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Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions—a phenomenal success that sold nearly half a million copies since its original publication in 1983—is Gloria Steinem's most diverse and timeless collection of essays. Both male and female readers have acclaimed it as a witty, warm, and life-changing view of the world—"as if women mattered." Steinem's truly personal writing is here, from the humorous exposé "I Was a Playboy Bunny" to the moving tribute to her mother "Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)" to prescient essays on female genital mutilation and the difference between erotica and pornography. The satirical and hilarious "If Men Could Menstruate" alone is worth the price of admission.
This second edition features a new preface by the author and added notes on classic essays.
This second edition features a new preface by the author and added notes on classic essays.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Gloria Steinem
101 books3,194 followersGloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. A prominent writer and key counterculture era political figure, Steinem has founded many organizations and projects and has been the recipient of many awards and honors. She was a columnist for New York magazine and co-founded Ms. magazine. In 1969, she published an article, " After Black Power, Women's Liberation", which, along with her early support of abortion rights, catapulted her to national fame as a feminist leader.
In 2005, Steinem worked alongside Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan to co-found the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content. Steinem currently serves on the board of the organization. She continues to involve herself in politics and media affairs as a commentator, writer, lecturer, and organizer, campaigning for candidates and reforms and publishing books and articles.
In 2005, Steinem worked alongside Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan to co-found the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content. Steinem currently serves on the board of the organization. She continues to involve herself in politics and media affairs as a commentator, writer, lecturer, and organizer, campaigning for candidates and reforms and publishing books and articles.
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August 19, 2009
I bought my copy from a thrift shop because I was curious to know how Ms Steinem did a gig as a Playboy bunny in order to come up with an article that has at least 43 pages of this book. I was way more than satisfied by that article, and learned a lot from her. Imagine her doing the gig, and living to tell the story to all curious readers like myself. And continuing with the reading of book after putting it down in the meantime, so as to focus on my other readings, I rediscovered my copy again. I decided I have to complete reading her book. And it was certainly worth the continuation. Imagine also what the late Linda Lovelace of the "deep throat" notoriety had to undergo just to be paid attention that she was a slave by her handler-husband then when those 70s vids were being shot. Well, I read all about these from Ms Steinem's book.
Writing as a way of life, she goes on to share a lot of her ideas and stories from a perspective of someone who has done a lot of research works, and did active participation in events that would have certainly eaten so much of her time just as to come up with articles as clearly written and included in this book. I told myself, "If only all writers would just write like her, or at least, be inspired by her, there would be better writing in the world these days." I meant, Ms Steinem's a writer who writes solidly from her experiences. She's never a boring writer, based on what I read in her book. These are all non-fiction works that she added in the book (except for the article on "Campaigning" which took me a while to appreciate---maybe because it's kinda dated, the rest of articles read marvelously before my eyes).
I remember tears welling in my eyes while reading her ode to her dear Mom Ruth (which is one of the best short memoirs I've read todate). "Erotica and Pornography" was certainly another one, that got me into thinking why I myself is pretty excited when I see subtle and in-your-face depiction of violence and humiliation in all kinds of pornography in the usual media around us----it's simply really dehumanizing, but nothing much being done against it, as it's really big business. Also, it functions as a money generating venue for the very structure that continues to advocate inequality among the sexes, in all realms out there. And on the other hand, things Erotica, indeed, actually soars! Know why after reading this book.
Whew! I'm convinced I must have turned into a feminist myself after reading this book.
Writing as a way of life, she goes on to share a lot of her ideas and stories from a perspective of someone who has done a lot of research works, and did active participation in events that would have certainly eaten so much of her time just as to come up with articles as clearly written and included in this book. I told myself, "If only all writers would just write like her, or at least, be inspired by her, there would be better writing in the world these days." I meant, Ms Steinem's a writer who writes solidly from her experiences. She's never a boring writer, based on what I read in her book. These are all non-fiction works that she added in the book (except for the article on "Campaigning" which took me a while to appreciate---maybe because it's kinda dated, the rest of articles read marvelously before my eyes).
I remember tears welling in my eyes while reading her ode to her dear Mom Ruth (which is one of the best short memoirs I've read todate). "Erotica and Pornography" was certainly another one, that got me into thinking why I myself is pretty excited when I see subtle and in-your-face depiction of violence and humiliation in all kinds of pornography in the usual media around us----it's simply really dehumanizing, but nothing much being done against it, as it's really big business. Also, it functions as a money generating venue for the very structure that continues to advocate inequality among the sexes, in all realms out there. And on the other hand, things Erotica, indeed, actually soars! Know why after reading this book.
Whew! I'm convinced I must have turned into a feminist myself after reading this book.
October 15, 2012
I grew up with a lot of choices. I was able to decide what to do with my life, who to love, and how to act day-to-day. It wasn't all that long ago, however, when I would not have had those rights as a woman in America.
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a great reflection on the struggles many before me have had to bear in order to make my liberties a reality. As interesting for me as the historical context of this book is the realization that many women, even in today's society, still do not enjoy equality.
Feminism is often treated as a bad word and used to evoke images of bra-burning radical women who shout loudly about reproductive rights and sexual freedom. Steinem eloquently points out with her essays that feminism is about much more. A feminist cares and will speak up about a wide range of issues dealing with equality. How does humankind treat each other? Is work valued equally (including work done inside the home) regardless of gender? Are those without means being treated fairly or being taken advantage of by those who are wealthy or powerful? These are just a few of the questions explored in Steinem's collection of essays.
This can be an emotional read. While I don't agree with everything Steinem had to say or all the methods she used in getting her points across, I'm glad I read this book. One point I agree with Steinem completely about is that the history of feminism needs to be taught widely. Women and men alike need to know the past and how we tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again--especially in regards to how we as humans treat each other. Equality will never happen if there aren't people like Steinem to champion those who don't have a voice.
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a great reflection on the struggles many before me have had to bear in order to make my liberties a reality. As interesting for me as the historical context of this book is the realization that many women, even in today's society, still do not enjoy equality.
Feminism is often treated as a bad word and used to evoke images of bra-burning radical women who shout loudly about reproductive rights and sexual freedom. Steinem eloquently points out with her essays that feminism is about much more. A feminist cares and will speak up about a wide range of issues dealing with equality. How does humankind treat each other? Is work valued equally (including work done inside the home) regardless of gender? Are those without means being treated fairly or being taken advantage of by those who are wealthy or powerful? These are just a few of the questions explored in Steinem's collection of essays.
This can be an emotional read. While I don't agree with everything Steinem had to say or all the methods she used in getting her points across, I'm glad I read this book. One point I agree with Steinem completely about is that the history of feminism needs to be taught widely. Women and men alike need to know the past and how we tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again--especially in regards to how we as humans treat each other. Equality will never happen if there aren't people like Steinem to champion those who don't have a voice.
January 14, 2018
I read this book around 1986; picked up while working as a community organizer in Ohio, trying to to fill my lack of radical education as quickly as possible. It was probably my first feminist reading in long form and I kept it with me for the better part of a decade, re-reading parts when I felt like I needed a reminder. After reading it the first time, I remember that I felt clearer and sadder, clearer because of the no-nonsense and practical way that Steinem wrote, and sadder because I could find few examples of activists writing about women in the late 80s that were as good. More strikingly though it was because many of the younger women I worked with were beginning to pooh-pooh the term of feminist and when I brought it up, told me they had never read her work and would probably never read her.
If you had asked me at any time in my life past the age of 9 or so (around 1972) if I was a feminist, I would have firmly answered yes, supported by my love of Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur television and my awareness that I would, like my mother, work for a living. Let me tell you in case you think my early feminist statement was meant to be precious or funny, it was not; I had plenty of childhood pals who when asked what they were going to do when they "grew up", answered matter-of-factly to get married or have kids. Career was always in my plans. Kids only maybe. Marriage seemed unlikely if men were to continue to react to strong women like the men I saw in the 1970s around my mom and around my town.
However, if you would have asked me WHY I was a feminist up to the age 22, that answer might have been a little fuzzier. I didn't really know the things I was up against and it never occurred to me why all but one of my bosses had been men. I got along well, never examining if it was because I knew how to do their bidding, to speak their language rather than my own. I was too busy working at being indispensable to visualize myself as a leader back then; I only hoped to be a solid blue-collar girl Friday. As a matter of fact, the only woman I had as a boss prior to 22 was one who was known as a bitch around the workplace. Whether she meant to be one or was assigned it by virtue of being the only executive, I cannot tell you now but I knew I didn't want to be called that and largely dismissed her. I wish I could ask her about it now.
After the age of 22 however, I began to work with empowered women and to delight in the diversity of opinions and approaches they had. To see that these women did not resort to uptalk or to placate with flattery to get their point across or ever say they were "sorry" when they took charge of the room. I was mentored by some of them, including Steinem through her writing and speaking, all of which helped take me to the next level of leadership and purpose in my life. Freed of the last shreds of guilt. Driven by my own ambitions and desires just like my male counterparts, yet still also a dutiful daughter, a loyal sister, a smart accomplice, a funny girlfriend and so on when I wanted to be. How sweet it still is when I function on all or most of these fronts well. I contain multitudes after all.
All of this is necessary to say because I still meet women and men who mock the term feminist and women who tell me that they 'don't hate men' so they couldn't be a feminist. I think if they would just read Steinem or her second-wave peers when they were really rolling (as seen in some essays in here), they may wonder how and why they ramped up that anger towards her and might finally see her as she is: a prototype second wave humanist who has stayed on the front lines and used popular media and organizing campaigns to continue the work to make a more equitable, less violent world step by step, person by person. Some of the reviews on here point out some the dated language in some of the essays but this work (and Ms. magazine) represented the forefront of progressive movement gender politics at that point.
