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Home , Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem

[ VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014 ] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 Research Paper1

English Literature - A Feminist Activist Key Words: Radical with a Difference (A Study of her Feminist, reproductive major views) freedom, activist, equality and justice.

Dr. Sunita Nimavat Assistant Professor of English at N.P.College of Computer & Mgt., Kadi (North Gujarat).

ABSTRACT Gloria Steinem is one of the most influential radical feminists of our times. Born in the USA, she struggled a lot and emerged as a champion of women‟s rights. Her focus has been on reproductive freedom of women. She believes that men have subjugated women by controlling their reproductive system. It is a means of expressing patriarchal authority for men. Steinem favours and opposes , genital mutilation and discrimination against transsexuals and same sex . She believes that has come a long way. It has garnered political support creating more favourable environment. Referring to Indian Women, she said that there is a growing awareness about their rights and freedom among Indian women.

Gloria Steinem is one of the most suppressed. Now they demand justice, not radical and controversial feminists of our protection. Women have now realized that time. Recently, she was in India to attend what they need is justice, not protection. Jaipur Literary festival where she talked Even men have now tired of playing the about the major concerns of women‟s role of protectors. They too have realized liberation movement today. She said that the stereotypes are not good for has matured now them too. Gloria Steinem‟s feminist views attaining majority support and quite often are original and profoundly relevant today. succeeding in achieving political support Gloria Steinem was born on March also. She referred to Delhi gang rape case 25,1934 in Toledo, Ohio ( USA ). She is a and said that it is as though there is a political social activist who became sudden and dramatic realization in Indian nationally recognized as a spokesperson of Women of their self-worth. It was like women‟s liberation movement. She lightening a match to dry tinder. Twenty emerged as a feminist activist during the years ago, women would have been 1960‟s and 1970‟s. She is also a prominent

