Hey Gloria: Want a column?
Gloria Steinem was seriously bad-ass tonight. I have no idea if she reads Feministing - but in case she does...
Gloria, all the folks at Feministing would like to formally invite you to write a column for us called "Cunt Power." What do you think?
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Gloria, all the folks at Feministing would like to formally you to write a column for us called "Cunt Power."
Hey Jessica, I think you accidentally a word there. =)
Chaaaaalllllleeenge.
[draws toe through the sand to form a line]
Absolutely.
Can we get Germaine Greer, too?
Please not Germaine Greer. I get really tired of her transphobic rants.
Gloria Steinam, on the other hand, would rock!
Second, the last thing we need on this site more transphobia.
That would be too awesome for words.
Oh, please! Please!
I think you shouldn't speak for all of us.
Who is "us"? The last time I checked we're allowed to do what we want with our own blog. Just saying.
Aye. Have we forgotten about this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html
so what? Steinem is awesome--smart, funny, very insightful, and a very provocative feminist thinker. bring her on!
"Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot"
That's the most astonishingly ignorant/disingenuous bit of historical fairy-telling I've seen since Buchanan's article on Hitler's peaceful intentions. I didn't think anyone envied black Americans' voting privileges prior to 1920, or for a half century after. Does she not know what a cruel illusion the 15th amendment was for 100 years? White women have voted continuously since Woodrow Wilson, blacks (of any gender) since Lyndon Johnson.
Well, almost 100 years.
you really do not think that women were not allowed to use their right to vote after that either? I honestly think a lot of people had an easier time with black men voting than women of any color. Women have always been and will always be the lowest on the totem pole, whether they are African American, Latina, or white. We are the ones who continually get the short end of the stick. We are the ones who are still paid less to do the same job and the jokes of legislation that are passed are horrendously written and therefore essentially are useless. People in this country would not dream of paying an African American man less than a white man but have absolutely no qualms in paying women less than they pay men to do the same work.
. . . I've never been speechless before . . .
People in this country would not dream of paying an African American man less than a white man
This doesn't seem to be at all accurate. Google turns up quite a bit of research on the wage gap between black and white workers.
Yes, women have absolutely been terribly discriminated against both in voting rights and employment rights, but it does all of us a disservice to dismiss the very real wage discrimination suffered by blacks and other minorities, of all genders.
Here's some actual numbers regarding the matter.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html
"I honestly think a lot of people had an easier time with black men voting than women of any color".
Yeah accept for that whole tricky getting murdered, lynched and homes firebombed for trying to register thingy.
Jessica, this idea - and the title - are made of win.
I completely agree - idea, title, the works. I saw Gloria speak at an academic conference in 2007 and her insight, humor, warmth and genuine emotion held the entire room in rapt attention. Gonna go make myself a "cunt power" button right now...
I really worked up a deep resentment for that Steinem last year so she is no hero of mine.
You didn't agree that a white woman was entitled to be president before a black man?
Lol, see I was trying say without saying...but that whole "if Obama was a woman" thing made me think what the hell what the hell.
"We all want to see a black president, but damned if they're going to cut in line . . ."
Oh JESUS CHRIST.
I'm sorry, but some of these comments are really pissing me off.
If we're only talking about the Op-Ed in the NY Times, then I have a serious bone to pick.
Steinem raises some excellent points in her article, which points out that there really is no way to be a woman in the public eye. Not to mention we seem to be ignoring this:
"I’m not advocating a competition for who has it toughest. The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that."
and let's not forget this:
"This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It’s time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers. We have to be able to say: “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman.” "
I'm sorry, but nowhere is it even implied that a white woman was "entitled" to be president before a black man. If anything, Steinem is advocating AGAINST entitlement at all in this piece.
We live in a world where racism is still prevalent, but that doesn't mean we should ignore sexism. Are we forgetting that the black power movement, led by the likes of stokely carmichael and malcolm x by and large excluded women's voices?
Anyway. Sorry for further derailing. I think a Steinem column would be great!
The Civil Rights movement was undeniably, overtly sexist. And at what point were non-white women accepted as full members of the Women's Rights movement? Let me know when that happens.
When Hillary Clinton's campaign fell behind, she took up white populism to rally "hard-working Americans, white Americans" who supposedly would never accept Obama - for some mysterious reason. Coincidentally, we got a rash of arguments from the likes of Geraldine Ferraro that black men actually had it pretty good in the States and that it was women who were oppressed and a white woman who deserved to be president. Maybe Steinem's deceitful (in the local dialect, "look how good the blak menz have always had it!") article was just a coincidence, and maybe I have Obama's real birth certificate up for auction.
Thank you for what you said cuz I feel like this--I can be a feminist--but let's not bullshit each other, don't piss on my back and tell me it's rain.
Well, I don't particularly find Gloria Steinem's column deceitful, so I guess we'll just have to disagree there.
You don't know very much about American history. I'm willing to bet Gloria does.
Wow. I disagree with you and suddenly I don't know very much about American history. That's rude and presumptuous.
I stand by my position that this Op-Ed pretty clearly speaks out against entitlement. Condescending to me doesn't make your reading of this article correct. Since I'm only perpetuating the derail, I'm going to stop here and not respond anymore. I suggest you do the same.
I guess if you wanted the "derail" to end, the thing not to do would be to keep it going. Sadly, impartial justice demands you have the last word?
Gloria Steinem knows very well that black men haven't been voting for the past 130 years, 50 years longer than women. She's being deliberately disingenuous. I'm extending you the benefit of the doubt in assuming you honestly don't know better. For your illumination, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870. Reconstruction and the Federal occupation of the South ended in 1877, seven years later. The states where most black Americans lived quickly disenfranchised blacks, who would not be allowed to vote again until the 1960's, 40 years after women gained the right to vote, which they've held unmolested for the last 89 years. Gloria Steinem is an intelligent and educated woman and it's impossible that she truly knows none of this as she pretends in that article.