So read this seminal book, then go read her newer stuff too which is partly why I am posting this now (her new book is my nighttime reading and I realized that I had never reviewed that first important book of mine. By the way, the new one is so far, excellent. Review soon.) Not that it really matters, but you might catch a prism that lights your understanding. Or, you might just like her.
If you had asked me at any time in my life past the age of 9 or so (around 1972) if I was a feminist, I would have firmly answered yes, supported by my love of Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur television and my awareness that I would, like my mother, work for a living. Let me tell you in case you think my early feminist statement was meant to be precious or funny, it was not; I had plenty of childhood pals who when asked what they were going to do when they "grew up", answered matter-of-factly to get married or have kids. Career was always in my plans. Kids only maybe. Marriage seemed unlikely if men were to continue to react to strong women like the men I saw in the 1970s around my mom and around my town.
However, if you would have asked me WHY I was a feminist up to the age 22, that answer might have been a little fuzzier. I didn't really know the things I was up against and it never occurred to me why all but one of my bosses had been men. I got along well, never examining if it was because I knew how to do their bidding, to speak their language rather than my own. I was too busy working at being indispensable to visualize myself as a leader back then; I only hoped to be a solid blue-collar girl Friday. As a matter of fact, the only woman I had as a boss prior to 22 was one who was known as a bitch around the workplace. Whether she meant to be one or was assigned it by virtue of being the only executive, I cannot tell you now but I knew I didn't want to be called that and largely dismissed her. I wish I could ask her about it now.
After the age of 22 however, I began to work with empowered women and to delight in the diversity of opinions and approaches they had. To see that these women did not resort to uptalk or to placate with flattery to get their point across or ever say they were "sorry" when they took charge of the room. I was mentored by some of them, including Steinem through her writing and speaking, all of which helped take me to the next level of leadership and purpose in my life. Freed of the last shreds of guilt. Driven by my own ambitions and desires just like my male counterparts, yet still also a dutiful daughter, a loyal sister, a smart accomplice, a funny girlfriend and so on when I wanted to be. How sweet it still is when I function on all or most of these fronts well. I contain multitudes after all.
All of this is necessary to say because I still meet women and men who mock the term feminist and women who tell me that they 'don't hate men' so they couldn't be a feminist. I think if they would just read Steinem or her second-wave peers when they were really rolling (as seen in some essays in here), they may wonder how and why they ramped up that anger towards her and might finally see her as she is: a prototype second wave humanist who has stayed on the front lines and used popular media and organizing campaigns to continue the work to make a more equitable, less violent world step by step, person by person. Some of the reviews on here point out some the dated language in some of the essays but this work (and Ms. magazine) represented the forefront of progressive movement gender politics at that point.
So read this seminal book, then go read her newer stuff too which is partly why I am posting this now (her new book is my nighttime reading and I realized that I had never reviewed that first important book of mine. By the way, the new one is so far, excellent. Review soon.) Not that it really matters, but you might catch a prism that lights your understanding. Or, you might just like her.
August 3, 2015
My girlfriend wished to read this book, and since it was at my local library I picked it up. After she finished it I went ahead and decided to read it myself.
The book itself is a little dated, most of the articles are anywhere from 1960-1985, so some articles were a little uninteresting. Oh the flip side, because of the age of some of the articles, it made it very interesting to see how much has changed in the last few decades.
I am very new to feminism myself and a lot of things were shocking and new to me. The Hitler article gave me so much new information about the time in history of which I had previously had no knowledge of… I have been to Germany, visited the concentration camps, museums, even Eagles nest! None of these things had ever mentioned any of the feminism angle of the Holocaust. Of course we focus on the Jewish angle the most, with good reason, but it is super enlightening to see a new angle to it.
All in all I learned a lot about the past of Feminism which is good, as a basis in the history of any subject you wish to learn of is requirement to understand it well. Gloria Steinem explores her own understanding and discovery of Feminism, and it's intriguing to see her discussing when she came to many of the realizations dealing with gender and Feminism that I myself am, as I learn more and read more.
The book itself is a little dated, most of the articles are anywhere from 1960-1985, so some articles were a little uninteresting. Oh the flip side, because of the age of some of the articles, it made it very interesting to see how much has changed in the last few decades.
I am very new to feminism myself and a lot of things were shocking and new to me. The Hitler article gave me so much new information about the time in history of which I had previously had no knowledge of… I have been to Germany, visited the concentration camps, museums, even Eagles nest! None of these things had ever mentioned any of the feminism angle of the Holocaust. Of course we focus on the Jewish angle the most, with good reason, but it is super enlightening to see a new angle to it.
All in all I learned a lot about the past of Feminism which is good, as a basis in the history of any subject you wish to learn of is requirement to understand it well. Gloria Steinem explores her own understanding and discovery of Feminism, and it's intriguing to see her discussing when she came to many of the realizations dealing with gender and Feminism that I myself am, as I learn more and read more.
April 21, 2012
It was really depressing to read the essays in this book with quotes that are so similar to the ones all over the news currently - and then see the essay dated 1973. Regardless, read this book.
July 25, 2012
It's still unclear to me how I made it through four years of Smith Colleage without ever reading "Outrageous Acts and Everday Rebellions," probably Gloria Steinem's most well known book. I'm glad that I finally got around to it, and I strongly encourage all of my fellow equality-minde sisters (and brothers) to pick this up.
"Outrageous Acts" is not really one book, but a collection of essays and articles by Steinem stretching over most of her career. From her famous/infamous "I was a Playboy Bunny" expose, which revealed the exploitative truth behind the glamourous exterior of the Playboy club (fun fact of the day: being a Playboy Bunny is exactly like being a regular waitress, only about a million times worse), to "Far from the Opposite Shore," an essay about how far we have to go to realize full humanity for women and full equality for everyone, each essay is worth the read. My personal favorite was probably "Sisterhood" which reminds us why it is important to have strong networks with our fellow women. The first thing people will do when you start asking why you live an unequal life is ridicule you, Steinem writes, so you need other women around you to confirm for you every day that you are not crazy. "You will need your sisters." I think any working woman, whether she works in a home, office, or factory, can tell you how true that is.
There is also some great and fascinating political writing in here, taken from Steinem's years on the McGovern, McCarthy, and Nixon campaigns, where she labored as a journalist and organizer. Priceless is the description of the NY Times' all-male editorial board's confusion at the presence of two women (!!!) in their meeting with McGovern. Do they still serve the cigar and whiskey? Do they stand? Can they make their usual jokes. More heartbreaking are the stories of Steinem's treatment on the campaign trail. The mistrust of the men on her own team (convinced that having a woman around will make people think she's sleeping with the candidate and tarnish his reputation), her exclusion from key meetings despite her centrality to campaign operations (McGovern would never let his staff say a meeting should have "no blacks" or "no Jews", but he just shrugs when told the meeting can have "no broads"). I wish I could say campaigns have changed a lot, but somehow, I can't be sure.
Many of the essays in here were written in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so inevitably a few topics seem outdated or less urgent. But, unfortunately, so much of this book remains both relevant and revelatory. We are still so far from the opposite shore, but thanks to Steinem and her contemporaries, the current wave of feminist young women (the third wave salutes the second!), at least realizes that the shore exists, and has a rudimentary way of knowing how to get there. I can only hope that we'll reach the other side someday, together.
"Outrageous Acts" is not really one book, but a collection of essays and articles by Steinem stretching over most of her career. From her famous/infamous "I was a Playboy Bunny" expose, which revealed the exploitative truth behind the glamourous exterior of the Playboy club (fun fact of the day: being a Playboy Bunny is exactly like being a regular waitress, only about a million times worse), to "Far from the Opposite Shore," an essay about how far we have to go to realize full humanity for women and full equality for everyone, each essay is worth the read. My personal favorite was probably "Sisterhood" which reminds us why it is important to have strong networks with our fellow women. The first thing people will do when you start asking why you live an unequal life is ridicule you, Steinem writes, so you need other women around you to confirm for you every day that you are not crazy. "You will need your sisters." I think any working woman, whether she works in a home, office, or factory, can tell you how true that is.
There is also some great and fascinating political writing in here, taken from Steinem's years on the McGovern, McCarthy, and Nixon campaigns, where she labored as a journalist and organizer. Priceless is the description of the NY Times' all-male editorial board's confusion at the presence of two women (!!!) in their meeting with McGovern. Do they still serve the cigar and whiskey? Do they stand? Can they make their usual jokes. More heartbreaking are the stories of Steinem's treatment on the campaign trail. The mistrust of the men on her own team (convinced that having a woman around will make people think she's sleeping with the candidate and tarnish his reputation), her exclusion from key meetings despite her centrality to campaign operations (McGovern would never let his staff say a meeting should have "no blacks" or "no Jews", but he just shrugs when told the meeting can have "no broads"). I wish I could say campaigns have changed a lot, but somehow, I can't be sure.
Many of the essays in here were written in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so inevitably a few topics seem outdated or less urgent. But, unfortunately, so much of this book remains both relevant and revelatory. We are still so far from the opposite shore, but thanks to Steinem and her contemporaries, the current wave of feminist young women (the third wave salutes the second!), at least realizes that the shore exists, and has a rudimentary way of knowing how to get there. I can only hope that we'll reach the other side someday, together.
