The Myth of the Wave: Feminism, Who Got Left Out, and the Urgent Return to Matriarchy

Send us Fan MailHappy belated Women’s History Month! Every wave of feminism promised liberation — so why did it keep leaving the same women behind? The feminist waves we were taught to celebrate were not failures of reach — they were strategic choices to maintain proximity to patriarchal power. That choice required the consistent sacrifice of women of color, queer and trans women, and working-class women. The 1990s cultural moment — Lilith Fair, 'girl power,' the rise of the female pop star — looked like matriarchy but was bounded by whiteness, industry gatekeeping, and commercial co-option. That same decade laid the groundwork for the industrial-scale exploitation of young women in entertainment. True return to matriarchy is not nostalgia. It is restoration of what colonialism and patriarchy actively destroyed: communal, non-hierarchical governance led by the women who were here first.DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth (C. Farrington, Trans.). Grove Press. (Original work published 1961)Freyd, J. J. (1994). Betrayal trauma: Traumatic amnesia as an adaptive response to childhood abuse. Ethics & Behavior, 4(4), 307–329.Freyd, J. J., & Birrell, P. J. (2013). Blind to betrayal: Why we fool ourselves we aren't being fooled. Wiley.Gunn Allen, P. (1986). The sacred hoop: Recovering the feminine in American Indian traditions. Beacon Press.Jost, J. T., & Banaji, M. R. (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33(1), 1–27.Jost, J. T., Burgess, D., & Mosso, C. O. (2001). Conflicts of legitimation among self, group, and system: The integrative potential of system justification theory. In J. T. Jost & B. Major (Eds.), The psychology of legitimacy (pp. 363–388). Cambridge University Press.Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. Norton.Raymond, J. G. (1979). The transsexual empire: The making of the she-male. Beacon Press.Siegel, D. J. (2015). Brainstorm: The power and purpose of the teenage brain. TarcherPerigee.Temple, S. (1988). Child star: An autobiography. McGraw-Hill.Wells-Barnett, I. B. (1970). Crusade for justice: The autobiography of Ida B. Wells (A. Duster, Ed.). University of Chicago Press.