Gloria Steinem: Now is not the time to settle
By Nancy Hass, Newsweek
Mention the name Gloria Steinem to many women under 30, and if there is a flash of recognition at all, they put her in Florence Nightingale’s league—an admirable figure from the history books. To them, feminism was a war won before they were born, the miniskirted 1970s revolution that freed their mothers and grandmothers from drudgery and discrimination, paving the way for their own generation’s unfettered freedom.
But in the living room of the funky Upper East Side duplex where she has lived for more than 35 years, Steinem, 77, is still on the front lines of a fight she considers barely half finished. Every day, the news pours in—from the Middle East, Africa, India, and Washington, D.C.—jamming her inbox and filling up her speaking schedule. The media haven’t paid her much attention in the past 15 years (so many Kardashians, so little time), but the woman who has been the enduring face of feminism for nearly half a century insists her hands are as full as ever.
“Obviously we’ve come a long way on many fronts, at least for some women in this country,” says the activist and founder of Ms. magazine as she curls her bare feet beneath her on a green velvet sofa she’s had for decades, sipping a lukewarm cup of coffee and leaning against a needlepoint pillow that reads “Being on the Bestseller List Is the Best Revenge.” “But then you have Anders Breivik,” the Norwegian man who massacred 77 people in late July. “He was clearly motivated by woman-hating and the cult of masculinity. His own manifesto made super-clear that he hated his mother and stepmother for being feminists and ‘feminizing’ him, that feminists made ‘men not men anymore.’ How far have we come if that part of it barely got any coverage?”
Don’t get her started on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief who has been accused of sexual abuse by an African-born chambermaid assigned to clean his New York hotel suite. Even though the case may never be prosecuted because it is muddled by inconsistencies in the woman’s story and background, Steinem considers the skirmish a victory. “Anyone can see this is a pattern of behavior,” she says in her measured Midwestern tones, pointing to other women who have claimed Strauss-Kahn harassed them. “And now that has been exposed. He’s gone from the job, disgraced. No matter what happens, it’s a net win for us.”
As for Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, women who wouldn’t be riling up the Tea Party faithful had Steinem not paved their way out of the kitchen, she sees them as inevitable, as was (ERA opponent) Phyllis Schlafly at an earlier time. “You know what you’re saying is important when the power structure brings in people who look like you and think like them.”
“You know what you’re saying is important when the power structure brings in people who look like you and think like them.”
Now she sounds like Janeanne Garofolo claiming that Herman Cain has Stockholm Syndrome. It’s very demeaning to women (or black people) for liberals to claim that you’re only thinking for yourself if you think like them.
It may seem “demeaning” to you… but I have always been mystified by people joining an organization that so clearly is working against their own interests. issues and indeed of their own survival like gays and African Americans/ gays/ women joining the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Anyone that believes they are “thinking for yourself” by agreeing with the anti-science,religiously insane, middle class destroying, greed/warmongers of the lunatic fringe right that has co-opted the GOP deserves to be demeaned. Repeatedly.
I rest my case.
Not just anti science, completely ignorant of science. How old is the earth?
Man if you need to convince someone to blindly follow your ideology , start recruiting from the group of people who believe the earth is young and that evolution does not exist.
Also I might have missed the part where ‘It’s very demeaning to women (or black people) for liberals to claim that you’re only thinking for yourself if you think like them.’ happened.
Happens all the time, Robot. But you need to stop twisting different ideologies together to make one big category of people that you get to feel superior to. It doesn’t work, and makes you look small.
So there did the part where “‘It’s very demeaning to women (or black people) for liberals to claim that you’re only thinking for yourself if you think like them.’” happen in the article.
Read the first sentence of my first post. It’s a quote from Steinem in the article. As I said next, it reminded me of last week’s video of Janeanne Garofolo making statements about the absurdity of black conservatives, specifically claiming that Herman Cain has stockholm syndrome.