October 13, 2013
What Steinmem would say would violate terms of service and make my laptop blow up.
April 28, 2023
i am a bit tired of this book to be honest
some bits and pieces of it were just great
some were just embarrassing
the book has its moments: the Bunny story is great; the 5 female portrayals are just excellent; the bit about Steinem's alma mater and her former college classmates was super interesting. I just find that Gloria Steinem's is a much better novelist and memoirist than essayist. each time she delves into theories and opinions, it just becomes dated and caricatural. surely it was revolutionary a few decades ago: now, it is at best uninteresting, at worst irritating. her opinions on pornography just seem full of condescendence (and I say that as someone personally repulsed by everything porno-related), her permanent analogies between sexism, racism and antisemitism are far from being always on point (am I the only one getting the hint that she deems feminism a bit more important than other social justice fights because women are more numerous??), and of course, being a second-wave feminist, she clearly is not on point regarding transgender identities
all in all, I still think Steinem is a very interesting personality to read and hear about, and I definitely agree that she played a determining role in politics, social issues and social justice, but I'm no so sure her essays are the most pertinent piece of writing to read today; they offer more of a historic value, with everything that implies in terms of outdated stuff and dubious statements
some bits and pieces of it were just great
some were just embarrassing
the book has its moments: the Bunny story is great; the 5 female portrayals are just excellent; the bit about Steinem's alma mater and her former college classmates was super interesting. I just find that Gloria Steinem's is a much better novelist and memoirist than essayist. each time she delves into theories and opinions, it just becomes dated and caricatural. surely it was revolutionary a few decades ago: now, it is at best uninteresting, at worst irritating. her opinions on pornography just seem full of condescendence (and I say that as someone personally repulsed by everything porno-related), her permanent analogies between sexism, racism and antisemitism are far from being always on point (am I the only one getting the hint that she deems feminism a bit more important than other social justice fights because women are more numerous??), and of course, being a second-wave feminist, she clearly is not on point regarding transgender identities
all in all, I still think Steinem is a very interesting personality to read and hear about, and I definitely agree that she played a determining role in politics, social issues and social justice, but I'm no so sure her essays are the most pertinent piece of writing to read today; they offer more of a historic value, with everything that implies in terms of outdated stuff and dubious statements
September 5, 2022
Outrageous Acts, Everyday Rebellions is a collection of Gloria Steinem's early essays. How have I not read these before? These are insightful, literate, and thoughtful, often funny ("a revolution without humor is as hopeless as one without music," p. 14), refusing to accept the status quo. My eyes glazed over as I read some essays that are now dated, but many made me take a fresh look at issues and Steinem herself.
I most liked Steinem's more personal essays: "I was a Playboy Bunny," for example, and "Ruth's Song (Because she Could Not Sing It)," even her discussion of presidential campaigns. There are multiple ways to examine the world; Steinem does not tie one hand behind her back by only paying attention to her either her well-reasoned considerations or her emotional reactions. Steinem tells us about her tired and swollen feet, how even people she knew didn't recognize her as a Bunny, and how her fellow reporters denigrated and dismissed her for this story. She stopped to think about things that many of us would (or would have) skipped past, including a strange interaction between President Nixon and Rev. Sullivan:
“Say,” said Nixon, “you must know that fella who was a Young Man of the Year, too. You know, the one with a hook for an arm?” Sullivan looked bewildered, and said no, he didn’t. Nixon insisted he must know him, though they hadn’t been elected the same year, and there was no reason for them to be friends. He insisted on describing him, gesturing to show where the hook came. Sullivan said no, he really didn’t, and, after some more backslapping, the meeting came to an end. But not before an explanation of Nixon’s mental connection had become painfully clear. Black skin and a man with a hook for an arm: two handicapped men must know each other. (p. 105).
She is also reflective on her own failings, as when she did not insist to carry political signs at her college reunion: "With alarmingly little spine left, I agreed" (p. 137). Or when she admitted to failing to deepen politicians' understandings of how the political system affects women:" Mostly my fault: I haven’t had the confidence or the consciousness to put up a fight" (p. 113). It takes guts to admit to such failings, but it also makes it easier for us to admit to our own.
I also really enjoyed Steinem's riffs on language use and how we use it. Who gets labeled terrorists when an abortion clinic is bombed? Why might we talk about sexual identify rather than sexual preference: it's "a way of including both those who feel they were born with a particular sexuality and those who feel they chose it" (p. 175). She simultaneously skewers and forgives academic jargon: "Academic and other generalized language often obfuscates, distances, and removes insight and information from readers who need them most, but perhaps this is all necessary to get taken seriously and tenured in an academic world" (p. 176).
I most liked Steinem's more personal essays: "I was a Playboy Bunny," for example, and "Ruth's Song (Because she Could Not Sing It)," even her discussion of presidential campaigns. There are multiple ways to examine the world; Steinem does not tie one hand behind her back by only paying attention to her either her well-reasoned considerations or her emotional reactions. Steinem tells us about her tired and swollen feet, how even people she knew didn't recognize her as a Bunny, and how her fellow reporters denigrated and dismissed her for this story. She stopped to think about things that many of us would (or would have) skipped past, including a strange interaction between President Nixon and Rev. Sullivan:
“Say,” said Nixon, “you must know that fella who was a Young Man of the Year, too. You know, the one with a hook for an arm?” Sullivan looked bewildered, and said no, he didn’t. Nixon insisted he must know him, though they hadn’t been elected the same year, and there was no reason for them to be friends. He insisted on describing him, gesturing to show where the hook came. Sullivan said no, he really didn’t, and, after some more backslapping, the meeting came to an end. But not before an explanation of Nixon’s mental connection had become painfully clear. Black skin and a man with a hook for an arm: two handicapped men must know each other. (p. 105).
She is also reflective on her own failings, as when she did not insist to carry political signs at her college reunion: "With alarmingly little spine left, I agreed" (p. 137). Or when she admitted to failing to deepen politicians' understandings of how the political system affects women:" Mostly my fault: I haven’t had the confidence or the consciousness to put up a fight" (p. 113). It takes guts to admit to such failings, but it also makes it easier for us to admit to our own.
I also really enjoyed Steinem's riffs on language use and how we use it. Who gets labeled terrorists when an abortion clinic is bombed? Why might we talk about sexual identify rather than sexual preference: it's "a way of including both those who feel they were born with a particular sexuality and those who feel they chose it" (p. 175). She simultaneously skewers and forgives academic jargon: "Academic and other generalized language often obfuscates, distances, and removes insight and information from readers who need them most, but perhaps this is all necessary to get taken seriously and tenured in an academic world" (p. 176).
February 3, 2021
2016 was a rough year for the equality of women, and 2017 isn't off to a great start either. Lots of people are rereading relevant fiction such as Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, or the more generally dystopian (as opposed to feminist) 1984 by Orwell. But we need to revisit nonfiction works as well. This book is educational about the history and current reality of sexism in America, but it's also a bit of a how-to manual on achieving more progress.
I strongly recommend this book. Even if you flip through to only read the essays you're most interested in, you will find something valuable.
I strongly recommend this book. Even if you flip through to only read the essays you're most interested in, you will find something valuable.
June 29, 2013
Interesting to read a broad swath of Steinem's work. I didn't know she was originally a journalist, so this book had essays ranging from political profiles to her undercover expose titled "I was a Playboy Bunny".
Some things I found interesting:
- Some of the issues she mentions strike me as being in the past, happily -- like women being preferentially let go since they are perceived as not needing their jobs as much as men.
- "Ms." wasn't really used until the 70s. From Wikipedia: "In February 1972, the US Government Printing Office approved using "Ms." in official government documents."
- Her essay on transsexuals, which was written ~1980, reads as seriously dated. For instance, she interprets transsexuals in a feminist light, saying it's a shame that our gender roles are so black and white that they can't accept themselves as they are, but feel compelled to "mutilate" (!) their bodies to conform. I don't think that's how doctors, psychologists, and transsexuals themselves would frame their experience!
I guess "progressive" is always relative to your time. Reminds me of Lincoln's claim that slavery was bad...but that said, Blacks aren't equals and shouldn't mix with Whites, duh. See also the discussion of homosexuality in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.
Her essay on porn vs. erotica is similarly dated. It basically claims that women who engage in S&M are exploited and lack self esteem. I feel like she probably wouldn't make such a sweeping statement today. I'm not sure how much that says about the evolution of feminism vs. the evolution of our sexual culture and status quo.
