No one criticizes third wave/intersectionality because they don't want to be seen as a racist or whateverphobe. Women criticizing Islam during the Bush era went South real fast, and you'll probably notice there was a rapid change in attitude. Saving face is stupidly important within women's spaces, and feminism is largely performative in the Western world.

Agreed on the performative aspect. Feminism in the West is a mixture of applied post modernism and narcissism. Both encourage performative acts, the former to remain in good standing with the tribe and the latter because they want everything to be about them and their identity.

I don't think it's smart to dismiss the possibility of subversion of movements. Let's look deeper. When exactly did it change? (You addressed part of this with second wave). When did all of these things start hitting an apex? Who ultimately benefits from all of this? Who is profiting from all of this? How did many of these laws come to be that got us here? Were they openly voted for by all? Or were they just sort of stuffed within the fine print within a bill? I don't think any of this would have gotten as far as it has if there wasn't money to be made.

Sure. there's money to be made. There's also the ideological motivation. I'll assume good faith in the sense that most of these people actually believe what they say. It's a political cult, and they've been pushed in to this by academics, the media, and government convincing them that they are somehow oppressed. While there's some money to be made from bedroom feminists and similar types, such as through selling feminist books, cats, and dildos, I don't see that as a particularly lucrative market. The ideology is the thing being pushed. That many make a good living as priests of this cult is more a side benefit than the ultimate purpose. They actually believe this nonsense.