The Necessary 5th Wave of Feminism

Written by Ruby Mulvaney

“The feminist revolution had to be fought because women quite simply were stopped at a state of evolution far short of their human capacity.”  

―Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Societal advancements have always been asymmetrical; advancements in medicine were based on studies of men’s bodies, benefiting them with solutions crafted for their biology. Now, advancements in technology and AI mirror this, creating a society that rewards their misogyny with validation and anonymity. These technological advancements present setbacks for women under the guise of progress.   

The 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960s fought for women's liberation by challenging the patriarchy–which as you know, limits legal and social independence for women. The omnipresent existence of social media and AI perpetuate the same systems past women fought hard against, systems that do not aid the progression of women’s rights. Advancements to technology have not been advancements for womankind.   

In The Feminine Mystique, a quintessential feminist text, writer Betty Friedan said“ The feminist revolution had to be fought because women quite simply were stopped at a state of evolution far short of their human capacity.” I believe that social media and AI present the need for another feminist revolution, because these technologies are also stopping women from reaching their full capacity. The sexism and misogyny that runs rampant online hold women back from complete liberation.   

For women, AI and social media present a specific set of challenges. For example, AI deepfakes take away women’s autonomy by allowing male users to create compromising videos and images of women using any photos that they can access online. Even worse, these deepfakes have developed quicker than laws, making it hard to hold those responsible accountable.   

Furthermore, AI allows stereotypes of women to be perpetuated. Large language models are incapable of critical thinking; instead, they access and compile pre-existing human thought. Because these AI models are compiling information that exists online, they fall victim to stereotypes. In a communication research class I took recently, we asked AI to show us a photo of a nurse: only photos of women appeared. We then prompted the bot to show us photos of doctors, and only men appeared on the screen. Of course, there are male nurses and female doctors, but AI either didn’t know that, or didn’t care. This discrepancy further challenges women’s equality by presenting sexist stereotypes as fact, instead of producing a nuanced photo of reality.   

Even the origins of social media as we know it are rooted in sexism. Before Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, he created FashMash, a website that allowed users to compare the attractiveness of two women from Harvard’s campus. These sites were never meant for young women; it ties them down to a system that places attractiveness as the highest form a woman can achieve.   

As a 20-year-old who grew up in the era of social media I feel particularly robbed of an equal upbringing. While my male peers were sharing funny videos, I was receiving comments about my appearance and suggestions for suicide. Gen Z girls are the first to suffer from this new strand of digitized sexism. There is a generational and gender-based divide that makes social media so much worse for women my age.   

In high school, I posted something about the Black Lives Matter movement on my Snapchat story. One of my peers texted me“ kill your self, you know nothing about politics”, and then, I went to school the next day as if nothing had happened. The mask of social media had provided him anonymity.   

In middle school, boys ranked my peers and I by attractiveness on a piece of single lined notebook paper. When the girls found it taped to a wall by the lockers, we analyzed it like the Bible. A thought rippled through the 7th grade classrooms; this list must be unequivocally true. And yet, when we went to the principal, our teachers were able to match the handwriting and punishments were issued.   

Unfortunately, there is no way to analyze comment sections for handwriting, and there is no way to punish behavior after school hours. Now, I experience anonymous comments,“ who’s the chopped one” left on my Instagram post by a user with no posts or profile photo. In this instance there is no principal for me to tattle to; instead, my only option is to report the account, with the vague comfort that they won’t be able to comment on others posts.   

While men may see AI and social media as tools for advancement, a deeper analysis reflects the damage it does to women, specifically Gen Z women.   

I believe we need a 5th wave of feminism, one that specifically targets changing technology and the way it limits the potential of young women. This wave cannot just be cultural outrage, as I believe we are already beginning to see, but rather a call to action. Strict laws about deepfakes, limiting sexist language online, age restrictions on social media and a focus on limiting young men’s exposure to extremely sexist content are all areas that need legislative action ASAP.