Kindle quotes:
At The Ladies’ Home Journal where I was an occasional consultant and writer, one of its two top editors (both men, of course) was so convinced that I was nothing like its readers (whom he described as “mental defectives with curlers in their hair”) that he used to hand me a manuscript and say, “Pretend you’re a woman and read this.” - location 270
The New York Times Magazine seemed to be continuing its usual practice of allowing women, minorities, and homosexuals to write first-person confessional pieces, but, in the name of objectivity, assigning white male heterosexual “authorities” to write definitive articles on these groups. - location 276
Reporters at press conferences who routinely assumed I could answer questions about all women but Dorothy could answer only about black women, or perhaps only about the few black male leaders whose names were the only ones they knew. Just as male was universal but female was limited, white was universal but black was limited. (We tried to turn this into a learning experience by letting the questions go on for a while—and then pointing out the problem.) - location 340
Talking with Flo about her first book, Abortion Rap, in a Boston taxi and hearing its elderly Irish woman driver say the much-to-be-quoted words: “Honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” - location 362
Most of all, learning from Flo’s example that you didn’t have to accept the terms of the opposition. For instance, when a hostile man asked if we were lesbians (as frequently happened; why else would a white and black woman be colleagues?), Flo would just look him in the eye and ask, “Are you my alternative?” - location 370
One of the most helpful things ever said to me came from poet Sandra Hochman: “Don’t think about it. Just pretend you’re Eleanor Roosevelt and you have to do this idiotic television show before you can go on to do something really important.” Perhaps this is the Art of Zen Speaking. - location 402
“I don’t like to write. I like to have written.” - location 422
Women whose identity depends more on their outsides than their insides are dangerous when they begin to age. - location 429
an early feminist group had asked women to talk about their real life experiences with illegal abortion. I sat in a church basement listening to women stand before an audience and talk about desperately trying to find someone who would help them, about enduring pre-abortion rapes from doctors, being asked to accept sterilization as the price of an abortion, and endangering their lives in an illegal, unsafe medical underground. - location 526
For the first time, I began to question the honor of being the only “girl reporter” among men, however talented and benevolent they might be. All the suppressed anger of past experiences I had denied or tried to ignore came flooding back: the apartments I couldn’t rent because landlords assumed a single woman couldn’t afford it (or if she could, she must be a hooker); the political assignments lost to younger and less-experienced male writers; the assumption that any work I did get was the result of my being a “pretty girl” (even at a time, I suddenly realized, when all of my editors had been women); the lowered payments because women didn’t really need the money; the innuendo’s that came along with any recognition (“easier than you think,” was how Newsweek had captioned my photograph as a young writer - location 544
Giving a speech in Texas and finding dozens of people outside the amphitheater with signs: GLORIA STEINEM IS A HUMANIST. I thought, How nice, they must be friends. But as I got closer and saw the hatred in their faces, I realized they were rightwing pickets to whom humanist—or any other word that means a belief in people instead of an authoritarian god—is the worst thing you can be. - location 623
There is also the great reward of working full time at something I care about so much that I would do it for no money at all, plus the problems of making far less money than would be possible outside a social movement. The last would be okay if “rich and famous” weren’t so often one phrase that it’s hard to separate them. Being resented for having money that doesn’t exist is not a great combination. - location 643
Being stopped in the street by a truck driver who tells me that the woman he loves and has been living with for three years wouldn’t marry him and have children because he didn’t want her to go on working—until then he heard some interview in which I asked men to consider how they would feel if they were exactly the same people but had been born female. He tried this exercise for a while, and changed so much that he and his friend were now happily married. He is thanking me—but the miracle of empathy is his own. - location 651
The wardrobe mistress told me to take off my clothes and began to search for an old Bunny costume in my size. A girl rushed in with her costume in her hand, calling for the wardrobe mistress as a wounded soldier might yell, “Medic!” “I’ve broken my zipper,” she wailed, “I sneezed!” - location 786
I went back to the Bunny Room, turned in my costume, and sat motionless, too tired to move. The stays had made vertical indentations around my rib cage and the zipper had left a welt over my spine. I complained about the costume’s tightness to the Bunny who was sitting next to me, also motionless. “Yeah,” she said, “a lot of girls say their legs get numb from the knee up. I think it presses on a nerve or something.” - location 1076
I asked what she had done before becoming a Bunny. “Nothing much, a little modeling once in a while.” And what did she hope working as a Bunny would lead to? “I thought maybe I could save enough money to get some test shots and a composite and I could be a real model,” she said. “But after three months of this, I want to get married. Guys I wouldn’t look at before, now I think they aren’t so bad.” - location 1158
Many Bunnies regard plastic dry cleaner’s bags as dangerous for bosom stuffing because they make you perspire, thereby causing a weight loss where you least want it. Kleenex and absorbent cotton are preferred. - location 1230
The young student was shocked and confused as the march moved into a world lit by the revolving red lights of the police vehicles, rising smoke, and screaming fire engines. “He didn’t approve of violence,” she said about King, “and it isn’t right to do this.” - location 1483
“That’s it for me,” a neatly dressed young man said. “They do something like that to a man like King … a man like King.” For the leaders, the activist heroes, the dilemma was worse. Privately, most of them—even Rap Brown—had admitted they hoped in their hearts that King was right. “Now,” explained black militant author Addison Gayle, “we’re all a little scared. Because we have to believe our own rhetoric.” - location 1487
Though Smith was proud of the fact that men greatly outnumbered women on its faculty—a proof of seriousness still highlighted in the college catalogue even when I was there in the 1950s - location 2211
But even as the reporter and I discussed those interesting reasons why Smith had produced more than its share of independent achievers, we knew that all of them put together were less newsworthy than one Nancy Reagan. Any First Lady, no matter what she does or doesn’t do, is still more likely to top the lists of Most Admired Women than any woman who has succeeded on her own. - location 2215
When she admitted that, when first married, she assumed she had to clean bathrooms—until her husband stopped her by saying he hadn’t married her to clean bathrooms—there was the silence of envy. - location 2257
(I remember with gratitude the banner carried by some very old and bawdy women who led the parade while I was a student: hardly a man is now alive, who remembers the girls of ’95.) - location 2280
Only with the 1960s do the groups begin to show much racial diversity. My class, for instance, included not one black student, no Hispanic women, and only one Asian who wasn’t a foreign student. (As a freshman, I had asked a professor why none of the black applicants from my town had been admitted. His answer was a classic mix of racism and sexism: one had to be very careful about educating Negro girls because there weren’t enough educated Negro men to go around.) - location 2282
When she visited me in New York during her sixties and seventies, she always told taxi drivers that she was eighty years old (“so they will tell me how young I look”), - location 2563
we are becoming the men we wanted to marry. - location 2682
Art used to be definable as what men created. Crafts were made by women and natives. - location 2692
Until the 1970s, women had to choose between Miss or Mrs., thus identifying themselves by marital status in a way men did not. Now, more than a third of American women support Ms. as an alternative, an exact parallel of Mr., and so do government publications, business, and the media. - location 2698
“Did you ever hear the story about Judy Holliday?” asked a woman peeling off a sweaty leotard. “When she went for a movie interview, the head of the studio started chasing her around the desk. So she just reached into her dress, pulled out her falsies, and handed them to him. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘I think this is what you want.’” - location 2932
Raymond understands the crushing societal forces that make transsexuals choose this self-punishment, but she mourns the loss of individuals who might have acted as critics and rebels in this sexually stereotyped society. Instead of accepting the idea of “a female mind in a male body” by mutilating their physical selves, they might have challenged the very idea that there is such a thing as a female or male mind. They might have demonstrated that sex is only one of many elements that makes up each unique individual. - location 3657
For that reason, she is also critical of the medical establishment that has grown up around the demand (and the big payments) for transsexual surgery, plus long-term hormonal treatments. Instead of serving more lifesaving but often less lucrative needs for their surgical and hormone-therapy skills, some physicians are aiding individuals who are desperately trying to conform to an unjust society. It’s a small group of successful physicians she names “the transsexual empire.” - location 3661
Feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for and the uses of transsexualism. Even while we protect the right of an informed individual to make that decision, and to be identified as he or she wishes, we have to make clear that this is not a long-term feminist goal. The point is to transform society so that a female can “go out for basketball” and a male doesn’t have to be “the strong one.” Better to turn anger outward toward changing the world than inward toward mutilating our bodies into conformity. - location 3674
On porn vs. erotica:
This confusion of sex with violence is most obvious in any form of sadomasochism. The inability to empathize with the “opposite sex” has become so great that a torturer or even murderer may actually believe pain or loss of life to be the natural fate of the victim; and the victim may have been so deprived of self-respect or positive human contact that she expects pain or loss of freedom as the price of any intimacy or attention at all. - location 3836
Over the years, I heard other clues to her character. When Ella Fitzgerald, a black artist and perhaps the greatest singer of popular songs, hadn’t been able to get a booking at an important Los Angeles nightclub in the fifties, it was Marilyn who called the owner and promised to sit at a front table every night if he allowed Ella to sing. The owner hired Ella, Marilyn was faithful to her promise each night, the press went wild, and, as Ella remembered with gratitude, “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again.” - location 4104
On female genital mutilation:
The pain of intercourse often leads mutilated women to seek pregnancy as a temporary relief from sexual demands. - location 5047
Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do. I gave the commonsensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling has been satisfied by marriage. If men doubt the magnitude of the gamble, consider just how tough it is to know that someone you are about to marry, who may be, by tradition and by lack of economic alternative, your lifetime identity and meal ticket, is going to have the law career or foreman’s job or political office that you want for yourself and for your security. Not so easy, right? In the fifties, I remember college friends taking their fiancé’s poems, architectural drawings, or senior thesis to the appropriate professor and asking, “Is this guy any good?” - location 5631
Some things I found interesting:
- Some of the issues she mentions strike me as being in the past, happily -- like women being preferentially let go since they are perceived as not needing their jobs as much as men.
- "Ms." wasn't really used until the 70s. From Wikipedia: "In February 1972, the US Government Printing Office approved using "Ms." in official government documents."
- Her essay on transsexuals, which was written ~1980, reads as seriously dated. For instance, she interprets transsexuals in a feminist light, saying it's a shame that our gender roles are so black and white that they can't accept themselves as they are, but feel compelled to "mutilate" (!) their bodies to conform. I don't think that's how doctors, psychologists, and transsexuals themselves would frame their experience!
