Women on the Edge

In the early part of the 21st century, American women find themselves at a powerful, transitional place in the history of gender and sexual identity.

The third wave of feminism is already here, as the brave offspring of the women's liberation struggle of the '60s and '70s. In each permutation, feminism has more broadly represented American women's concerns, with the third wave speaking out most strongly about the inextricable intersections of racism, classism, homophobia and sexism.

It's no exaggeration to say that we've come a long way. The first wave was centered completely around the educational, employment, property and voting rights of Euro-American middle-class women in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While Sojourner Truth's outrage at the exclusivity of the suffrage movement, her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech from 1851, still resonates for many women of color, the movement continues to evolve, a dynamic collective effort toward the complete political, social and economic equality of all women in society.

As feminism reshapes itself to meet the needs of the women who lay claim to it, increasing numbers of girls and women find themselves exploring their own boundaries -- whether by intent, accident, or circumstance.

These are the women "on the edge," pushing and pulling at the inner and outermost definitions of femininity, feminism and womanhood. In doing so, they are rebelling not just against the dominant culture, but against a feminist culture that can be just as proscriptive in defining what is "normal."

Women exploring their external edges include those who pursue tattooing and body modification, those who embrace sexually "deviant" practices and those who altogether reject mainstream concepts of beauty, behavior and desirable body size. Women grappling with their internal edges, on the other hand, include those women who are coping creatively with mental illnesses ranging from depression to bipolar disorders.

Rivka Solomon is the editor of "That Takes Ovaries! Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts." Published in 2002, Solomon's book has generated more than 70 open mics, dramatizations and readings, around the country. Held by local women, these performances are often fundraisers for local girls' groups and organizations working to end abuses against women.

"Once again, we're surging up to demand change," says Solomon. "But this time [much of] the change is happening on a personal level."

And the personal, to revisit the second wave feminist phrase, is still political. Like many who tell their bold stories in Solomon's "That Takes Ovaries," these are young women who refuse to allow anything (or anyone) to dictate to them how they should look, act, or think. They are not dropping out from society or tuning out the concept of feminism, but instead continuing to engage with their communities on their own terms.

In recent years, several books have helped to posit new possibilities for what constitutes a "normal" woman's appearance, sexual expression, body size and even her sanity.

Those works have included Paula Kamen's "Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution", in which the author delves deeply into women's sexual agency and diverging and evolving concepts of sexual satisfaction and Caroline Knapp's "Appetites: Why Women Want", which explores tensions between feminism and anorexia. Margot Mifflin's "Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo" and Ophira Edut's "Body Outlaws: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity both posit women's bodies as instruments of rebellion and resistance, whether through skin and body modification, color or hair texture, or the proportions of noses, butts and bodies.

In the realm of mental illness, it was Phyllis Chesler's "Women and Madness in 1972 that broke fresh ground by introducing a new lens through which to view women and insanity. Chesler's work introduced the idea that the psychology of women -- from varied class and ethnic backgrounds -- had been strongly shaped by patriarchal culture and consciousness. Mental illness, as Chesler argued convincingly (albeit to the outrage of many of her professional peers), could be seen as a manifestation of resistance.