Essentially what these women are saying is that if you think differently from the way THEY do, you must not be in your right mind. As if it is not possible women or black people to have THEIR OWN opinions. I shouldn’t have to explain this to you, Bongo. I thought you were a smart guy. Or haven’t you seen Garofolo’s interview video? You can google it.
Yeah… what you said is not in her quote, you seem to have completely misunderstood it. And that is not essentially what these women are saying at all.
I don’t feel superiority to the knuckledragger, anti-science/reality, free market/libertard, “Me the People” crowd… it’s pity.
It’s not her quote? Really? I cut and pasted it.
P.S. Don’t even try to tell me I don’t understand what “these women” are saying. How would you know what anybody else thinks? You spend your life twisting what people say and proving to yourself that you’re the smartest person in Tahoe. Trying to have a discussion with you wasting my time.
Who else think it would be awesome to have dog and robot face off in a wipeout / most extreme elimination style challenge? Don’t get me wrong, you are both clearly smart people who fight for what you believe in, which is admirable, no matter what your political or religious beliefs. You also both make reading this great site even better, but lighten up on each other a little.
I think that if you look at the racism of many in the Republican ( I said many not all or most) and very many in the Tea party, the it is beyond illogical (or just blind) for a member of that community to support them. Just in the last few weeks Republican Office holders have call Obama a “Tar Baby”, A recent Oklahoma Rep saying Blacks and Women make less than men because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative,and is not being censured by her party. Just two of many many examples. You know what others think by their words and deeds.
Oh PLEASE!!! I see SO much more racism on the part of the left. The trick is, it’s disguised as CARING. Have you listened to Maxine Waters lately? Or any of the other members of the Congressional Black Caucas? Many of them are extremely rich, off the backs of their constituents who frequently live in government sanctioned poverty. No, Sweetheart, you can’t possibly get ahead on your own. You need the welfare to take care of you. Don’t get married ’cause then your husband will have to support those kids. Just stay where you belong in the ghetto, single and struggling, and we’ll give you all the foodstamps and rent assistance you need. Yeah. It’s really helped those folks, hasn’t it?
DO NOT get me started.
So print the quote where a Republican office holder” called Obama a “tar baby”. I’m not familiar and would like to know.
See, you can pick out individual instances of some buffoon saying something racist on the right pretty easily. There isn’t actually that much! There’s so much of it in so many ways on the left, it’s totally glossed over.
dogwoman: http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/01/congressman-calls-obama-a-tar-baby/
He said that being associated with Obama would be similar to touching a tar-baby.
Now he says he was misunderstood and that he meant that he’d be stuck to him…whichever it was, it was offensive to even hear.
What do you mean there isn’t that much on the right? Would you please explain..you mean, that many racist comments? 1 is too many.
So he (she?) didn’t actually call Obama a “tar baby”. I suspected not.
How about Maxine Waters saying that the Tea Party could go to Hell. And she would help them get there?
Let it be understood (AGAIN) that I am NOT a Republican. I am a libertarian. And I support our Constitution above everything EXCEPT God. So I have no intention of defending the Republican point of view. But to accuse them of Racism when the Democrat policies of the last 50 years have perpetuated racism so clearly, well, it just seems so horribly twisted to me.
*Crickets*
Oh. It appears the comments I was responding to so vehemently have been removed. So it looks like I’m arguing with myself.
Oh well, I do that sometimes. . .
‘Don’t get me wrong, you are both clearly smart people who fight for what you believe in,’
Ask her how old the earth is.
Sad to say, I am one of those young women under 30 who has had limited exposure to Steinem, at best. I just watched the fantastic documentary though, and I had a few thoughts.
What I learned from “Gloria Steinem: In Her Words”
http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/08/most-important-lesson-from-steinem-in.html
And the above post, Dear Young at Heart, is why we don’t lighten up on each other. ONE of us is always in personal attack mode.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100102296/sun-causes-climate-change-shock/
For you, Bongo.