62 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews [Research Paper1 I ISSUE 2 I FEBRU [VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 writer and a recognized counterculture family but his exit naturally aggravated the political figure. She wrote columns for the situation. Her mother did not hold on to a New York Magazine and co-founded job for longer periods as there was a magazine „Ms‟. She wrote an article After general hostility towards working women Black Power ,women’s Liberation in 1969 in those days. Gloria also saw that doctors which made her a famous national treated women in apathetic manner. Many feminist. In 2005, Steinem worked with years later, Steinem described her mother‟s and co-founded women‟s experiences being fundamental to her Media canter that works for amplifying understanding of social injustices against women‟s voices in the media through women. She realized that women did not advocacy, media and training. Even at the enjoy social and political equality which is age of 79, She is an active commentator, the basis of true and healthy feminist writer, organizer , lecturer and activist. ideology. Steinem was born of Leo Steinem, the son Steinem attended Waite High School in of a Jewish immigrant from Germany and Toledo and Western High School in Poland and Ruth Nuneviller, a Washington D.C. from which she Presbysterian Scottish and German graduated before attending . descent. Her parents lived and travelled She spent two years in India in the late about in a trailer from which Leo her father 1950‟s as a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow. worked as an antiques dealer. When Gloria On her return to the USA, she served as a was only three, her mother suffered a director of the Independent Research severe nervous breakdown that trapped her Service. It was funded by a secret donor. in delusions and fantasies. She had to Later, it turned out to be the CIA. In 1960, spend long periods in sanatoriums for the she joined Warren Publishing as a part of mentally challenged. In 1944, her parents the „Help!‟ magazine. Her journalism separated and her father went to California career started when she was assigned to for work while she and her mother lived in write regarding contraception. Toledo, Ohio. The breakup made deep For some time, she was employed at New impact on her emotionally and York Club as Playboy Bunny but psychologically. Her father had never eventually she landed a job at New York provided a stable financial support to the magazine in 1968. Her playboy bunny IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 63 [ VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014 ] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 Research Paper1 experience was later made into a film in Gloria Steinem has remained politically 1985 titled‟ A Bunny Tale‟. Bunnies are active throughout her life. She has women waitresses in night clubs wearing championed for the costume with rabbit ears and tail. in addition to several social reforms and Steinem had detailed how women were laws. She has been a great champion of treated at clubs and how sexual demands equality between men and women. She has were made of bunnies at these clubs. In fought against discriminatory laws that 1964, she conducted an interview with gave men superior rights in and John Lemon and in 1969, she covered an denied equal economic opportunities to abortion speak-out for New York women. She founded and co-founded magazine. She later said that her career as several activist groups including „The a feminist started at that point of time. She Women‟s Action Alliance‟, „The MS, had undergone abortion at the age of 22. Foundation for Women‟, „Choice USA; Later she reflected, and Women‟s Media Center‟. In 1968, she I knew it was it was the first launched a protest against War Tax vowing time I had taken responsibility to refuse to pay tax against the Vietnam for my own life. I wasn‟t going war. In 1969, she published an article After to let things happen to me. I Black Power, Women’s Liberation which was going to direct my life and made her a truly national feminist figure. therefore I felt positive. In 1970, she wrote an essay on What It Later Steinem invented a term Would Be like If Women Win for Time „reproductive freedom‟ that includes the Magazine which can be called a Utopia of freedom to have children or not to. In equality of women. 1972, she co-founded a feminist magazine Gloria Steinem along with , „MS‟ which actually began as a special Fanny Lou Hammer, Myrlie Evers and edition of New York. When its first regular several US representatives founded the issue hit the news stands, in three days, National Women‟s Political Caucus 300000 copies were sold. She continued to (NWPC). She delivered a memorable write for it until it was sold in 1987. speech as the co-convener of the Caucus However, she is among its advisory board „Address to the Women of America‟. She till date. said, 64 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews [Research Paper1 I ISSUE 2 I FEBRU [VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 This is no simple reform. It really is a The feminist slogan, “A woman needs a revolution. Sex and race because they are man like a fish needs a bicycle” is falsely easy and visible differences have been the attributed to Steinem. In fact, the phrase is primary way of organizing human beings borrowed from Irina Dunn. into superior and inferior groups and into During 1980s and 1990s, Steinem suffered the cheap labour on which this system still several personal problems including depends. We are talking about a society in diagnosis of breast cancer and terminal which there will be no roles other neuralgia. However, she continued to be than those chosen or those earned. We are amidst the whirlpool of activities. In 1992, really talking about humanism. she co-founded „Choice USA‟ a non-profit In 1972, she played an important role in organisation supporting reproductive supporting the increase in representation of rights. She opposed asserting that women in social and political arena. defending democracy was a pretence. Steinem was questioned whether she was At the age of 66, in 2000, Steinem married still involved in CIA and whether she was David Bale who died in 2003. She was installed as the leader of the movement named the American Humanist‟s under political. She denied any kind of Association‟s 2012 „ Humanist of the year‟ involvement with the CIA in 1975. She for her activism in feminist movement and had founded a coalition of Labour Union LGBT rights. Steinem was involved in Women in 1974 and participated in the political campaigns since 1952 presidential National Conference of women in campaign. In 1968 election, she supported Houston, Texas. MC Govern nomination and in 1971, Steinem played a variety of roles within National Women‟s Political Caucus was Women‟s Action Alliance aiming at founded by Steinem, Betty Friedan, elimination of economic and social and . discrimination. She was active in working was critical of Steinem‟s for civil rights for African Americans, capitulation on abortion rights. In 1972 Hispanics and other minorities. She took a convention, the two had met for the first public stance in favour of gay rights and time. In 2004 election, Steinem fiercely animal rights. She staunchly opposed criticised Bush administration for its genital mutilation and human trafficking. hostility towards women‟s rights. She said, IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 65 [ VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014 ] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 Research Paper1 “ If he is elected in 2004, abortion will be nationalizing women‟s bodies by criminalized in the country.” She strongly criminalizing abortion. She says, held that Bush was a danger to health and “Controlling women‟s bodies as a means safety of women. She claimed that Bush of reproduction-that‟s the definition of had been against reproductive freedom, sex .” Women‟s bodies- their , AIDS relief and Clean Water reproductive system and their safety are Act. She actively participated in 2008 still the battle ground as they are the means presidential campaign supporting both of restricting their freedom, Clinton and Obama for their active support and safe abortion. They are turned into to feminism, civil rights and environment factories to produce cheap labour. The preservation. patriarchal state or religion or family Gloria Steinem said that it is not race but wanted to control reproduction –to decide gender that has been the most restricting how many workers nation needs and who force in American life. Her social and owned them in systems of legitimacy. feminist views often overlap the various Even though there is no obvious slavery, schools of feminism. Though she is often The International Labour Organisation called a liberal feminist, she has repeatedly says there are about 12 million people characterised as a radical feminist. The fact living in literal slavery around the world is Steinem has taken firm stand over and 80% of them are women and girls. In several important issues such as ancient cultures, women knew how to reproductive rights and abortion. She has restrict births through herbs and timings in been a staunch advocate of reproductive sexual intercourse. The focus on men‟s freedom, that is women‟s freedom to control over women as a means of produce children or not. She says that reproduction came later with the idea of reproduction rights of women are children as property and labour. equivalent to true equality and freedom of She favoured abortion equating it with women. Women‟s bodies have been women‟s reproductive freedom. She had regarded as a means of reproducing undergone abortion at a young age and she workers, the means of mitigating class, said that she never felt bad about it. On the racial division and the biggest source of contrary, she felt positive thinking that she cheap labour in the world. Politicians are was taking responsibility for her own life 66 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews [Research Paper1 I ISSUE 2 I FEBRU [VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 and she was going to direct it in her own Regarding same-sex marriage, it is way. In a documentary „My Feminism‟, Steinem wrote an essay titled What Would she characterized abortion is a pivotal and It Be Like If Women Win for the „Time‟ constructive experience. magazine in 1970. She envisioned a Gloria Steinem is staunch critic of Utopian future when alternative life styles pornography. She distinguishes it from would be available. Population explosion erotica. She says; requires limiting child birthing and this “Erotica is as different from pornography will be possible with same sex marriages. as love is from rape, as dignity from There will be alternative notions of the humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, „families‟ instead of only parents and as pleasure is from pain.” She says that children. Single women will have a right to pornography is a commodification of stay single without being ridiculed. women‟s body. It is a subtle form of Lesbians and homosexuals will have slavery of women and it involves no equal freedom to be legally married complete power or mutuality. There is a conqueror- with mutual support for same sex victim paradigm in all kinds of marriages in early 2000s. pornography.” In 1977, Steinem wrote that transsexualism Steinem wrote about female genital was a diversion from the widespread mutilation in some parts of the world, problem of sexual inequality. She said that particularly in some Eastern countries. She she supported the right of the individuals reported that around seventy five million to identify themselves as they choose. women were the victims of genital However, she did not favour surgical mutilation It is the result of patriarchy that mutilation of bodies in order to conform to controls women‟s bodies as the means of that is inexorably tied to production. It tries to repress the physical body parts. She said; “If the shoes independent power of women‟s sexuality. don‟t fit, must we change the foot?” She She says that male circumcision is also supported transgender people saying that controlling of men‟s sexuality and they also live out real, authentic lives and submitting the sexual part to patriarchal their lives should be celebrated, not authority. In ninety percent of cases, it is questioned. medically unnecessary. IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 67 [ VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014 ] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 Research Paper1 Gloria Steinem is a bitter critic of mere helped the cause of women. Steinem‟s academic theorizing and obscurantism in message to young women is; “ That each feminist theories. Such theories talk in of them is already a unique and valuable language no one stands. They are full of person when she is born; every human incomprehensible abstractions. It is being is. Inside each of us is a unique nothing but careerism. She criticizes Judith person resulting from millennia of Butler, the deconstructionist, “ I always environment and heredity combined in a wanted to put a sign up on the road to Yale way that could never happen again and saying, „ Beware: Ahead.‟ could never have happened before. We ” She added knowledge that is not aren‟t blank slates but we are also accessible to the common people is communal creatures who are born before useless. It becomes aeriallised. our brains are fully developed, so we‟re Steinem‟s major works are as follows: very sensitive to our environment. The  The Thousand Indias (1957) question is : How to find the support and  The Beach Books ( 1963) the circumstances that allow you to express  Outrageous Acts and Everyday what‟s inside you?” Rebellions ( 1983) Steinem rejects the superiority of race and  Revolution from Within: A Book of colour as she says that the white minority Self-Esteem ( 1992) of the world conned people into thinking  Moving Beyond Words ( 1993) that white skin made them superior to  Doing Sixty & seventy (2006) others. In fact, it makes them more subject Gloria Steinem recently said that there is to ultraviolet rays and wrinkles. Freud‟s growing awareness about women‟s rights notion of „ ‟ is quite illogical. and people, academics and governments The power of giving birth makes „womb are now supporting feminist cause. She envy‟ more logical, she said. She said that said that in earlier days, feminism was like if men menstruated, it would become an a curse word. She was labelled as enviable, worthy and masculine event on by a radio commentator. In the beginning account of patriarchy. It would become were the subject to ridicule. symbol of manhood. The onset of Political activism and participation also menstruation would be celebrated. If men

