Last month I wrote for Bookslut about the exhausting spate of anthologies related to feminism. The one that really inspired the piece was called We Don’t Need Another Wave, and while I was no fan of the book’s content, I definitely agreed with the title’s contention.

Pretty early on in college I took a Women’s Studies seminar that was specifically about third wave feminism. It was both great and frustrating, at least partly because at the time – just a few years ago -- invoking a new feminist wave didn’t seem repetitive yet. Third wave seemed to be about a genuine resurgence of feminist culture in new(ish) and contentious forms. It was about real things that were happening more than about validating those things by calling them a movement (though there was some of that, too).

With the opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art on the horizon, this month’s issue of ARTNews focuses on feminist art, and right on the cover they refer to work being made now as “the next wave.” Funny, I hadn’t noticed it ever going away. Apparently it's difficult to understand feminism as a constant.

The successes and failures of political movements are relatively easy to chart. What’s harder is figuring out what to make of the changes and challenges left in their wake (there’s that wave metaphor again…). It seems to me much less important to pinpoint some lofty conception of The State Of Feminism Today than to realize that feminism (and feminists) are all over the place, engaged in projects of all kinds and scales. Culture inspired or influenced by feminism is everywhere, and feminism is too rich and fascinating to be bound by convenient “wave” designations.