Profile of Third-Wave Feminist and Writer: Amy Richards
January, 2010
Amy Richards is the co-author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, along with Jennifer Baumgardner. You can read my review of her book here. In addition to this project, she has worked on several other books, and been a continuous advocates for women of all ages. She is also the founder of the Third Wave Foundation.
FL: What was your goal with Manifesta?
AR: Well, I think we had different goals, I’ll tell you a little bit what my goal was. I had had this online column called “Ask Amy” at feminist.com, and then I had also had with my experience through Third Wave Foundation, and what I found through both of those outlets or both of those mediums that constantly put me in touch with people was that people were passionate about feminism but they didn’t really know what feminism meant. They might have feminist values without calling it feminism. So, I thought there needed to be a very simple book that spelled out what feminism was in general, but specifically how feminism had evolved and what it meant more specifically to younger people today—because I found that it meant something slightly different. So, I had a goal to sort of inform and answer that very basic question of “what is feminism?”
FL: And how would you answer that question?
AR: Well, I used to go by the dictionary, which [says it] is the full social economic and political equality of women, and then from there what Jennifer and I articulate in the Feminist Manifesta is each person having enough information to make informed choices, and sort of one step beyond that, I would say—and I feel this especially when I talk on high school campuses—is that each of us has something that we feel insecure about. We don’t feel insecure about the same things; some of us feel insecure because we don’t know our father, some of us feel insecure because we have an alcoholic mother, some of us feel insecure because we’re too rich, others feel insecure because we’re too poor, and feminism is about changing the assumption that nobody has an insecurity. For too long, we’ve lived under this assumption that there was a perfect type of person, and women especially didn’t conform to that, non-straight people didn’t conform to that, lower-class people didn’t conform to that. So, it’s sort of about changing that perspective of considered normalcy. To me, that’s what feminism means.
FL: In the book, you talk about how feminists don’t need to be constrained to one mold—and you mention “girly-feminists.” What is “girly-feminism?”
AR: Well it’s funny because I think I’ve personally even become more and more committed to girly-feminism since Manifesta, but in a slightly different way—that girls of my generation in particular, but I think your generation too, were somewhat raised with this sense of the way to be a good girl is to be a boy. Or that the way to be a good girl is to successfully do boy things. You know, play on the little league team, and become a physicist, and run for Senate…and I think those opportunities certainly should be open to the girls who want them, but I think we also need to value things that girls gravitate towards, and not leave them to be marginalized. What girly-feminism does in some ways, is highlight that. Then, there’s also, I think, a more superficial interpretation of it, which is that even within a feminist context, girls are often undermined, if they conform with feminine expectations, and I think, we were trying to argue, you might be wearing a mini-skirt, and getting a bikini wax, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t care. It doesn’t mean you’re not as passionate about feminism. You are going to lose people because—you know, how we say it in Manifesta is, it’s as oppressive to be told “you can’t wear a mini-skirt” as it is to be told “you have to wear one.”
FL: In Manifesta, you also touch on branching the gap between third wave feminists and second wave feminists and how that can be done. What do you think the best way to do that is, and has it been done successfully in the past?
AR: I don’t think that the second and third waves—if by those waves we mean, women in there sixties, seventies and eighties and women in their twenties thirties, and forties—I don’t think that we’ve successfully reached across generations and I say that entirely based on my experience with the Third Wave Foundation. Third Wave was initially created in 1992, and one of the goals was to give young women an opportunity to be leaders on issues that affected young women, such as reproductive rights, education reform, because Third Wave was frustrated that not only was the main stream discounting our contributions, so were feminist organizations. Third Wave prioritized by giving young women jobs, putting them on our board, allowing them opportunities to lead. In the seventeen years since Third Wave was conceived, there has been a superficial acknowledgement that young women’s contributions actually matter—if you look at every major women’s organization, the only way the include young women is through “Young Women’s Programs.” They might include somebody like me, who’s now thirty-nine, and say, “Oh now we have a young woman!” I’m not young anymore! I don’t think that bridging the gaps has been successful to the extent that it was meant to value younger women’s contributions. Public opinion polls will always confirm that younger women are more likely to identify with feminism than any other age-group, and yet that’s not reflected in the make-up of most women’s organizations. That’s just sad to me, because I think young women maybe need to show respect to women who are older, and I think that older women maybe need to take a chance on younger women.
FL: I know that girls of my generation doesn’t always think of themselves as feminists yet, but at that point do you think that that gap will be easily bridged between third wave and fourth wave?
AR: I hope so. I think that Jennifer and I try to model that. I have to say, I mean, I speak generally when I say that I don’t think the relationship between second and third wave is that great. Personally, I’ve had a wonderful relationship, and I know many people my age has—I mean Jennifer has too. I think that we, in some ways are exceptions.
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