68 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews [Research Paper1 I ISSUE 2 I FEBRU [VOLUME 1 I ISSUE 2 I APRIL-JUNE 2014] E-ISSN 2348 –1269 could menstruate, she said satirically, the References: power justifications would go on and on. Steinem, Gloria. Biography.com. Retrieved: In an interview with Malini Nair she said June 1,2010. that radicalism of young Indian women has ______. After Black Power, Women’s Liberation, New York magazine. awed her profoundly. The post-December Retrieved 2013-03-12. 16 gang rape in Delhi, Indian women have Patricia, Marcello. Gloria Steinem: A awakened. Steinem said that it was like Biography. West Port CT: Greenwood lighting a match to dry tinder. Their energy Press, 2004. can not be suppressed anymore. They no Steinem, Gloria. Outrageous Acts and longer ask for protection but justice. Everyday Rebellion, New York: Holt, Regarding the future of feminism , she said Rinehart, and Winston, 1983. it has not failed nor it is irrelevant. It has News ABC , Interview with Gloria played its role positively. She added, “ But Steinem.ABC News. it took me a while to realize that gender Lewis, John. Gloria Steinem Quotes. was about controlling profits, controlling Lazo, Caroline. Gloria Steinem: Feminist Extra-ordinaire, New York: Lerner production and above all controlling Publications, 1998. reproduction. The failure was of my Mariana Schnall Interview, Feminist.com, imagination, not the movement. It has only 1995. been 40 years. Give the movement another Steinem, Gloria. A Basic Human Right, July 60.” Gloria Steinem has always remained 1989, MS. ISSN 00478318. in limelight through her vehement and Interview with Malini Nair. The Times of controversial views. She is a true humanist India, Jan.19,2014. who refuses to take anything less than Steinem, Gloria. What would It Be Like If equality, freedom and justice for all. Women Win, Time Magazine, August 31, 1970.

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