WHAT IS FEMINISM? A CRITICAL NOTE ON CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSES

What is feminism? This seemingly ‘simple’ question is often misinterpreted on social media, especially among younger generations, such as Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Perhaps the notion of it being ‘simple’ is itself part of the issue, as it allows for a proliferation of diverse interpretations of feminism that cater to the narrative of specific ‘interest groups’ in contemporary society. Here, the advancement of technology in terms of easing the access to communication on global platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube ‘unintentionally’ furthers the agenda of proliferating certain versions of feminism among its global audience through the active application of algorithms and, therefore, consequently building this virtual echo chambers where the users are systematically exposed to their versions of ‘reality’ or what they want to be ‘true’ based on their ‘belief system’ – after the ascertain of which through these virtual community more or less actively embodies and plays out their understanding in every-day interactions. In other words, how they perceive their identities in relation to others, which in this case is male understanding what female is and female perceiving what female is through the lens of male, and sometimes out of their ‘own’ creation within the socially constructed category of man and woman. This paper intends to explore these issues by examining the history of the four waves of feminism, thereby attempting to establish a proper understanding of what feminism is against the backdrop of this newfound contemporary social problem. Besides, the goal includes exploring the concepts, theories and methodologies of social sciences in critically analysing and understanding contemporary social problems and, hence, moving one step forward towards finding a ‘solution’ – as one saying goes, being able to define a problem is half the problem solved. The quote by Albert Einstein.