new wave feminism

by Jessica Valenti

Excerpt - 

Despite decades of work by feminists, the myth that women somehow deserve sexual harassment and assault hasn’t died. When graduate student Imette St. Guillen was found raped and beaten to death in New York City in 2006, for example, the Wall Street Journal ran an article headlined, Ladies, You Should Know Better, referring to the fact that St. Guillen had been at a bar before she was attacked. When Julian Assange was accused of rape in 2010, even progressive “heroes” like Michael Moore and iconic feminist Naomi Wolf rushed to his defense. Wolf wrote a series of mocking pieces for the Huffington Post claiming that Assange’s accusers were simply women scorned and also claimed, outrageously, that starting to have sex with someone while they are asleep and unable to consent is not rape. Perhaps most disgusting was conservative blogger Robert McCain’s response: “Listen up, sweetheart: You buy the ticket, you take the ride.”

Despite the onslaught of victim-blaming and the downright apathy that surrounds the harassment and violence still done to women, I feel (dare I say it?) optimistic once more. I’m fortunate to be part of a generation of activists—men and women alike—who are fighting back in new and innovative ways. When Moore and Wolf took to the airwaves to defend Assange, Twitter erupted with campaigns to hold them accountable. Now when newspapers run victim-blaming headlines, there are thousands of feminist blogs to hold their feet to the fire. Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER), an organization run mostly by young women, puts pressure on college administrations to enact progressive and accountable sexual assault policies. Hollaback!, which started as a blog where women posted pictures of their harassers via cellphones, is now a flourishing anti-harassment organization with outposts all over the world.