Gloria Steinem, who is often regarded as the mother of feminism, turned 80 on Tuesday.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Steinem worked as a social and political activist, while also writing pieces for numerous publications. All of this saw her labelled the spokeswoman for the women’s liberation movement, and she also became a hugely prominent writer and political figure.
She worked as a columnist for New York magazine, and she also co-founded Ms. magazine, and in 2005, alongside Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, Steinem co-founded the Women’s Media Center. This organization looks to promote the voices of women in the media through training and the creation of original content.
However, despite her efforts covering a plethora of serious issues, Steinhem also possessed one of the sharpest and wittiest minds of her generation.
Here is a selection of some of her finest quotes:
– “A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.”
– “So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?…Street guys would invent slang (“He’s a three-pad man”) and “give fives” on the corner with some exchange like, “Man you lookin’ good! ” “Yeah, man, I’m on the rag!”
One of the most famous quotes associated with Steinem, “women need men like fish need a bicycle,” is often misattributed. This is an issue that she cleared up with a letter to Time in 2000, where she gave proper accreditation to Australian Irina Dunn:
“You credit me with the witticism “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
In fact, Irina Dunn, a distinguished Australian educator, journalist and politician, coined the phrase back in 1970 when she was a student at the University of Sydney. She paraphrased the philosopher who said, “Man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle.”
Dunn deserves credit for creating such a popular and durable spoof of the old idea that women need men more than vice versa.”
Steinem , who had an abortion in London aged 22, was propelled into public consciousness as she rallied at pro-abortion events during the late 1960s.
She has since admitted that she didn’t begin her life “as an active feminist,” until the day she covered an abortion speak-out being held in a church basement in Greenwich Village.
Steinem has also written extensively on pornography, genital mutilation, same-sex marriage, transsexualism and feminist theory, while she has been honored with close to two dozen awards for her efforts too.
[Image via lev radin/Shutterstock.com ]
