: Health Hinge

The Education of A Woman: The Life and Times of Gloria Steinem by Carolyn Heilbrun 1995

“Evil is obvious only in retrospect.”[citation needed]
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.”[citation needed]
“The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”[citation needed]

The Thousand Indias (1957)
The Beach Book (1963)
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)
Marilyn: Norma Jean (1986)
Revolution from Within (1992)
Moving beyond Words (1993)
Doing Sixty & Seventy (2006)

Steinem has questioned the practice of transsexualism. She expressed disapproval that the heavily-publicized sex-role change of tennis player Renée Richards had been characterized as “a frightening instance of what feminism could lead to” or as “living proof that feminism isn’t necessary.” Steinem wrote, “At a minimum, it was a diversion from the widespread problems of sexual inequality.” Apparently concerned for Richards’ effect on the legitimacy of women’s sports, Steinem asked, “Why should the hard-won seriousness of women’s tennis be turned into a sensational circus by one transsexual?” She writes that, while she supports individuals right to identify as they choose, she claims that, in many cases, transsexuals “surgically [mutilate] their bodies” in order to conform to a gender role that is inexorably tied to physical body parts. She concludes that “feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for transexualism.” The article concluded with what became one of Steinem’s most famous quotes: “If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?” Although clearly meant in the context of transsexuality, the quote is frequently mistaken as a general statement about feminism.[54]

Prominent feminists like Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, and Donna Haraway have subsequently rejected Steinem’s argument, embracing ideas of “queerness” and “the abject other” as vital to the destabilization and subversion of normative constraints.[55]

In August of 2008, Steinem appeared on the radio program Weekday and stated that her wikipedia page falsely attributed to her that she had “condemned transexualism, which I absolutely had never done.”[56]

Steinem wrote the definitive article on female genital cutting that brought the practice into the American public’s consciousness.[52] In it she reports on the staggering “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 rudimentary arguments that would be developed by philosopher Martha Nussbaum.[53]

Along with Susan Brownmiller, Andrea Dworkin, and Catherine 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.[51]

Steinem is a staunch advocate of reproductive freedom, a term she herself coined and helped popularize. She credits an abortion hearing she covered for New York Magazine as the event that turned her into an activist.[50] 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.”

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.[48] 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.”[49] Nevertheless, on concrete issues, Steinem has staked firm positions.

Steinem has been an active political participant in the 2008 election. She praised both the Democratic front-runners, commenting,

“Both Senators Clinton and Obama are civil rights advocates, feminists, environmentalists, and critics of the war in Iraq….Both have resisted pandering to the right, something that sets them apart from any Republican candidate, including John McCain. Both have Washington and foreign policy experience; George W. Bush did not when he first ran for president.”[43] Nevertheless, Steinem later endorsed Senator Clinton.[44]

She made headlines for a New York Times op-ed in which she called gender “probably the most restricting force in an American life,” rather than race. She elaborated, “Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women.”[45]

Steinem again drew attention for, according to the New York Observer, seeming “to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.” Steinem’s broader argument “was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.”[46]

Following McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Steinem penned an op-ed in which she labeled Palin an “unqualified woman” who “opposes everything most other women want and need.” Steinem described her nomination speech as “divisive and deceptive” and concluded that Palin resembled “Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.”[47]

In the run-up to the 2004 election, Steinem voiced fierce criticism of the Bush administration, asserting, “There has never been an administration that has been more hostile to women’s equality, to reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right, and she has acted on that hostility.” She went on to claim, “If he is elected in 2004, abortion will be criminalized in this country.”[41] At a Planned Parenthood event in Boston, Steinem declared Bush “a danger to health and safety,” citing his antagonism to Clean Water Act, reproductive freedom, sex education, and AIDS relief.[42]