The F word (s): A five part conversation by Gen-X feminists

Abstract

We are five white women, so called "Gen-Xers," who have chosen to name ourselves feminist scholars.2 The following conversations represent our efforts to empower ourselves in the face of an anti-feminist environment on one Canadian campus at the beginning of the 21st century. Our assumptions of feminist identities provide an opportunity for consciousness-raising, as well as a clear sign that a resistance movement continues. More than a simple declaration of third wave feminist identities, the reflections that follow invoke the complexity of conditions under which today's younger women negotiate their attachments to an inclusive politics. We are resisting addressing feminism as a polemic and reject the flattened versions of feminism that too often circulate in our culture. These same flattened versions often seep into inter-generational feminist conflict. We present our feminist identities as an expression of what bell hooks has termed "theory in the making," or the effort to make sense of a sexist world in non-hegemonic terms. What follows is part of that continuing story.