(U-WIRE) LINCOLN, Neb. — Feminism is dead.
At least, Time magazine thinks so.
On June 29, Time magazine officially declared the end of the modern American feminist movement as we know it. Again. The response from feminist readers? Stop. We’ve heard this one before.
It seems that once every few years, at least one popular news magazine decides to dedicate a couple of pages to the investigation of what Feminists (one group) are doing these days. This should be simple enough, because all women who identify as feminist have the same agenda and work together on everything, right? Right? Oh, if only they knew how long it takes to get a women’s studies department to agree on where to go to lunch.
When the researchers can’t come up with a comprehensive answer to The Feminist Question, suddenly the movement is declared dead. Time and time again, world without end. (Except for in 1994, when Details magazine made the shocking discovery that some feminists actually like sex, and “Do-Me Feminism” was born; then the movement was alive and kicking.)
The Time article, title “Feminism: It’s All About ME!” declares that the real feminist movement has died down because young women today are more concerned with their bodies and their love lives than with making social change. Their proof? The popularity of female characters such as Ally McBeal and the Spice Girls. Excuse me, since when has television or commercial rock n’ roll offered us revolutionary role models? Even during the 1970s, when modern feminism was considered very much alive, the average young woman probably wanted to be more like Farrah Fawcett than Angela Davis or Gloria Steinem.
The truth is, social change and feminist action are happening all over the place, whether it’s in our classrooms, where bell hooks is being assigned along with Herman Melville; at our jobs, where sexual harassment is finally being recognized as a problem; or in the Nebraska Legislature, where abortion and gay rights are among the most pressing issues. Feminism dead? Well, don’t bury anybody yet; it looks to me like we’re still moving.

This opinions article originally ran Thursday in the Daily Nebraskan (University of Nebraska).