Yes, that Gloria. She turns 75 today and, as much, I thought it would be an opportune time to reflect on leadership within contemporary feminism.
Gloria became the face of the feminist movement--along with Betty Friedan and a few others along the way--in the late 60s. Her scandalous investigative report on Playboy catapulted her into the spotlight. She would use that blinding light to do so many incredibly things over the years--co-found The Ms. Foundation for Women, Ms. Magazine, and the National Women's Political Caucus, champion the Equal Rights Amendment, and more recently, create Choice USA--a haven for young activists in the reproductive justice movement. I, personally, have benefited from her vision in multiple ways, one of which is the Women's Media Center, which she co-founded with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan. It trains women to be pundits in this male-dominated landscape of public debate. It's the reason I was on The O'Reilly Factor, but more importantly, it's one of the key reasons I am completely unafraid to present my feminist point of view on television, radio, or where ever else I think it might be needed.
There's no question that Steinem has used her leadership in amazing ways. But as even she has said: "A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space." She has been criticized (especially over her lack of awareness about trans issues), projected upon, and blamed for much of feminism's failings. And this, in essence, is the cost of such a bright light of leadership.
She is just one woman, and as such, can't please everyone nor represent the vast range of what feminism has been and is today. Further, in a movement historically built on its ideological critique of white supremacy, it's continually disappointing to see white women chosen by mainstream media as the figureheads of the movement. Steinem is pictured with Dorothy Pitman Hughes here. Steinem wrote:
For the four or five years surrounding the birth of Ms., I was traveling and speaking as a team with a black feminist partner: first Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a child-care pioneer, then lawyer Florynce Kennedy, and finally activist Margaret Sloan. By speaking together at hundreds of public meetings, we hoped to widen a public image of the women's movement created largely by its first homegrown media event, The Feminine Mystique.... Despite the many early reformist virtues of The Feminine Mystique, it had managed to appear at the height of the civil rights movement with almost no reference to black women or other women of color. It was most relevant to the problems of the white well-educated suburban homemakers who were standing by their kitchen sinks justifiably wondering if there weren't 'more to life than this.' As a result, white-middle-class movement had become the catch phrase of journalists describing feminism in the United States..., and divisions among women were still deep.
Which brings me to today. While Gloria Steinem is still, I would argue, the most famous contemporary feminist, there are a few young women who have written their way into the spotlight--Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards, our own Jessica, Andi Zeisler, at times, me. Notice anything? Yes, we're all white. White privilege has played a role in each one of our lives, in each one of our access to the publishing industry, media training, higher education etc. etc. Does it mean that we don't deserve to state our opinions in public venues or represent a feminist point of view from time to time? Of course not. But it does mean that the systems of oppression are still majorly at play in who gets the book deals, media calls, and speaking gigs. Jess and I talk a lot about ways in which we can share our privilege--both earned and unearned--with those that the national networks don't see. I know it's something Amy and Jen have talked about A LOT as well.
But what if leadership in contemporary feminism were not defined by the readily visible stuff--TV show spots and books--but on powerful activism and community building? Then you'd have a whole different list of leaders: Latifa Lyles, VP of NOW, Mia Herndon, ED of The Third Wave Foundation, and the women of INCITE!--Alisa Bierria, Eunice Cho, Chela Delgado, Nada Elia, Rosemary Gibbons, Isabel Gonzalez, Xandra Ibarra, Emi Kane, Jenny Lee, Andrea Ritchie. Etc. Etc. As our Fire in the Belly series indicates, there are young women all over the country doing amazing work. Are they leaders? Absolutely. Are they famous? No.
So what is the value of a "famous" feminist leader (or a few)? Does that value outweight the costs? Is it in our best interest to make sure that the next generation has visible leaders who are women of color, or should we throw out the idea of visible (as in mainstream media visibility) leadership altogether and embrace the grassroots activism that is really the engine of feminism as more than enough? What is the loss of that approach? Your thoughts?
*As if Gloria weren't enough birthday excitement for one day, Aretha Franklin also celebrates her birth today.
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I got the chance to meet Gloria Steinem last year. She was one of the warmest people I've ever met, and so funny. I loved that she came to a small town in Kentucky and, for those of us who got the chance, hung out with us prior to her event.
She just radiated positive vibes like no one else I've ever met before. Meeting her was one of the coolest moments of my life.
