The First Wave Of Feminism In Rachel Platten's Fight Song

Sugar, Spice, and a catchy chorus, this is what feminist anthems are made of, or rather, some would say, what they are not made of. In the world of 2016 female pop artists like Beyoncé, Rachel Platten, and Taylor Swift all seek to find their own places in the reemerging genre of girl power pop music, and more importantly how to weave meaningful feminist messages in their songs. Following the release of Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” in March of 2016, Saturday Night Live actors performed a skit entitled “This is Not A Feminist Song.” This skit responds to the question raised by critics of songs like “Fight Song”: whether the intersectional history and nature of modern feminism become too nuanced to be conveyed through a three-minute song. While

The First Wave of Feminism began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Conference, seeking voting and property rights equality for women, and this wave created many waves in that feminist protestors became commonplace at polling stations and election campaigning events until their rights were won. Following the procurement of equal rights in voting and property ownership, feminist work receded into the background until the 1960s during which the Second Wave arose to fight for reproductive and sexual rights and freedoms. This particular wave of feminism was so influential in shaping the way in which people began to talk about equality in that many political and social scientists wrote books, papers, and gave lectures that began to form feminist rhetoric that has lasted until the modern day. In the 1990s feminist work and protest began to move further from the public eye and into the realm of academia, this shift is seen by quite a few as a major step back for feminism in that visibility of the community decreased majorly, even though feminist work continued mostly through the United States court system, in cases such as the Supreme Court case of Roe v

Now in 2016, as society begins to see the burgeoning bud of Fourth Wave Feminism, the beginning of this new wave continuously faces attack in that media of this wave doesn’t reach the standard of those who experienced Second, and even Third, Wave Feminism. This is one of the main challenges faced by songs like “Fight Song” and I believe SNL thoroughly hit on the head in its skit “This Is Not a Feminist Song”. In consideration of this musical subgenre and its seemingly ubiquitous nature modernity’s culture, the mere existent of the subgenre marks a huge advance in the past 168 years since the Women’s Declaration of Rights in Seneca Falls, New York; in and of itself the ubiquity of these songs illustrates the increasingly commonplace acceptance of given other equal rights and pursuing self-actualization. This advance in visibilty illustrates society’s and feminism acknowledgement that now that women have gained voting and property rights and are making progress in reproductive and sexual rights that now the challenge faced by women is how they choose to use these freedoms. In the end of the skit the women ask if it is a song sung by women for women then it is a feminist song, in light of the incredible increase