Uneven Development or Bumpy Progress?

The concept that really caught my attention in the readings and class this week is 'uneven development'. As I understand it, this postmodern/poststructuralist idea is exactly what I am looking for to make sense of my feelings about feminism and the culture I live in. I think the idea that there is an ebb and flow of ideas between the past, present and future provides a very useful context for me to think about why I do not relate solely to one school of thought on feminism, or anything else for that matter. Of course, this is one perspective on the subject, and not necessarily the explanation. There I go perpetuating a lack of certainty, which is exactly what I am talking about.

For example, I have been reading a great deal about third wave feminism recently. I am admittedly drawn to the bold, effervescent, and sexy shade of hot pink that is the cover of every Bust magazine. It makes me wish I were eighteen again so that I could wear ostentatious clothes and travel the world as a radical cheerleader. At the same time, though, I am the daughter of three (long story) second wave feminists, and I cannot shake the notion that some of this lipstick and sexual innuendo is less about regaining women’s power and more about gaining male attention. In the context of uneven development, though, I can see the different threads as they weave together in my mind. I may not know what makes a true third wave feminist (although I am fairly certain that Britney Spears is not one) but I can chart my own course negotiating space somewhere along the fluid lines of feminism within and beyond my own lifetime.