This discussion totally reminds me of the book I'm reading right now, "Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics", by bell hooks.
In the chapter entitled 'Race and Gender', she stresses the fact that, "All white women in this nation know that their status is different from that of black women/ women of color [. . .] They know that the only reason nonwhite are absent/ invisible is because they are not white. All white women in this nation know that whiteness is a privileged category" (55).
To combat this, hooks suggests, "There could be no real sisterhood between white women and women of color if white women were not able to divest of white supremacy, if feminist movement were not fundamentally anti-racist [. . .] We were finally putting in place a movement that did not place the class interests of privileged women, especially white women, over that of all other women. We put in place a vision of sisterhood where all realities could be spoken" (58).
What about Feministing doing a feature on strong feminists of colour, including: bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Dionne Brand, Lee Maracle, Angela Davis, Chandra Talpede Mohanty, Gayatri Spivak etc. etc. etc.
This topic also reminds me of Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack"; an article that first opened my eyes to the white privilege that I had previously just taken for granted, when I was in my 3rd year of university.
http://www.uakron.edu/centers/conflict/docs/whitepriv.pdf
Keep up the good work, Feministing! And let's keep the dialogue flowing ;)
I picked that book up on Monday--I am sad to say that although i had heard of bell hooks, I'd never heard of this book. I really enjoy it so far. I have to admit that it is frustrating to have my own priviledge so forcefully pointed out and it sort of leaves me with a "what do i do now" kind of feeling that I'm not quite sure how to deal with. hooks so vividly points out the rasicm and classism within feminism as sh experienced it, and I feel like there should be a next logical step, something to do in response, and I feel sort of lost. I think this is such a good discussion to have and I'm happy to see it here.
I have that picture hanging up at my desk. Very amazing picture.
That's my favorite picture from that era. I never realized the white woman in it was Gloria Steinem.
Happy birthday Ms Steinem. We're here because of you and others like you. Thank you.
This is a good opportunity to reflect on second-wave feminism and what it brought us. While it is easy today for us to engage in generational wars with second-wavers, such as the conflicts this site has had with second-wave stalwart Linda Hirschman... we have to acknowledge the deep debt we owe these women and their courageous battles against a racist, patriarchal establishment that was even more deeply entrenched than what we see today.
The second-wavers do have their flaws. For instance, both Hirschman and Steinem seem to have a bit of a horror of the sexual freedom advocated by the third wave. Nevertheless, we are in sync 90% of the time. I say we need to be willing to forget the other 10% and say, deep down, we are all fighting for the same major cause.
One tiny correction:
The Playboy Bunny article was published in 1963. Steinem didn't become active in the feminist movement until a few years later, and didn't really emerge as a leader until 1970 or thereabouts. There's little to no evidence that Steinem had even read The Feminine Mystique in that article, let alone intended it as more than an expose of bad labor conditions.
It's still a great article, though.
I love love love Ms Steinem. But I totally agree with the concerns that most well known feminists are White. I think that it's hard enough to get the media to take feminists seriously, so I think they say "Well, ok, we'll talk about it - so long as there's no brown people!!" It's a signal of what the problem is the begin with.
As my partner just mentioned - there are plenty of fabulous feminists that are non White but they're usually musicians, visual artists and slam poets. I just think this generation is more touched by feminism as performance art, rather than literary, academic feminism. Each subsequent generation is going to respond differently and having our leaders as artists I think inspires more girls to get involved. It's up to us to keep pushing our future leaders into the spotlight. We're the feminists. We create our own celebrities. If we keep talking about them, someone will have to listen eventually.
I always thought it was cool that I shared a birthday with so many powerful women. Gloria Steinem, Aretha Franklin, and Sandray Day O'Connor (who I disagree with plenty, but she is powerful...)
Many white feminists today are totally unaware at how much second wave feminism was actually modeled on the Civil Rights Movement.
WaterPixie360, Wow! I'm honoured that you went out & bought the book ;) I've had this book recommended to me several times, so finally ordered it from Amazon, since no book stores any where around me sell it. I appreciate your view that this book inspires even more questions than answers... but I do think that bell hooks asks the right questions, while carefully adding her own suggestions and vision. I agree that she leaves much of the 'answers' out... it is frustrating for me, but it was probably done intentionally.
Happy reading ;)