Gloria Steinem was born in 1934 and she has been an influential and successful feminist all her life. Her upbringing was such that both her mother and grandmother supported the right of women. In her interview with Eleanor Wachtel, she stated that she had no control over how the public perceived her and that it was a bit scary. She fought for the rights that she supported, for example, for the right to abortion, but she didn’t think much about how her thinking has defined her in the public eye. Gloria is an extraordinary woman and she always loved the places in the world where people are not judged too much. That is why she never liked Europe. However, she was in love with India and helped many women there by supporting their rights. Gloria learned about Hinduism when her mother took her to classes of theosophy which was a mixture of philosophy and theology. She developed an interest in India from an early age. Gloria also loved South Africa, but she chose to live in the U.S. because that was the place where she thought she would have most influence.
Gloria has always been a beautiful woman and she was always looked through that lens. She also provoked the public by becoming an “undercover Playboy bunny” (Boss, 2015, p. 10). She wanted to show hoe the women who worked in Playboy clubs were degraded. Her mission was successful and she accomplished herself in investigative journalism. This was a good choice because she felt the way that those so-called “bunnies” were treated. It was her own experience and therefore most authentic. This exposure led to closing of those clubs. (Boss, 2015, p. 10). Beautiful women are always looked upon with prejudice, even when they get old. Gloria Steinem said that she thought that this treatment of her would stop when she turned sixty, but it didn’t. That is unjust. Gloria married at the age of 66, but her husband died soon after that. She never had children, but she had a step-son and an abortion in her twenties.
Gloria supports the Feminist.com movement by her line of bracelets which are decorated with the sentence: “Imagine We Are Linked Not Ranked” (Feminist.com). That is a smart sentence which makes one think about helping other instead of competing with them. Feminism really is helping the world become a better place.
References
Boss, J. (2015). Think: Critical thinking and logic skills for everyday life (Third ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Eleanor, W. (2015, March 8). Gloria Steinem Interview. In Writers & Company. Retrieved July 24, 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/gloria-steinem-interview-1.2980379
ImagiNation Bracelets Designed by Gloria, Benefiting Feminist.com!. (n.d.). In Feminist.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015, from http://www.feminist.com/gloriabracelets.html
