Feminism

The term originated at the beginning of the XIX century. Initially, it was understood as a set of traditionally feminine, feminine traits and opposed to masculinity. Towards the end of the XIX century, the word "feminist" appeared — this is how the activists of the suffragette movement began to be called, and the word "feminism" gradually acquired its familiar meaning.

The first wave: the end of the XIX - the middle of the XX century. The activists of the first wave fought for political equality and access to education. In the early 1920s, it seemed that all other problems would be solved when the candidates for whom women would vote came to power.

Second wave: 1960-1990s. By the end of the 1950s, in Europe and the USA, not political, but domestic and career equality came to the fore. The ideas of the second wave of feminism finally took shape with the publication of Simone de Beauvoir's book "The Second Sex". In her book, she writes: "Femininity and feminine nature do not exist — these are just cultural attitudes that we are forced to follow." According to Beauvoir, girls are taught from childhood that there is a certain "hierarchy of the sexes", where they are given second place.

Third wave: 1990-2008. The issues of sexual and gender identity have come to the agenda. Several new trends emerged at once, the most notable of which were intersectional and radical feminism.

The fourth wave: from 2008 to the present. Modern feminism has gone online. Social networks have become the main platform for activism, and body positivity and harassment have been added to the discussed problems. Since the fourth wave is in many ways similar to the third, not everyone singles it out as a new round of development of the women's movement.

It is important to distinguish between the concepts of "gender" and "gender". Gender is a set of innate biological characteristics that distinguish men from women. Biological sex is determined by primary and secondary sexual characteristics — mainly visible differences in the genitals belong to them.

Gender is a set of social norms that are not innate and exist only within the framework of culture. For example, a woman is a "keeper of the hearth", and a man is a "breadwinner", who also cannot cry. A lot of stereotypes have formed around gender. Some believe that women are worse than men at solving logical problems, and men are interested in technology from birth. In fact, this is not the case, and neuroscientists have long refuted popular gender stereotypes.

If the biological sex coincides with the inner sense of self and a person accepts the prescribed gender role, he is called cisgender (that is, "on this side" of gender). But this is not the only option. For example, there are intersex people — those whose primary or secondary sexual characteristics do not fit into the standard ideas about the male or female body. For example, the shape of the genitals may be male, and the reproductive system may be female. In addition, the set of chromosomes in an intersex person may differ from the typical XY for men and XX for women. Normally, variations XXY, XXYY and others are possible. Because of this, the "genital sex", which is determined by obstetricians by external signs, may differ from chromosomal or hormonal.

This is the direction of feminism, which is based on intersectionality. This sociological theory assumes that a person can be discriminated against on several criteria at the same time and such discrimination will be stronger. For example, a white cisgender woman will be oppressed only on the basis of gender. And a black trans person will also face racism and transphobia. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve equality if only women's rights are defended. It is also necessary to combat other manifestations of discrimination — homophobia, racism, economic discrimination.

Kimberly Crenshaw, a lawyer, civil rights defender, and philosopher, is considered the creator of intersectional theory. Although international ideas have been discussed since the end of the XIX century, it was Crenshaw who first engaged in the scientific substantiation of the concept and gave it its name in 1989.

Radical feminism (often abbreviated as radfem) views society as a patriarchal system where men systematically oppress women.

According to radfem, in the patriarchy, men by default have power and economic privileges. With the help of social institutions, men keep women in a subordinate position and control their sexuality.

Since patriarchy is based on the community of men, Radfem sees female unity as the most effective way to fight oppression. Some radical representatives of the movement believe that liberation is possible only in isolation from men.

Also, unlike intersectional ones, radical feminists believe that since a child inevitably undergoes gender socialization, in one culture all people of the same sex face similar problems in the process of growing up. Girls are dressed in pink, praised for obedience and scolded for excessive aggression. Therefore, while sexism exists as the most fundamental form of oppression, the radfem focus only on women, leaving other equality issues to other activists - for example, LGBT+ or Black Lives Matter.