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Essay on Women´s Right Activism

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Jane Austen, a well-known author in the early 1800s, “advocated for the dignity, intelligence, and basic human potential of the female sex,” but feminists think of a separate, specific event as kicking off women's rights activism (Rampton). In July of 1848, the first meeting that had ever addressed women's rights exclusively took place in Seneca Falls, New York. Over 300 men and women came to the convention, and this started the first wave of feminism in which American women fought for the right to vote. The second wave fought for freedom of sexuality while the third wave, which is currently taking place, fights against America's raunch or sexually driven culture in order to lessen the burden of oppression and “-isms” of people other than …show more content…

The second wave of feminism included the Stonewall riots in which men at a gay bar resisted the fairly frequent police raids one night and fought back, as well as Roe v. Wade, 1973, in which Jane Roe fought for the right to an abortion while being pregnant but unmarried. Abortion laws are still debated about this day, as are homosexuals in most areas of the country. Finally, the third wave takes place from the late '90s into present day. This wave covers a lot of information, but is mostly about the negative impact media has on our society. It is about how everyone is self-conscious of their body type (all sexes, women to be unhealthily skinny and men to be body builders), raunch-culture (sexualized American culture and objectification, such as pornography- how some women think it's revolting and others believe it is liberating), our views on sexuality as a culture (LGBTQ rights), and how women may be repeating history. Many feminists believe women are objectifying themselves by heavily wearing make-up and exposing their bodies in revealing clothing, thus putting heterosexual men into the position or making it easier for them to look at women all that much more (Rampton). The second and third wave intertwine because even today, we as a nation have not completely settled the inequalities with gender, sexuality, or social ethics. Feminism is equality for all, especially for strict gender roles

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