CFDA Honors Gloria Steinem As Trump Moves To Curtail Women's Right To Birth Control, Bowing To Religious Forces

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CFDA Honors Gloria Steinem As Trump Moves To Curtail Women's Right To Birth Control, Bowing To Religious Forces

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem arrived on the national stage with her 1962 essay 'The Moral Disarmament of Betty Coed'. In 1963, Steinem famously used her good looks and socially-perceived 'hot bod' to work undercover at the Playboy Club, penning her experiences in an essay called 'A Bunny's Tale'. Feeling the backlash, in 2969 Steinem explained why men shouldn't fear feminists in 'After Black Power, Women's Liberation'. 

In 2017, many American women wonder why we can't cement our equality in 21st century America, where anti-feminist forces are perhaps more formidable than ever. Surrounded by pundits who argued that Hillary Clinton should drop the allegation that misogyny played any role in the 2016 election, former RNC chairman Michael Steele agreed that misogyny DID play a role, describing America as a very provincial nation with traditional views about women's roles. 

In the aftermath of Clinton's loss, the fashion industry is galvanized around women's issues, having taken a Clinton win for granted. On June 5, Steinem will receive the CFDA Board of Directors' Tribute for her endless legacy of work within the women's movement, in an honor presented by her close friend Diane von Furstenberg, a board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. 

Women's News | Gloria Steinem Meets Amanda Stenberg | Meet Poised Taupe Where Brown & Grey Have A Baby

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Women's News September 4, 2016 AOC Front Page

Gloria, who came to fame in the early ’60s as an enterprising journalist, has blitzed the world for the past half century with her views on gender equality and women’s rights. She doesn’t have patience for Midtown traffic or the geographically challenged, and it’s clear that age hasn’t quelled her independent spirit. When I offer to take her luggage, she looks at me as if I’ve recommended she reserve a burial plot. “No, thank you,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve got it.”
Waiting upstairs in a suite to interview her is Amandla Stenberg, one of the new guards of feminism. Over the course of her 17 short years, Amandla has schooled the Internet on black hair, rejected the gender binary, and costarred in The Hunger Games. She graduated from high school this week—literally—and arrived earlier this morning on a red-eye from Los Angeles. As a makeup and hair team fusses, Amandla diligently reviews notes. “I had to psych myself up to do this,” she admits. “I’ve admired her a long time, but…I have some questions,” referencing the seemingly exclusionary brand of “white feminism” that defined Gloria’s era.

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Women Finally Call Out Writer Gay Talese As Still A Sexist 50 Years After Gloria

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What's so interesting is that I researched the quote my subconscious mind attributed to Gay Talese, the one I recalled him making about Gloria Steinem in the back seat of a taxi. Rewire got to the same quote, and so did Marisa Bellack just now. Gloria told the story in her recent memoir 'My Life on the road. '

Gloria shares tales from the bad old days, like a taxi ride in 1964 with Saul Bellow and Gay Talese. Mr. Talese leaned across her — as if she weren’t there — to explain to Bellow:

“You know how every year there’s a pretty girl who comes to New York and pretends to be a writer? Well, Gloria is this year’s pretty girl.”

When a man comments about female writers, as Gay Talese did about Gloria, and 50 years later asks Nikole Hannah-Jones if she shouldn't get her nails done, then perhaps we should just apply the common adage of not being able to teach at least some old dogs new tricks.

Once a sexist, always a sexist. Goodness knows, it's a year for it out there. Something tells me this story isn't over ~ Anne

Related: Gay Talese's Other Problem Slate

Gay Talese probably wishes he'd had a cold. Instead, the 84-year-old journalist ventured out to Boston University last week, and made a series of simultaneously inane and offensive comments about female writers. Since that time, Talese has been the unsurprising object of mockery and scorn on Twitter and elsewhere. But within the same week, to less fanfare, Talese revealed an even darker side of himself via a massively long piece in the current issue of the New Yorker, titled “The Voyeur’s Motel.” Although it has been on the magazine's “most read” list for days, it hasn't elicited a fraction of the commentary that his remarks did. But the article is a failure of journalistic ethics and a revealing window into Talese’s character.

Arise! Will Young Women Join Anita Hill, Gloria Steinem & Eve Ensler in the Republican War on Women?

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Anne here, very excited to be on my way to New York. Have my press credentials & laptop for ‘live’ blogging from the media pool. Simply can’t believe that I will be in the media room w/Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, Anita Hill and all these great women who have fought so hard for women’s rights.

It’s perfect timing, as the Republicans pass a 7th bill that says pregnant women having a miscarriage — who are already distraught over their health emergencies — can die in the emergency rooms of American hospitals.

Our nation no longer has an obligation to save its women, say the Republicans.