Reclaiming the F Word: The New Feminist Movement, by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune

Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune Reclaiming the F Word: The New Feminist Movement, Zed Books: London, 2010, 269 pp: 9781848133945 65 [pounds sterling] (hbk); 9781848133952 12.99 [pounds sterling] (pbk); 9781848133969 (ebk) Although I have identified myself as a feminist for a goodly number of years, it was disconcerting to learn that I have been relegated to a wave. Wave 1 was assigned to the suffragists of the late-19th and early 20th century; wave 2 embraced the 'personal is political' activists of the 1960s and 70s; wave 3 encompasses the daughters of wave 2; and, according to Susan Faludi (2010), wave 4 is gaining momentum as I write. I find the 'wave' designation troubling, because my mind conjures images of turbulent seas rolling and roiling towards a craggy shore. Much as the breakers bear down on and annihilate their predecessors, the metaphor suggests that later feminists diminish and replace the generations that came before. Indeed, my reading reveals that, in current feminism, the use of 'wave' is entirely appropriate. One of the reasons for my distress about the nomenclature is that many of the issues that feminism has addressed from its inception remain on the table: male hegemony in political, legal, economic, religious, cultural, entertainment, and media systems; inequality in the work place; imbalance in the domestic sphere; sexual tyranny; and violence against women and children. The perpetuation of these 'norms' suggests that women, not solely feminists, of ali ages and cultures should be united in redressing the inequities. Aren't women's issues just one big, wave-less ocean? Reclaiming the F Word is commendable in that it is devoted, in large part, to the issues. Catherine Redfern and Kristen Aune identify seven themes, whose contents align, to a large degree, with the agenda of 1970s feminists: 'liberated bodies; sexual freedom and choice; an end to violence against women; equality at work and home; politics and religion transformed; popular culture free from sexism; feminism reclaimed' (p. 17). Each theme comprises a chapter wherein the topic receives in-depth coverage, and concludes with strategies that promote engagement in activities that bring public attention to the issue. In contrast to the political marches and sit-ins that characterised the women's movement for their mothers and grandmothers, today's feminists are encouraged, individually, to do things like write letters and emails, boycott products and businesses, behave ethically, lobby authority, support relevant organisations, and network. While some of these ideas seem obvious, the authors are guiding 'new' feminists who lack a visible entity with which to identify. Underpinning the book is a survey of 1,265 respondents from the United Kingdom. The dates of the year-long survey are not stated, although the participants were solicited from 'post-2000' feminist organisations, both actual and electronic. They ranged in age from 15 to 81, with 62 per cent being under 30 years old, and 7.1 per cent were male (the survey results are contained in an Appendix). Their ethnicity was more than 90 per cent 'white' (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish, British, other); and the same percentage of respondents had post-secondary education. Alongside demographic data, the survey amassed ticked boxes on questions such as longevity as a feminist, affiliation with types of feminism, priority of issues, and views on today's feminism. Redfern and Aune also conducted an unknown number of interviews, and scanned blogs and writings whose bons mots pepper the text. As noted above, the authors state that women's concerns, now, are the same as they were fifty years ago: their survey shows that 85 per cent of participants believe that today's issues are 'quite' or 'very' similar to those of the 1970s (16). …