I guess "progressive" is always relative to your time. Reminds me of Lincoln's claim that slavery was bad...but that said, Blacks aren't equals and shouldn't mix with Whites, duh. See also the discussion of homosexuality in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.
Her essay on porn vs. erotica is similarly dated. It basically claims that women who engage in S&M are exploited and lack self esteem. I feel like she probably wouldn't make such a sweeping statement today. I'm not sure how much that says about the evolution of feminism vs. the evolution of our sexual culture and status quo.
Kindle quotes:
At The Ladies’ Home Journal where I was an occasional consultant and writer, one of its two top editors (both men, of course) was so convinced that I was nothing like its readers (whom he described as “mental defectives with curlers in their hair”) that he used to hand me a manuscript and say, “Pretend you’re a woman and read this.” - location 270
The New York Times Magazine seemed to be continuing its usual practice of allowing women, minorities, and homosexuals to write first-person confessional pieces, but, in the name of objectivity, assigning white male heterosexual “authorities” to write definitive articles on these groups. - location 276
Reporters at press conferences who routinely assumed I could answer questions about all women but Dorothy could answer only about black women, or perhaps only about the few black male leaders whose names were the only ones they knew. Just as male was universal but female was limited, white was universal but black was limited. (We tried to turn this into a learning experience by letting the questions go on for a while—and then pointing out the problem.) - location 340
Talking with Flo about her first book, Abortion Rap, in a Boston taxi and hearing its elderly Irish woman driver say the much-to-be-quoted words: “Honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” - location 362
Most of all, learning from Flo’s example that you didn’t have to accept the terms of the opposition. For instance, when a hostile man asked if we were lesbians (as frequently happened; why else would a white and black woman be colleagues?), Flo would just look him in the eye and ask, “Are you my alternative?” - location 370
One of the most helpful things ever said to me came from poet Sandra Hochman: “Don’t think about it. Just pretend you’re Eleanor Roosevelt and you have to do this idiotic television show before you can go on to do something really important.” Perhaps this is the Art of Zen Speaking. - location 402
“I don’t like to write. I like to have written.” - location 422
Women whose identity depends more on their outsides than their insides are dangerous when they begin to age. - location 429
an early feminist group had asked women to talk about their real life experiences with illegal abortion. I sat in a church basement listening to women stand before an audience and talk about desperately trying to find someone who would help them, about enduring pre-abortion rapes from doctors, being asked to accept sterilization as the price of an abortion, and endangering their lives in an illegal, unsafe medical underground. - location 526
For the first time, I began to question the honor of being the only “girl reporter” among men, however talented and benevolent they might be. All the suppressed anger of past experiences I had denied or tried to ignore came flooding back: the apartments I couldn’t rent because landlords assumed a single woman couldn’t afford it (or if she could, she must be a hooker); the political assignments lost to younger and less-experienced male writers; the assumption that any work I did get was the result of my being a “pretty girl” (even at a time, I suddenly realized, when all of my editors had been women); the lowered payments because women didn’t really need the money; the innuendo’s that came along with any recognition (“easier than you think,” was how Newsweek had captioned my photograph as a young writer - location 544
Giving a speech in Texas and finding dozens of people outside the amphitheater with signs: GLORIA STEINEM IS A HUMANIST. I thought, How nice, they must be friends. But as I got closer and saw the hatred in their faces, I realized they were rightwing pickets to whom humanist—or any other word that means a belief in people instead of an authoritarian god—is the worst thing you can be. - location 623
There is also the great reward of working full time at something I care about so much that I would do it for no money at all, plus the problems of making far less money than would be possible outside a social movement. The last would be okay if “rich and famous” weren’t so often one phrase that it’s hard to separate them. Being resented for having money that doesn’t exist is not a great combination. - location 643
Being stopped in the street by a truck driver who tells me that the woman he loves and has been living with for three years wouldn’t marry him and have children because he didn’t want her to go on working—until then he heard some interview in which I asked men to consider how they would feel if they were exactly the same people but had been born female. He tried this exercise for a while, and changed so much that he and his friend were now happily married. He is thanking me—but the miracle of empathy is his own. - location 651
The wardrobe mistress told me to take off my clothes and began to search for an old Bunny costume in my size. A girl rushed in with her costume in her hand, calling for the wardrobe mistress as a wounded soldier might yell, “Medic!” “I’ve broken my zipper,” she wailed, “I sneezed!” - location 786
I went back to the Bunny Room, turned in my costume, and sat motionless, too tired to move. The stays had made vertical indentations around my rib cage and the zipper had left a welt over my spine. I complained about the costume’s tightness to the Bunny who was sitting next to me, also motionless. “Yeah,” she said, “a lot of girls say their legs get numb from the knee up. I think it presses on a nerve or something.” - location 1076
I asked what she had done before becoming a Bunny. “Nothing much, a little modeling once in a while.” And what did she hope working as a Bunny would lead to? “I thought maybe I could save enough money to get some test shots and a composite and I could be a real model,” she said. “But after three months of this, I want to get married. Guys I wouldn’t look at before, now I think they aren’t so bad.” - location 1158
Many Bunnies regard plastic dry cleaner’s bags as dangerous for bosom stuffing because they make you perspire, thereby causing a weight loss where you least want it. Kleenex and absorbent cotton are preferred. - location 1230
The young student was shocked and confused as the march moved into a world lit by the revolving red lights of the police vehicles, rising smoke, and screaming fire engines. “He didn’t approve of violence,” she said about King, “and it isn’t right to do this.” - location 1483
“That’s it for me,” a neatly dressed young man said. “They do something like that to a man like King … a man like King.” For the leaders, the activist heroes, the dilemma was worse. Privately, most of them—even Rap Brown—had admitted they hoped in their hearts that King was right. “Now,” explained black militant author Addison Gayle, “we’re all a little scared. Because we have to believe our own rhetoric.” - location 1487
Though Smith was proud of the fact that men greatly outnumbered women on its faculty—a proof of seriousness still highlighted in the college catalogue even when I was there in the 1950s - location 2211
But even as the reporter and I discussed those interesting reasons why Smith had produced more than its share of independent achievers, we knew that all of them put together were less newsworthy than one Nancy Reagan. Any First Lady, no matter what she does or doesn’t do, is still more likely to top the lists of Most Admired Women than any woman who has succeeded on her own. - location 2215
When she admitted that, when first married, she assumed she had to clean bathrooms—until her husband stopped her by saying he hadn’t married her to clean bathrooms—there was the silence of envy. - location 2257
(I remember with gratitude the banner carried by some very old and bawdy women who led the parade while I was a student: hardly a man is now alive, who remembers the girls of ’95.) - location 2280
Only with the 1960s do the groups begin to show much racial diversity. My class, for instance, included not one black student, no Hispanic women, and only one Asian who wasn’t a foreign student. (As a freshman, I had asked a professor why none of the black applicants from my town had been admitted. His answer was a classic mix of racism and sexism: one had to be very careful about educating Negro girls because there weren’t enough educated Negro men to go around.) - location 2282
When she visited me in New York during her sixties and seventies, she always told taxi drivers that she was eighty years old (“so they will tell me how young I look”), - location 2563
we are becoming the men we wanted to marry. - location 2682
Art used to be definable as what men created. Crafts were made by women and natives. - location 2692
Until the 1970s, women had to choose between Miss or Mrs., thus identifying themselves by marital status in a way men did not. Now, more than a third of American women support Ms. as an alternative, an exact parallel of Mr., and so do government publications, business, and the media. - location 2698
“Did you ever hear the story about Judy Holliday?” asked a woman peeling off a sweaty leotard. “When she went for a movie interview, the head of the studio started chasing her around the desk. So she just reached into her dress, pulled out her falsies, and handed them to him. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘I think this is what you want.’” - location 2932
Raymond understands the crushing societal forces that make transsexuals choose this self-punishment, but she mourns the loss of individuals who might have acted as critics and rebels in this sexually stereotyped society. Instead of accepting the idea of “a female mind in a male body” by mutilating their physical selves, they might have challenged the very idea that there is such a thing as a female or male mind. They might have demonstrated that sex is only one of many elements that makes up each unique individual. - location 3657
For that reason, she is also critical of the medical establishment that has grown up around the demand (and the big payments) for transsexual surgery, plus long-term hormonal treatments. Instead of serving more lifesaving but often less lucrative needs for their surgical and hormone-therapy skills, some physicians are aiding individuals who are desperately trying to conform to an unjust society. It’s a small group of successful physicians she names “the transsexual empire.” - location 3661
Feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for and the uses of transsexualism. Even while we protect the right of an informed individual to make that decision, and to be identified as he or she wishes, we have to make clear that this is not a long-term feminist goal. The point is to transform society so that a female can “go out for basketball” and a male doesn’t have to be “the strong one.” Better to turn anger outward toward changing the world than inward toward mutilating our bodies into conformity. - location 3674
On porn vs. erotica:
This confusion of sex with violence is most obvious in any form of sadomasochism. The inability to empathize with the “opposite sex” has become so great that a torturer or even murderer may actually believe pain or loss of life to be the natural fate of the victim; and the victim may have been so deprived of self-respect or positive human contact that she expects pain or loss of freedom as the price of any intimacy or attention at all. - location 3836
Over the years, I heard other clues to her character. When Ella Fitzgerald, a black artist and perhaps the greatest singer of popular songs, hadn’t been able to get a booking at an important Los Angeles nightclub in the fifties, it was Marilyn who called the owner and promised to sit at a front table every night if he allowed Ella to sing. The owner hired Ella, Marilyn was faithful to her promise each night, the press went wild, and, as Ella remembered with gratitude, “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again.” - location 4104
On female genital mutilation:
The pain of intercourse often leads mutilated women to seek pregnancy as a temporary relief from sexual demands. - location 5047
Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do. I gave the commonsensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling has been satisfied by marriage. If men doubt the magnitude of the gamble, consider just how tough it is to know that someone you are about to marry, who may be, by tradition and by lack of economic alternative, your lifetime identity and meal ticket, is going to have the law career or foreman’s job or political office that you want for yourself and for your security. Not so easy, right? In the fifties, I remember college friends taking their fiancé’s poems, architectural drawings, or senior thesis to the appropriate professor and asking, “Is this guy any good?” - location 5631
February 5, 2021
This was great but I do have a few issues with some of the arguments Steinem was trying to make.
