a biography of the day--gloria steinem
Last edited Sun Mar 25, 2012, 11:24 PM - Edit history (1)
(for those of you with access to hbo--in their "on demand-documentaries" section, there is "gloria: in her own words"--and running it on hbo channels, although I don't know when)
Happy Birthday! Gloria Steinem is 78 today.
Gloria Steinem was born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. She became a freelance writer after college and grew more and more engaged in the women's movement and feminism. She helped create both New York and Ms. magazines, helped form the National Women's Political Caucus, and is the author of many books and essays. A breast cancer survivor, Steinem celebrated her 75th birthday in 2009. Social activist, writer, editor, and lecturer. Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Since the late 1960s, Gloria Steinem has been an outspoken champion of women's rights. She had an unusual upbringing, spending part of the year in Michigan and the winters in Florida or California. With all this traveling, Steinem did not attend school on a regular basis until she was 11.
Around this time, Steinem's parents divorced and she ended up caring for her mother, Ruth, who suffered from mental illness. Steinem spent six years living with her mother in a rundown home in Toledo before leaving to go to college. At Smith College, she studied government, an non-traditional choice for a woman at that time. It was clear early on that she did not want to follow the most common life path for women in those days—marriage and motherhood. "In the 1950s, once you married you became what your husband was, so it seemed like the last choice you'd ever have…I'd already been the very small parent of a very big child—my mother. I didn't want to end up taking care of someone else," she later told People magazine.
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Steinem had another collection of writings, Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender, published in 1994. In one of the essays, "Doing Sixty," she reflected on reaching that chronological milestone. Steinem was also the subject of a biography written by another noted feminist Carolyn G. Heilbrun entitled Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem.
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http://www.biography.com/people/gloria-steinem-9493491?page=2
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Steinem's social and political views overlap into multiple schools of feminism. This problem is compounded by the evolution of her views over five decades of activism. Although most frequently considered a liberal feminist, Steinem has repeatedly characterized herself as a radical feminist.[59] More importantly, she has repudiated categorization within feminism as "nonconstructive to specific problems." "I've turned up in every category. So it makes it harder for me to take the divisions with great seriousness."[60] Nevertheless, on concrete issues, Steinem has staked firm positions.
[edit] Abortion
Steinem is a staunch advocate of reproductive freedom, a term she herself coined and helped popularize. She credits the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services hearings she covered[61][62] for New York Magazine as the event that turned her into an activist.[63] At the time, abortions were widely illegal and risky. In 2005, Steinem appeared in the documentary film I Had an Abortion by Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldrich. In the film, Steinem described the abortion she had as a young woman in London, where she lived briefly before studying in India. In the documentary My Feminism, Steinem characterized her abortion as a "pivotal and constructive experience."
[edit] Pornography
Along with Susan Brownmiller and Catharine MacKinnon, Steinem has been a vehement critic of pornography, which she distinguishes from erotica: "Erotica is as different from pornography as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain." Steinem's argument hinges on the distinction between reciprocity versus domination. She writes, "Blatant or subtle, pornography involves no equal power or mutuality. In fact, much of the tension and drama comes from the clear idea that one person is dominating the other." On the issue of same-sex pornography, Steinem asserts, "Whatever the gender of the participants, all pornography is an imitation of the male-female, conqueror-victim paradigm, and almost all of it actually portrays or implies enslaved women and master." Steinem also cites "snuff films" as a serious threat to women.[8]:219[64]
[edit] Genital mutilation
Steinem wrote the definitive article on female genital mutilation that brought the practice into the American public's consciousness.[8]:292[65] The article reports on the "75 million women suffering with the results of genital mutilation." According to Steinem, "The real reasons for genital mutilation can only be understood in the context of the patriarchy: men must control women's bodies as the means of production, and thus repress the independent power of women's sexuality." Steinem's article contains the basic arguments that would be developed by philosopher Martha Nussbaum.[66]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem
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A very, very Happy Birthday, Gloria. You've been my hero for many, many years. A special thanks for all the work you've done on behalf of women. You rock, Lady.
