“Find the words that will allow people to act together while appreciating each other’s individualities it is undoubtedly the most feminist and profoundly revolutionary function of the writer. assured Gloria Steinem in 1983 in her essay Scandalous actions and daily rebellions, first translated into French in 2018.
If across the Atlantic, among our American neighbors, we no longer present this icon of journalism and feminism, in France his first texts were still struggling to reach us. Until the Éditions du Portrait have the good idea, in 2022, of publishing the first two activist writings in French for the first time from this legend of the second wave feminism of the 70s: After black power, women’s liberation AND How I started writing.
Gloria Steinem’s childhood and beginnings of activism
If at 90 years of age Gloria Steinem has now established herself as an essential figure in the history of journalism, awarded a thousand times for her work, we still do not know her initial motivations. In these two writings, we finally discover what has driven him since his beginnings: writing and activism.
For the American activist, writing has always represented the most effective means of action to try to change mentalitywith a view to equality between women and men.
In How I became a writer originally published in 1965, in American magazine Charm, Gloria Steinem goes back in time and tells her story. He talks about his childhood spent in a caravan with his parents and sister. He remembers his only imaginary friends: Wonder Woman, Gone With the Wind AND Dr. March’s 4 daughters.
Gloria Steinem remembers settling down around age 11, studying brilliantly and graduating from Smith College with a degree in political science. Graduated, of age and profoundly free, the young woman sets sail for India and becomes a press correspondent. A few years later, he founded MS magazine with Dorothy Pitman Hughes.
Gloria Steinem, essential feminist
In After Black Power, women’s liberationoriginally published in New York magazine in 1971, Gloria Steinem stated that the “Sexism is racism”. In all his essay, draws multiple parallels between the history of the women’s movement and that of civil rights. To her, women and African Americans face similar humiliations. Both are degraded, discriminated against, reduced to the status of a son or support for the man.
Above all, women and African Americans are riding the same energy in their empowerment movement: Obtaining a right, no matter how beautiful the victory, is always followed by a negative reaction. Gloria Steinem gives as an example the obtaining of the right to vote for blacks which led to the establishment of Jim Crow laws and segregation: according to the author, women, despite having obtained new freedoms, are even more oppressed.
Both the African American and feminist movements are protean and divided; However, these realities have also seen stakeholders come together, create alliances and energize their struggles.
Like James Badwin and Eddie Glaude, Gloria Steinem warns that we must recognize oppression to move forward. Two texts and further proof that words, when they are right, can help shake the world to make it more egalitarian.
Featured image: © Screenshot, Gloria Steinem explains why you should be a feminist | Charm
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
