“We need to understand that feminism/postfeminism are words that came of age in a patriarchal society.” – Julie S. Bien

Play along with me. Close your eyes. Take a walk. Look around you. See every eye, every face. How do they look at you? Do the faces leer? Do eyes widen? Do the facial expressions change? Do they slow down? Do they do weirder movements than smiling with their mouths? Do they continue to look even after you’ve passed? Do they alert other faces to your presence?

If so, you are living a life as close as possible to a modern-day female in a postfeminism society. That is a far improvement, some would argue, from years past. Before men did not have to relent to woman’s plea for ignorance and could vulgarly harass one because she was ‘a hot piece of ass.’ Now we have laws to prevent that type of harassment. They don’t always work, but they are there.

Before feminism was established, society didn’t deem it necessary for a woman to be as well-educated or as well employed as they are today. Women weren’t even making close to the 70% on the dollar that men were making, they weren’t allowed to be sexually free or going about without childbearing in mind. Look at us now.

Yes, feminism is dead and has long been. It has been dead since its massive viewpoints were instituted into our society and feminists have been pushing it to the forefront ever since. People forget that nothing is ever won without battles. Roe v. Wade anyone? That’s a battle. We all won.

Except that era is over. We are in the postfeminism one now and it is up to postfeminists to continue to push the envelope. But no longer is our feminism poised on middle-class white women, but on all women, despite what class they belong to, and it doesn’t stop there. Postfeminism covers minorities, religion, freedom of choice and the lgbtq+. We are for equal rights across the board. Feminism died, but with its death, those feminists have to realize, that like a phoenix, postfeminism thrives from its ashes.

Postfeminist are the punks singing for change, the athletes striving in sports that they weren’t allowed into from years pass, the women, and minorities who are CEOs or politicians and the ones who represent #metoo. These are the benefactors of feminism and represent the postfeminism. Not all of them are feminist or represent feminist views, but all of them can partially lend success due to feministic goals being achieved in our society. Although these attitudes haven’t been fully adopted, it is time for those feminists to realize their work of promotion is done and that now it is time to build upon its foundation to start actually making change.

I am well aware of what the societal definition for postfeminism is and I understand that modern intersectional feminism fits as a name already coined in our society as a label for my essay, but the thing is, I feel that the defined postfeminism that exists (and the stupid waves) have been defined from patriarchal views and in that understanding, I believe that it would limit the true scope of how we should reclaim the idea of what postfeminism is so that it can be reestablished as a positive outlook instead of a time period of mourning. I am hoping to gather the voices of the feminists that do not understand that their feminism has passed and for good reason. I am hoping to enlighten that ‘post anything’ doesn’t mean that something has been achieved, it means after a certain point in time. (i.e. B.C./A.D.)

As an example we all know, when the colonist fought for freedom against the British in the American Revolutionary War there were many battles. Even though we know who won in the end, America wasn’t clearly defined as it is today. It actually took them awhile to get the name right and to give it a working system, but they have been trying to work out the kinks for ages.

If you relate the two together, feminism would be the announcement of the war, the push for it in our society was the war and the acceptance of most of its general ideals was the victorious finale. Except what was the period after that time? The post-revolutionary war? The postfeminism? In either case, life had to be re-established and the people had to figure out what to do in the aftermath. The post-war was to push the country into place by placing democracy and laws into our society. The post-feminism is to continue to establish feminism into every facet of our society that there is. Just like the revolutionary war, feminism has had its time, now it is up to the postfeminists to push it along.

Now is a time of teaching and guiding our world to be better. There are still battles to be had, but to win we need as much force as possible and that means bringing the outside attitudes inside. (Including men in which extremist seem to “hate.” 🤷🏽‍♀️) We have to show them how it is done, even if we have to teach them step by step. Feminism is here to stay, but the postfeminists have a long way to go before feminism is fully initiated. So why not improve it as it goes along?

Well, that’s what we postfeminists need to realize: the difference between feminism and postfeminism; feminism died, and feminists keep pushing along the ashes; postfeminism is prospering but needs more nurturing to prosper and grow out of the ashes; feminists need to stop pushing and poking at the ashes. Only then can we achieve the world in which we are striving for.

The thing that most forget is that when something dies it is not truly dead. There are many parts of it that live on. There are many seeds out there that have been planted and they have sprouted into many different things. As soon as society accepted to wear the accountability of feminism, we started living in a time of postfeminism.