The Fourth Wave of Feminism and the Lack of Social Realism in Cyberspace

Commentary The Fourth Wave of Feminism and the Lack of Social Realism in Cyberspace Negar Shiva Zohreh Nosrat Kharazmi* (Received 20 July 2019; accepted 23 July 2019) Abstract Recent years have witnessed a surge in research on the impact of the cyberspace on social movements. The feminist movement has built a vocal platform online which attempts to underscore sexual violence against women. Scholars have begun to suspect that the internet has ushered in a new wave, the fourth wave of feminism. The fourth wave’s main feature is its reliance on social media. The accessibility, reach of a widespread audience, low costs and user-friendly environment have encouraged women to use social media to speak out against various forms of sexual violence directed against women. It is also assumed that going forward; the movement will also tackle issues such as the gender pay gap, neoliberal policies, maternity leave, and cultural sexism. Moreover, the internet-based movement is striving to bring to the fore the topic of intersectionality, that is, the intersection of oppressive institutions, and the attempt to rectify the failings of past waves by representing those oppressed by multiple institutions such as sexism, classism, and racism. This commentary provides an overview of the emerging academic literature on the fourth wave of feminism and critically reflects the lack of social realism in its existing form of knowledge production. Keywords: feminism, fourth wave of feminism, internet, social media, social movements, social realism. Negar Shiva: Department of American Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Zohreh Nosrat Kharazmi: (Corresponding author) Department of American Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran- Email: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY NC), which permits distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. Journal of Cyberspace Studies Volume 3 No. 2 July 2019 pp. 129 -146 . Web page: https://jcss.ut.ac.ir Email: Print ISSN: 2588 -5499 . e-ISSN: 2588 -5502 . DOI: 10.22059/JCSS.2019.72454 129 Journal of Cyberspace Studies Volume 3 No. 2 Jul. 2019 130 Negar Shiva and Zohreh Nosrat Kharazmi The fourth wave of feminism: an introduction The dynamics of social movements changed forever in the year 1991, when the Word Wide Web became available to the public. One of the outcomes of the transformation of social movements by the internet was the revamp of the feminist movement which some argue has brought an end to the era dubbed as ‘post-feminism’. While postfeminists rendered the feminist movement irrelevant due to the fulfillment of some its objectives, the fourth wavers utilized the internet and social media platforms to draw attention to what they believe is rampant sexism still experienced by women from all walks of life. The interconnectedness granted by the cyberspace helped women share their stories online, enabling them to be heard or read instantly by the online community, who immediately saw a pattern of sexual misconduct and violence all around the world, inflicting emotional and physical pain on both men and women. This realization led to the establishment of various online campaigns to raise awareness and collect money for causes related to the issue. The arrival of the fourth wave was anticipated as early as 2003. E. Ann Kaplan (2003) points, The fourth wave will be distinguished by bringing second and third wave feminists together to confront a new and devastating reality that involves us all, if not equally, then at least at once. This new reality ideally cuts across racial, ethnic and national divides (p. 55). Activist and writer Jennifer Baumgardner (2011) traces the formation of the fourth wave back to approximately the year 2008. While some refuse to accept the existence of a fourth wave, others are trying to elaborate on its features. Shelby Knox considers the online activism of the fourth wave as a distinguishing feature, saying “blogs are our consciousness-raising groups”. According to Knox, the fourth wave has equalized feminism as the virtual world allows the majority to participate in the movement without having to pay for education on matters related to women (Baumgardner, 2011). Most scholars who have written on the subject of fourth-wave feminism have refused to define it, waiting for the wave to form and conclude before ascribing labels. The term “first wave” was applied to suffragists decades later in the 60s and 70s when journalist Martha Lear was writing an article about the feminist movement of the time for The New York Times Sunday Magazine (Baumgardner, 2011). Volume 3 No. 2 Jul. 2019 Journal of Cyberspace Studies Prudence Chamberlain (2017) also sees the recent developments in technology a key factor in catalyzing the fourth wave of feminism. She says the fact that the term fourth-wave feminism has not been defined by scholars, but is being used by journalists and activists speak to the movement’s penetration of “multiple disciplinary manifestations of feminism” (p. 3). British journalist Kira Cochrane wrote a book titled Meet All the Rebel Women in 2013 to outline the fourth wave of feminism and its manifestations in the UK. According to her, “Everywhere you looked in the summer of 2013, the fourth wave of feminism was rising in the UK, and women were opening their eyes to misogyny and sexism, and shouting back against it” (p. 7). Cochrane’s book gives examples of how women were opening their eyes to misogyny and violence in several countries around the globe, including Ireland, the United States, Russia, Germany, Australia, Egypt, etc. While Jonathan Dean and Kristin Aune (2015) say they cannot picture the movement until after the event, in her book The Feminist fourth wave: Affective Temporality, Chamberlain (2017) says the refusal of academics to define the fourth wave is due to their reluctance to “hinder any natural growth or development” (p. 5). Those who believe the mere addition of the internet to the mix is not adequate to claim the formation of another wave of feminism have questioned the existence of the fourth wave of feminism (Munro, 2013). Debbie Stoller, Bust co-founder and editor-in-chief, believes that for a wave to exist, they must espouse new ideas, and she does not see that in younger feminists, she therefore dismisses the arrival of the fourth wave, saying that the new generation is merely using new technologies to discuss old ideas (Baumgardner, 2011). Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune (2010) acknowledge the resurgence in feminist activity, but continue to see the movement as part of the third wave. Chamberlain’s (2017) counterargument is that policies are formed as a result of continuity, and despite the various waves, feminism’s central objective has always bee (...truncated)