to join, women for whom feminism is a given and political expression often takes the form of a zine, a Web site or a performance art piece. According to their brochures, Third Wavers are encouraged to "talk about their experience," not just to protest. They are urged to "explore the boundaries of race, class, gender and sexuality" and to "challenge the way [they] see, hear and feel everything."

"The ethos of Third Wave springs from 30 years of feminism's shortcomings and unfinished business as well as its achievements," journalist Rachel Gorlin summed up in the Washington Post. "Third Wave is made up of women who have felt less of what Second Wave women called oppression."

If Third Wave is the political leg of the much vaunted "New Girl Order" -- epitomized by Bust magazine's sassy sex-positive rants and Ani DiFranco's righteous music more than, say, "equal work for equal pay" -- then why, I wondered, was the new feminist vanguard looking to Gloria Steinem, the queen of feminism past, the embodiment of crusty, Upper West Side, white, middle-class feminism, to rally the younger, hipper troops? A woman -- sorry, an icon -- more than twice my age, older than my mother -- was going to tell me what I think about ... myself? Where were the young voices, the fresh perspectives, the new ideas?

Several years ago, when Susan Faludi's "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women" reignited debate about women's rights and women's progress, a photo of Faludi and Steinem graced the cover of Time magazine, suggesting that Steinem was passing the torch to a younger generation. But it turns out, Faludi hasn't carried that torch and no one has replaced Steinem as the activist feminist icon for the next millennium. What's a movement to do?

At the sold-out reception, I asked a Third Wave organizer why Steinem was chosen to "prove" that feminism is "actually thriving" among our generation.

"Second Wave feminism paved a good road for us," answered Caroline Barlerin, 24, a leader of Third Wave in San Francisco. "They got us out of the home and opened many fabulous doors."

Over grilled salmon and wilted greens, I asked my dinner companions, none of whom I had met before, about their involvement in Third Wave. A law student from New York and the man sitting next to her were both invited because they knew an organizer, but neither belonged to Third Wave. A woman in her 30s told me she had heard about the group through a friend -- this was her first time at an event. Finally, a 25-year-old graduate student told me she was involved with Third Wave, but when I asked her what the group did, she stumbled around for an answer. "I'm not really sure. I've only been to a couple of discussions." The group holds monthly discussions on staple feminist topics such as "body image." I asked her if the discussions drew a lot of people. "There were only about five or six women at each of the meetings," she said.

N E X T+P A G E: Being a male feminist won't get you laid