Credited with bringing a new wave of feminism into the 21st century, Gloria Steinem is revolutionary, rare, and one of my biggest role models. There is something to be said for a woman unafraid to set fire to the fences set around womanhood.
Also credited with popularizing one of my favorite quotes from former Australian senator Irina Dunn, Steinem has consistently been ahead of her time. I think of this slogan often – it rings true in every situation:
“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”
Writer, playboy bunny, advocate, and protestor, Steinem has lived multiple lives, each one more impressive than the last. Though her many labels may seem contradictory, I think it exemplifies one of the core beliefs of feminism: Women can be many things at once.
A story I think personifies Gloria is her month undercover within Hugh Hefner’s empire to gather research for her deliciously muckraking article, “A Bunny’s Tale.”
At the core of her piece was the idea that still rings true today – Sexual liberation will never succeed if men are in control (see what I meant about her being ahead of her time?). Hugh Hefner had peddled nonsense about the bunnies being a symbol of emancipation from traditional female sexual roles. The bunnies were free, consenting, and happy; or at least that’s what America was being told while they were being pushed to buy magazines of them topless.
Steinem’s time undercover revealed that no, the bunnies are not in fact liberated. Shouldn’t that be obvious from the fact that they are referred to as one of the meekest animals? Let’s be clear – there is nothing wrong with owning your sexuality and promiscuity. But to place a price tag on your body in exchange for notoriety is not feminism – it is a sacrifice made in order to make profit inside a patriarchy. Steinem additionally revealed that the salary promised to the bunnies were almost negligible when considering all the personal upkeep the bunnies were required to maintain.
We can draw a direct parallel from Steinem’s revelations to the sharp increase in OnlyFans creators over the last decade. It’s the same exact idea – OnlyFans labels certain users as in the “.00005%” of all creators to draw young girls in with the promise of similarly achieving these levels of fame. However this percentage comes from ALL USERS ON THE APP. This means people who are just using the app to view are included in the statistic, thus inflating what tier creators are on. Hugh Hefner’s dangerous rhetoric has contorted to the digital age, with even more serious repercussions as the platform fights allegations of revenge porn, child porn, and leaking creators’ intimate photos onto other corners of the dark web.
Gloria Steinem’s platforms and ideas are thus still relevant today. Her views on intersectionality, sexual freedom, abortion, and the boundaries of gender are profound and still cited in feminist theory today – it is our job as nasty women to act on them and make her dreams of equality come to fruition. Thinking about her quite simply makes me emotional – she is so honestly a woman, and we should all strive to reach that as well.
Shreya,
Another refreshing take! I was recently moved by Jacinda Arden’s farewell speech to Parliament in New Zealand, where she said “You can be a mother or not, an ex-Mormon or not. A nerd, a crier, a hugger, you can be all of these things and not only can you be here, you can lead just like me.” Women are often told they cannot have it both ways, but I think it is extremely important to be multifaceted in every aspect of our lives.
Sam
Hi Shreya!
I remember Gloria Steinem’s name surfacing in my honors U.S. history class in 9th grade, so she must have stood out to me in some way. I think it’s impressive that she helped pioneer many of the important feminist ideas we see today. I like that you broke down the statistic about OnlyFans to show why it’s skewed. Great last post!
Sam, what a great blog post. It is fascinating but terrifying to see how society can hide behind its obvious lies. At least we are finally making progress as a society and moving away from objectifying women. It is sad to see your blog posts going away, so I wish you the best moving forward.