For instance, in "The Politics of Food", Steinem states that "women buy the notion that males need more protein and more strength" (214). I am not a dietician nor a nutritionist but even I know that men and women have different calorie intakes for a reason. Men consume more calories because they are bigger, both in height and weight, have greater muscle mass and exert more energy than women and therefore they need to consume more calories on a daily basis to sustain themselves (1500-2000 for women and 2500-2800 for men). This is simply a biological fact and one that Steinem doesn't consider. While it is sexist for women to sacrifice "the choice piece of mean for the man of the house or growing boys" at the expense of her own meal or because her status as a woman renders her undeserving of it, it is not sexist for a man to eat 2 steaks while a woman eats 1.
Moreover, Steinem's commentary on the porn industry came across a little condescending to me for women who may actually enjoy and profit off of porn. Yes porn has undeniably put some women through extreme emotional, mental physical and psychological abuse (and Steinem mentions Linda Lovelace as she should) this does not mean that ALL women experience this behaviour. If this was the case porn as an industry would collapse. Steinem doesn't take the time to say that women in porn may enjoy their work which was a little disappointing.
Overall,
⭐⭐⭐⭐
For instance, in "The Politics of Food", Steinem states that "women buy the notion that males need more protein and more strength" (214). I am not a dietician nor a nutritionist but even I know that men and women have different calorie intakes for a reason. Men consume more calories because they are bigger, both in height and weight, have greater muscle mass and exert more energy than women and therefore they need to consume more calories on a daily basis to sustain themselves (1500-2000 for women and 2500-2800 for men). This is simply a biological fact and one that Steinem doesn't consider. While it is sexist for women to sacrifice "the choice piece of mean for the man of the house or growing boys" at the expense of her own meal or because her status as a woman renders her undeserving of it, it is not sexist for a man to eat 2 steaks while a woman eats 1.
Moreover, Steinem's commentary on the porn industry came across a little condescending to me for women who may actually enjoy and profit off of porn. Yes porn has undeniably put some women through extreme emotional, mental physical and psychological abuse (and Steinem mentions Linda Lovelace as she should) this does not mean that ALL women experience this behaviour. If this was the case porn as an industry would collapse. Steinem doesn't take the time to say that women in porn may enjoy their work which was a little disappointing.
Overall,
⭐⭐⭐⭐
October 11, 2020
It’s scary how relevant this book still is, but that is precisely why it is so important to read. I especially loved the postscripts for added detail, context, and modern observations. I love Steinem’s writing style and her honesty.
July 13, 2017
Anyone who is interested in background reading on feminism should read this book. The author started off as a grass-roots activist on the road in the 1970s, so it’s a very readable account touching on the history of second-wave feminist activism as well as the issues and political agenda of the time. I first read this book at Uni in the late 80s and this was a re-read, 30 years later. It shocked me how relevant the book still is. Steinhem's comment in the preface sums it up, "When I see this book being handed down to another generation of readers, I don't know whether to celebrate or mourn.”
With the benefit of hindsight, some sections do seem dated, especially the section on transsexualism. But many of the articles are every bit as relevant now as when it was first written. Steinhem notes in the preface (written 19 years after the first edition), "I feel angry when I re-read some of these pages and consider the lack of change or reminders of the backlash against change."
I also felt angry, re-reading many of the articles on ‘micro-politics’, such as the politics of housework, paid work, pornography, food & the use of language and noting the lack of progress in many areas. This was compounded when I got to the section on 'Politics' and noted the lack of progress with major issues such as FGM. Steinhem concludes the preface with the wish, "I hope you will find something within this book that will help you to make it obsolete."
There are a couple of background notes to keep in mind about this book: as mentioned before, Steinhem writes from the position of an activist and from a self-described position as a 'radical feminist' (i.e. she sees feminist issues as the root issue in all social justice transformations.) I loved the final article, which was a call to action with a series of 'everyday rebellions' as well as 'outrageous acts' listed to promote change. It's well worth a re-read even if you first read this book many years ago.
With the benefit of hindsight, some sections do seem dated, especially the section on transsexualism. But many of the articles are every bit as relevant now as when it was first written. Steinhem notes in the preface (written 19 years after the first edition), "I feel angry when I re-read some of these pages and consider the lack of change or reminders of the backlash against change."
I also felt angry, re-reading many of the articles on ‘micro-politics’, such as the politics of housework, paid work, pornography, food & the use of language and noting the lack of progress in many areas. This was compounded when I got to the section on 'Politics' and noted the lack of progress with major issues such as FGM. Steinhem concludes the preface with the wish, "I hope you will find something within this book that will help you to make it obsolete."
There are a couple of background notes to keep in mind about this book: as mentioned before, Steinhem writes from the position of an activist and from a self-described position as a 'radical feminist' (i.e. she sees feminist issues as the root issue in all social justice transformations.) I loved the final article, which was a call to action with a series of 'everyday rebellions' as well as 'outrageous acts' listed to promote change. It's well worth a re-read even if you first read this book many years ago.
March 1, 2021
Gloria! I love the woman so much.
Really enjoyed this collection. “If Men Could Menstruate” was laugh out loud riotous. I particularly enjoyed her section reflecting on famous women of her time; her vindication of Linda Lovelace was heroic, and it made me cry.
“Night Thoughts of a Media Watcher” was great for many reason, but what stuck out for me was her heavy critique of “Sophie’s Choice” - I saw that movie more than ten years ago and strongly disliked it, but I never could articulate why until Steinem discussed it here.
“If Hitler Were Alive, Whose Side Would He Be On?” was particularly chilling given the time it was first written juxtaposed with ... exactly what Donald Trump did in the US.
I also really appreciated Steinam’s suggestion that it’s a heavily masculine way of handling things to insist that breaking everything and demanding things in the streets is the only way things are going to change, and her personally commentary on what kind of feminist she identifies as, and why that doesn’t keep her from working with people who don’t come from the same exact political place she does.
She’s funny, self-critical, honest, and refreshing. Listening to these essays was a joy. That joy, though, was tainted because it was actually painful how starkly relevant these essays still are today - even without the postscripts updating them.
Really enjoyed this collection. “If Men Could Menstruate” was laugh out loud riotous. I particularly enjoyed her section reflecting on famous women of her time; her vindication of Linda Lovelace was heroic, and it made me cry.
“Night Thoughts of a Media Watcher” was great for many reason, but what stuck out for me was her heavy critique of “Sophie’s Choice” - I saw that movie more than ten years ago and strongly disliked it, but I never could articulate why until Steinem discussed it here.
“If Hitler Were Alive, Whose Side Would He Be On?” was particularly chilling given the time it was first written juxtaposed with ... exactly what Donald Trump did in the US.
I also really appreciated Steinam’s suggestion that it’s a heavily masculine way of handling things to insist that breaking everything and demanding things in the streets is the only way things are going to change, and her personally commentary on what kind of feminist she identifies as, and why that doesn’t keep her from working with people who don’t come from the same exact political place she does.
She’s funny, self-critical, honest, and refreshing. Listening to these essays was a joy. That joy, though, was tainted because it was actually painful how starkly relevant these essays still are today - even without the postscripts updating them.
November 20, 2014
I'm writing this review in November 2014. At the moment:
- It's illegal for a woman in Saudi Arabia to drive a car.
- Women in the US earn less than men for the same work.
- Only 10% of Wikipedia's editors are women, 11% of open source software contributors are women, and don't even get me started on trying to be an entrepreneur while female.
- This happened last month.
And so on.
Also, as a lady who writes sci-fi and loves science/tech, I sometimes run into some - hmm, what's the technical word? - idiot talk from time to time. Just dudes sometimes implying or outright saying that I can't possibly be in it for the computers! (Let me say it plainly, I'm in it for the computers.) Or what have you. It's in moments like these, when Dude #1 makes a joke about women not knowing how to find CTRL+ALT+DEL, I rage-stroke and die at the lunchtable, and Dude #2 says, "But Angela, many women just don't go into computer science! It's a FACT."
Or how many dudes - HOW MANY DUDES - appropriate the "fixed-state" model of ally-ness, where they decide, "I am not a sexist!", as if it's a permanent state of being, and then get SO OFFENDED if I point out that they may have been sexist that one time when they said that one thing. Dude, sexism/feminism/any-ism-ing is a process, a series of behaviors, a SUBROUTINE IF YOU WILL. It is most definitely NOT a fixed state. You don't get a badge. THERE ARE NO BADGES.
I'm yelling. Sorry. As you can tell, I get worked up about this stuff. I get worked up about it because sometimes it feels like you still have to defend feminism, and that's just ridiculous. Feminism = civil rights = freedom and justice. I mean, COME ON.
