I don't align with any of the categories or even waves of feminism completely. That stuff is all as mostly defined by media rather than feminists themselves, so they're all ill fitting on a good day anyway.

But.

I'm a solid Gen X, which is also nonsensical, which puts me towards the tail end of 3rd wave and the rise of 4th wave. Remember, most of us don't really start participating with feminism until we are adults, even if we're learning about it as children.

Third wave was about breaking glass ceilings and proving our capabilities. Toward the end, a big media push made it about Boss Babe. I think at the time, a lot of us registered that as finally being welcomed into the workforce.

We couldn't have been more wrong. It was just more exploitation of labor, because men were refusing to shift with the shift toward a service economy once their jobs started getting shipped overseas.

Diversity & Inclusion was too long coming. Intersectionality was and still is hit and miss.

But I can say that for me, the work there has healed some old wounds and I'm better for it. Better yet, my daughter is free of it, or more free of it than I or my cohort had a chance to be. That gladdens my heart to see the care young feminists walking the walk take with each other. It's clear the movement is being put into good hands and I'm proud to have been a part of that, even if the only part I had was infinitesimally small in creating a safe space for feminist growth for Urchling and her friends.

So I bridged third and fourth wave and that is my reflections, in brief, on them.

Now I'm gearing up my upcoming granny energy to support the rising fifth wave, which is going to be tidal and I'll take my place amongst the elders. I hope. As a woman, it will be cool to have being an elder fucking mean something again besides contempt, disgust, and erasure.

That may end up being the most significant contribution of us third wave gals. Life's funny that way.

As far as ideological bent. I suppose I'm something between a Paleofeminist, which you've probably never heard of, and a radical feminist, but how it presents in actuality, not what's been written about it.

So, taking a look at those...

Here's a link that rought defines Paleofeminism.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=paleofeminist

I like that little back and forth at the end, except for the ending statement. It's not that I think women are children, but that making a decision like the one presented is hard, wasn't done lightly, and may in fact be the first action taken as an emotional adult. In other words, the decision to marry wasn't really hers, free and clear, of influence, either societally, familially, economically (she's gotten pregnant), or from the guy. There's an inertia to history that thinking we're completely free from, is the height of hubris.

To be clear, that's true for the guy too. He may feel pressured to "do the right thing" and marry poorly or before he's ready (which sabotages both their chances) rather than being able to weigh out the options and make the most rational decision free of influence or pressure.

And of course here in the US, half the states have just removed that option for all their young people. Men are about to start finding out.

Radical feminism is seen by most as "in your face feminism". Strident, loud, obnoxious, combative...all the things. Somehow radical feminism has been conflated with personality.

Being a radical femimist is not about personality, or tryinf to make women more like men. That said, it does seem to attract more masculine presenting women, but it's not about aesthetic presentation either. I think k it attracts more masc women because they're the ones who were most harmed by the straightjacket of oerformative masculinity and femininity, the ones most eager to explore that side of themselves they were denied previously, the ones most capable of leaving gender expectations behind, etc.

Interestingly, they also tend to be the most authentic, most okay with themselves, most self actualized, and most.caring and compassionate amongst the feminists, IMHO. They're also the most likely to call out bullshit for bullshit and they won't spare your feelings about it either.

Radical feminism, in actuality, is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation.

"Smash the Patriarchy" is just a pretty slogan, a rallying cry for most liberal feminists. For radical feminists, those aren't just pretty words. We want an overhaul of the social arrangement, the economy, and the political contract. We want an end to dominance hierarchy. Full stop. Liberal feminists seem to want a re-alignmnment of it to ease the suffering they ensure and so they get more out of their prostrations.

Other liberal feminists seem to want to be freed from the guilded cage but still be the torturing guard for the men in the adjoining guilded cage.

Radical feminists are like, "fuck that shit. Go, young man. Fly. Be free. You can be free as long as you aren't making a predator of yourself."

So you can see why alpha ideology bullshit annoys radical feminists so much.

On a personal level, I want to see that overhaul end in something akin to a hierarchy of actualization. Radical connectedness, responsibility to, and accountability to each other.

I won't see it, but if we're successful, my decendents might. And I will roughly have as many male decendents as female ones. I want this for all of them, so they can all flourish, and not be exploited, broken on the wheel of dominance hierarchy that eventually crushes everyone who is not on the top echelon. Without fail. Again and again and again.

I bet you're sorry you asked now. Lol.