"The truth will set you free, but it will piss you off first."
- Gloria Steinem
Before Gloria Steinem took the stage in the early 70s, feminists were seen as homely, lonely spinsters. They were angry women, intent on wreaking havoc with the way things were supposed to be, challenging the balance of power, and (gasp) burning bras. They had forgotten their place in civilized society and that they, like the children they were responsible for raising, were to be seen and not heard.
All that changed when a witty, intelligent and (equally important), beautiful Gloria Steinam added her voice to the movement. Suddenly feminists were attractive? And chose to be single? Because of the face she brought to feminism, women were no longer seen only as the "weaker sex". And because of her voice, what was being said was starting to be heard. One of her wittier quotes "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" sums up, for me, her feelings about a woman's real
Ms. Magazine turned 40 this year. And Ms. Steinem is still going strong at 78. Thanks to her, we, our daughters and granddaughters no longer think this is anything but antiquated hilarity.
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"One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the Earth." - GS
3 comments:
Great post, i love it
How are you? Not seen you in a while? Love to know what you've been up to.
Sharon
My heart went skip! I was afraid she'd died! And then I thought what a sad comment it is that the world so usually waits until death to appreciate a life.
Thank you for a more timely appreciation of a woman who deserves all our praise and thanks.
And goodness. That piece is hilarious, but are we sure it wasn't written with tongue in cheek? To me it seems too acid a satire. It doesn't feel as though a man could have written it. Surely no man could have written this. The man who'd want to couldn't have done it! Or if he could, he wouldn't have put these tips, tricks and truths of his so baldly. The man whose idea of a proper earthly paradise this piece describes (and who is in consequence, probably, unmarried) could not have made such delicious work of it.
It feels like a woman's work to me. And what work: every choice word a sharp skewer, perfectly puncturing the unspoken attitudes of the men who've made her roll her eyes all her live-long days!
I could be wrong, I suppose. Men back then were certainly crafty enough. But it seems as though the writer of this was in on the joke, and it doesn't seem the sort of thing a man would joke about. The humor is too perfectly, transparently sick.
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