Anyway. I wasn't always like this. Recently, I dusted off and re-read some of my 2003 fanfic and was APPALLED, I tell you, at how deeply, stupidly sexist it all was. Big beefy dudes rescuing brainless women, and so on and so forth. I'm embarrassed some of these tropes permeated even my early published stories. I'm embarrassed that I once thought writing women was hard or boring. Wow, patriarchal osmosis!
WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE BOOK. This book is by Gloria Steinem, a 1970s "women's lib" icon who recently got the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Mr. Obama (husband of Michelle). It's a collection of essays she wrote throughout the 70s and 80s, with some 90s post-scripts. It covers your Standard Feminist Fare, from the stupid ways women are portrayed in our culture, to legislating women's bodies, to basic rights and freedoms. It's kiiinda mostly second-wave feminism, I guess: i.e. the feminism that's mostly about white middle-class Anglo ladies. Like, her essays on trans stuff were kinda, eh, close-minded? To put it lightly?
BUT! There were many pearls of wisdom here, things which resonated with my experiences very deeply. Stuff like how women tend to get *more* radical as they get older (hallo, 2014 Angela versus 2003 Angela!), stuff about absorbing/internalizing a lot of your supposed stereotyped characteristics (hallo, stereotype threat!), and stuff like how it's actually kinda hard to find spaces where ladies can just talk and "consciousness raise", since - until recently - you didn't really have women meetings up in bars after work to chat.
Thankfully, a lot of stuff has improved. BUT! Never forget that shit could go all Handmaid's Tale on us, especially in the medium term. And while I generally subscribe to MLK's optimism ("The arc of history bends towards justice"), I have recently been thinking, "Medieval period/Dark Ages/oooh shiiiit". I mean, even techno-utopian Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is 99% perfect, cuz sometimes they do fail on race/gender stuff, but their hearts are in the right place) takes place in a world *after* a crazy Dark Ages-style period of severe techno-regression. So... cautious hope?! Pessimistic optimism?! Maybe things will suck again but then get way better? I dunno. Read the book.
- It's illegal for a woman in Saudi Arabia to drive a car.
- Women in the US earn less than men for the same work.
- Only 10% of Wikipedia's editors are women, 11% of open source software contributors are women, and don't even get me started on trying to be an entrepreneur while female.
- This happened last month.
And so on.
Also, as a lady who writes sci-fi and loves science/tech, I sometimes run into some - hmm, what's the technical word? - idiot talk from time to time. Just dudes sometimes implying or outright saying that I can't possibly be in it for the computers! (Let me say it plainly, I'm in it for the computers.) Or what have you. It's in moments like these, when Dude #1 makes a joke about women not knowing how to find CTRL+ALT+DEL, I rage-stroke and die at the lunchtable, and Dude #2 says, "But Angela, many women just don't go into computer science! It's a FACT."
Or how many dudes - HOW MANY DUDES - appropriate the "fixed-state" model of ally-ness, where they decide, "I am not a sexist!", as if it's a permanent state of being, and then get SO OFFENDED if I point out that they may have been sexist that one time when they said that one thing. Dude, sexism/feminism/any-ism-ing is a process, a series of behaviors, a SUBROUTINE IF YOU WILL. It is most definitely NOT a fixed state. You don't get a badge. THERE ARE NO BADGES.
I'm yelling. Sorry. As you can tell, I get worked up about this stuff. I get worked up about it because sometimes it feels like you still have to defend feminism, and that's just ridiculous. Feminism = civil rights = freedom and justice. I mean, COME ON.
Anyway. I wasn't always like this. Recently, I dusted off and re-read some of my 2003 fanfic and was APPALLED, I tell you, at how deeply, stupidly sexist it all was. Big beefy dudes rescuing brainless women, and so on and so forth. I'm embarrassed some of these tropes permeated even my early published stories. I'm embarrassed that I once thought writing women was hard or boring. Wow, patriarchal osmosis!
WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE BOOK. This book is by Gloria Steinem, a 1970s "women's lib" icon who recently got the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Mr. Obama (husband of Michelle). It's a collection of essays she wrote throughout the 70s and 80s, with some 90s post-scripts. It covers your Standard Feminist Fare, from the stupid ways women are portrayed in our culture, to legislating women's bodies, to basic rights and freedoms. It's kiiinda mostly second-wave feminism, I guess: i.e. the feminism that's mostly about white middle-class Anglo ladies. Like, her essays on trans stuff were kinda, eh, close-minded? To put it lightly?
BUT! There were many pearls of wisdom here, things which resonated with my experiences very deeply. Stuff like how women tend to get *more* radical as they get older (hallo, 2014 Angela versus 2003 Angela!), stuff about absorbing/internalizing a lot of your supposed stereotyped characteristics (hallo, stereotype threat!), and stuff like how it's actually kinda hard to find spaces where ladies can just talk and "consciousness raise", since - until recently - you didn't really have women meetings up in bars after work to chat.
Thankfully, a lot of stuff has improved. BUT! Never forget that shit could go all Handmaid's Tale on us, especially in the medium term. And while I generally subscribe to MLK's optimism ("The arc of history bends towards justice"), I have recently been thinking, "Medieval period/Dark Ages/oooh shiiiit". I mean, even techno-utopian Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is 99% perfect, cuz sometimes they do fail on race/gender stuff, but their hearts are in the right place) takes place in a world *after* a crazy Dark Ages-style period of severe techno-regression. So... cautious hope?! Pessimistic optimism?! Maybe things will suck again but then get way better? I dunno. Read the book.
March 1, 2020
It's not Steinem's fault that it took me 22 years to get around to reading this collection of essays. It was an interesting dialogue to think about when these essays were published and what the current situation. In some cases, it was very sad to see that not much progress has been made.
June 11, 2021
«People now ask me if I'm passing the torch. I always explain that no, I'm keeping my torch, thank you very much. And I'm using it to light the torches of others.
Because the truth is that the old image of one person with a torch is part of the problem, not the solution. We each need a torch if we are to see where we're going.
And together, we create so much more light.»
Because the truth is that the old image of one person with a torch is part of the problem, not the solution. We each need a torch if we are to see where we're going.
And together, we create so much more light.»
January 2, 2015
Review from The Book Wheel:
About two months ago, during a class simulation, I was in the hallway speaking with several male classmates. Despite that fact that I had done my research and was an active participant, 90% of the men I was with completely ignored me, despite my overt attempts to join the conversation. It was so bad, in fact, that all but one of them walked away while I was still talking. Infuriated, I clapped my hands loudly and demanded that they listen to me. Had I not just been treated in such a way by a group of faculty members a few weeks before, I may have let it slide for the sake of civility, but I was tired of men acting as if they were placating me by allowing me to speak. They may as well have patted me on the head and told me to be a good little girl and play nice.
I’ve always been very outspoken and assertive, so I’m not entirely sure how I made it to 30 without reading Gloria Steinem, but here I am, reading her for the first time. To be honest, I don’t know that I would have fully appreciated her or her work ten years ago, so maybe it’s for the best that I read her now! I’ve always thought of Ms. Steinem as an amazing, confident, trailblazing woman. I had no idea that she had a massive fear of public speaking, overanalyzed what she had said for days on end, and was constantly seeking approval. As someone who can identify with and is overcoming these same traits, it her ability to succeed and make such a long-lasting and positive change fills me with hope.
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a book of essays, most of which were written decades ago, and include relevant updates to keep the reader up to date on what the current state of affairs are. As Ms. Steinem points out in her introduction, some of these updates are depressing in that not much progress has been made. The essays range from how the transexual movement has affected gender roles, her time as a a Playboy Bunny, an essay about her mother and what would happen if men menstruated.
While all of the essays covered very serious topics, they were made more interesting with a type of humor that was not haha funny, but instead amusing in a this-is-real-life way. It made the book much more approachable and less preachy. In fact, the book didn’t seem preachy or “feministy” at all and yet I finished the book wanting to jump up and shout about how great it is to be a woman.
About two months ago, during a class simulation, I was in the hallway speaking with several male classmates. Despite that fact that I had done my research and was an active participant, 90% of the men I was with completely ignored me, despite my overt attempts to join the conversation. It was so bad, in fact, that all but one of them walked away while I was still talking. Infuriated, I clapped my hands loudly and demanded that they listen to me. Had I not just been treated in such a way by a group of faculty members a few weeks before, I may have let it slide for the sake of civility, but I was tired of men acting as if they were placating me by allowing me to speak. They may as well have patted me on the head and told me to be a good little girl and play nice.
I’ve always been very outspoken and assertive, so I’m not entirely sure how I made it to 30 without reading Gloria Steinem, but here I am, reading her for the first time. To be honest, I don’t know that I would have fully appreciated her or her work ten years ago, so maybe it’s for the best that I read her now! I’ve always thought of Ms. Steinem as an amazing, confident, trailblazing woman. I had no idea that she had a massive fear of public speaking, overanalyzed what she had said for days on end, and was constantly seeking approval. As someone who can identify with and is overcoming these same traits, it her ability to succeed and make such a long-lasting and positive change fills me with hope.
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a book of essays, most of which were written decades ago, and include relevant updates to keep the reader up to date on what the current state of affairs are. As Ms. Steinem points out in her introduction, some of these updates are depressing in that not much progress has been made. The essays range from how the transexual movement has affected gender roles, her time as a a Playboy Bunny, an essay about her mother and what would happen if men menstruated.
While all of the essays covered very serious topics, they were made more interesting with a type of humor that was not haha funny, but instead amusing in a this-is-real-life way. It made the book much more approachable and less preachy. In fact, the book didn’t seem preachy or “feministy” at all and yet I finished the book wanting to jump up and shout about how great it is to be a woman.
