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The term Post-feminism, or postfeminism, first entered into American usage in the early 1980s, initially signifying backlash over second-wave feminism. The term now denotes a wide range of theories, all of which argue that feminism is no longer relevant to today's society. (Tania Modleski, Feminism without Women: Culture and Criticism in a “Postfeminist” Age, (New York: Routledge, 1991), 3.)

One of the earliest uses of the tem was in Susan Bolotin's 1982 1982 article "Voices of the Post-Feminist Generation," published in ''New York Times Magazine''. This article was based on a number of interviews with women who largely agreed with the goals of feminism, but did not identify as feminists. (Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. New York: Viking, 2000, 275, 337.)

The post-feminist texts which emerged in the 1980s and '90s portrayed feminism as a monolithic entity, thereby allowing the author to criticize the very generalizations he or she had created. (Amelia Jones, “Postfeminism, Feminist Pleasures, and Embodied Theories of Art,” New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action, Eds. Joana Frueh, Cassandra L. Langer and Arlene Raven, (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 16-41, 20.) Some claimed that feminism forced women to view themselves as victims, while others posited that women had grown dienchanted with feminism and now wished to return to domesticity.

Post-Feminist Texts

• Rene Denfeld, The New Victorians: A Young Woman’s Challenge to the Old Feminist Order, (New York: Warner Books, 1995)

• Camille Paglia, Sex Art and American Culture: Essays, (Vintage, 1992)

• Katie Roiphe, The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism on Campus (1993)

See also

• Girl Power
• Third Wave Feminism

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