June 13, 2015
Had this great collection of essays by Gloria Steinham for 10 years buried in my to-be-read pile, then I read it bit by bit, amazed by the perceptions and intelligence of this early star of "true" feminism (a concept ill understood by current generations and often ill treated as well....). It would be great if all young women today took the time to read and ponder these essays. Among the least interesting is probably the first one, where she recounts her experience going underground as a Playboy bunny.... still interesting, but expected. This woman was moving in political circles all across the spectrum in the 70's and 80's. And she has written powerfully about some amazing women, such as Alice Walker, understanding well before generally recognized the influence she would have and the respect she would earn. The title comes from a challenge she issues to all of us: "if each person.... promises that in the next twenty-four hours he or she will do at least one outrageous thing in the cause of simple justice, then I promise I will, too. It doesn't matter if the act is as small as saying "Pick it up yourself" (a major step for those of us who have been our family's servants) or as large as calling a strike. THe point is that, if each of us does as promised, we can be pretty sure of two results. First, the world one day won't be quite the same. Second, we will have such a good time that we will never again get up in the morning saying, "Will I do anything outrageous?" but only "What outrageous act will I do today?" READ about how prescient she was about the future president Nixon, about her admiration for women from all walks of life and from all moments in history, about the difference for women between "how to play the existing game" and "how to change the rules", about the difference between erotica and pornography, about how American readers will cross boundaries identify with Dostoevsky or Tolstoy but can't be expected to walk next door and meet Baldwin or Ellison [although this at least has changed in some of our schools), about how campaigning to keep good books in print is just as important as to keep good leaders in power, about why a system which rests on cheap labor and allows unearned wealth to accumulate deserves to be transformed by the pressures of the many on the few.....
December 12, 2020
To me, Gloria Steinem has been the face of the feminist movement since the late 60’s. She represents a smart, talented person that been pointing out social inequalities the must be addressed if society is to be a better place for our daughters and sons.
Her sharp, incisive articles, written decades ago, are still relevant today. Maybe even more so, as generations have taken for granted the rights and liberties afforded to them by the struggles of their mothers or grandmothers. Her fighting spirit reminds me of the wonderful woman I married, who fights similar battles of gender pay gap and other inequalities at work or in society.
As a father of two, a son and a daughter, I want my kids to realize their potential in whatever field they choose without being bound by pre-defined roles and expectations or limited by society preconceptions of what they can and cannot do based on their gender, race or social class.
Her sharp, incisive articles, written decades ago, are still relevant today. Maybe even more so, as generations have taken for granted the rights and liberties afforded to them by the struggles of their mothers or grandmothers. Her fighting spirit reminds me of the wonderful woman I married, who fights similar battles of gender pay gap and other inequalities at work or in society.
As a father of two, a son and a daughter, I want my kids to realize their potential in whatever field they choose without being bound by pre-defined roles and expectations or limited by society preconceptions of what they can and cannot do based on their gender, race or social class.
September 7, 2020
I think it’s useful to read older feminist works for context on how far we’ve come and where things are still the same. And Steinem has some powerful essays in this collection and is a good writer. But I can’t recommend this because of the dated/troubling perspectives on sex work, gender confirmation surgery, and surgery for intersex babies. There were also far too many comparisons between sexism and racism/antisemitism, which is not a useful or accurate tactic.
September 4, 2022
"People now ask me if I'm passing the torch. I always explain that no, I'm keeping my torch, thank you very much. And I'm using it to light the torches of others. Because the truth is that the old image of one person with a torch is part of the problem, not the solution. We each need a torch if we are to see where we're going. And together, we create so much more light."
― Gloria Steinem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a classic essay collection on politics, feminism, social justice, equality, gender, and living on the edge of history. I love reading Gloria Steinem's work because it's funny, honest, straight to the point, and timeless. Also, there're lots of fond memories from living in the '60s and '70s.
My favorite essays from this book are:
I Was a Playboy Bunny in which Steinem gives her account of infiltrating the Playboy Club to investigate what goes on behind closed doors. And there were A LOT of creepy things like the forced pelvic examination that all Bunnies had to undergo by a Playboy doctor.
Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It) - a memoir essay & moving tribute to her mother, who had severe mental illness throughout Gloria's entire life. This is a candid, painful yet beautiful essay about survival. This must have been very emotional to write.
The Real Linda Lovelace is an essay about the stardom and sexual and physical abuse of Linda Lovelace. Shocking and heartbreaking.
The International Crime of Genital Mutilation - this one is also a tough pill to swallow, but it's essential to read. We don't think about these things enough. This essay will get you thinking.
And, finally, a satire, If Men Could Menstruate. Simply brilliant.
All in all, an ageless book for everyone. Whenever I read Gloria Steinem's work, I feel more educated and encouraged to be an independent thinker. Thanks, Gloria. 5/5.
― Gloria Steinem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is a classic essay collection on politics, feminism, social justice, equality, gender, and living on the edge of history. I love reading Gloria Steinem's work because it's funny, honest, straight to the point, and timeless. Also, there're lots of fond memories from living in the '60s and '70s.
My favorite essays from this book are:
I Was a Playboy Bunny in which Steinem gives her account of infiltrating the Playboy Club to investigate what goes on behind closed doors. And there were A LOT of creepy things like the forced pelvic examination that all Bunnies had to undergo by a Playboy doctor.
Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It) - a memoir essay & moving tribute to her mother, who had severe mental illness throughout Gloria's entire life. This is a candid, painful yet beautiful essay about survival. This must have been very emotional to write.
The Real Linda Lovelace is an essay about the stardom and sexual and physical abuse of Linda Lovelace. Shocking and heartbreaking.
The International Crime of Genital Mutilation - this one is also a tough pill to swallow, but it's essential to read. We don't think about these things enough. This essay will get you thinking.
And, finally, a satire, If Men Could Menstruate. Simply brilliant.
All in all, an ageless book for everyone. Whenever I read Gloria Steinem's work, I feel more educated and encouraged to be an independent thinker. Thanks, Gloria. 5/5.
July 23, 2020
I'm trying to come up with the words to describe how good this book is, and I physically can't. Each of the essays were so interesting and so well written. Some of the essays were fun, some devastating, and all were interesting. My favorites were:
-I was a Playboy Bunny: Incredibly interesting
-Campaigning: Basically an analysis of electoral politics from the mid '60s to early '70s, and was again really an interesting read (I know I'm saying interesting a lot, but its true)
-Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It): Absolutely devastating, I had to take a break after reading it
-The Politics of Food: goes into a "well duh" moment that I had never thought of before
-The Real Linda Lovelace: Also a devastating read about a popular porn actress who was essentially trafficked
-Rx Fantasies: Brought a smile to my face and hope to my heart
-Far from the Opposite Shore: Tangible suggestions for what to do.
Looking through the essays to pick out my favorites was hard, and there were a lot more I wanted to write down, but I felt 7 was already pushing it for highlights. In conclusion: Read this book
-I was a Playboy Bunny: Incredibly interesting
-Campaigning: Basically an analysis of electoral politics from the mid '60s to early '70s, and was again really an interesting read (I know I'm saying interesting a lot, but its true)
-Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It): Absolutely devastating, I had to take a break after reading it
-The Politics of Food: goes into a "well duh" moment that I had never thought of before
-The Real Linda Lovelace: Also a devastating read about a popular porn actress who was essentially trafficked
-Rx Fantasies: Brought a smile to my face and hope to my heart
-Far from the Opposite Shore: Tangible suggestions for what to do.
Looking through the essays to pick out my favorites was hard, and there were a lot more I wanted to write down, but I felt 7 was already pushing it for highlights. In conclusion: Read this book
July 18, 2022
Really eye opening and scary at how so many of the things she writes about in the 1970’s and 1980’s are still happening and how close we are to fully being second class citizens, yet again. I am in awe of her work and dedication to the women’s movement and am SO grateful for all her work to help promote and protect women and girls. Highly recommend reading, especially now.
March 5, 2024
I didn’t connect with all of the essays in equal measure, but it was clear to me from the beginning that this would be a 5 star read. Her wisdom, humility, honesty, and courage are what make it so poignant. Her belief in and advocacy for the power of women, of sisterhood, and of the potential for change are what make it inspiring.
September 13, 2019
Un recueil assez inégal, dont la majorité des idées développées ont énormément vieillie, et trahissent un féminisme assez daté et pas si inclusif que ça. Certains textes emblématiques ("Si les hommes avaient leurs règles" et "j'ai été une Bunny") sont super intéressants, mais ne méritent pas de lire les 400 pages complètes de l'ouvrage.
March 1, 2020
Video review coming soon!
It's really not Steinem's fault that I gave this book five stars. Much of it felt dated because it WAS and it took me 22 years to read it. Ridiculous! Let this be a lesson if you buy a current events-related book you should read it NOW.
It's really not Steinem's fault that I gave this book five stars. Much of it felt dated because it WAS and it took me 22 years to read it. Ridiculous! Let this be a lesson if you buy a current events-related book you should read it NOW.
March 14, 2021
I took a month to savor the collected essays within Gloria Steinem's book. I'm inspired by her conviction, as well as her work in the feminist movement.
Honestly, I think every woman and girl should read this book.
Honestly, I think every woman and girl should read this book.
August 5, 2020
I read this 30 years ago, it was good to revisit the issues and see where there has been change and where we are still working on other issues.
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