All posts tagged: Steinem

Gloria Steinem Invited Me Over to Her Brownstone for a Group Discussion on Sexual Desire. This Is How It Went.

Gloria Steinem Invited Me Over to Her Brownstone for a Group Discussion on Sexual Desire. This Is How It Went.

Published by Sam Flores

On a balmy Saturday afternoon in New York City, roughly 20 women had been instructed to confess the last thing that turned them on to Gloria Steinem. It wasn’t a feminist fever dream, although it felt like one to be sitting in the sunny living room of Steinem’s spacious Upper East Side apartment, where women from all walks of life gathered to discuss the sex comedy Two Women, a progressive update of a 1970s sexploitation film hitting US theaters on April 24. “I was worried that I was going to have to say something embarrassing,” said one attendee. “Like I watched a Heated Rivalry look-alike contest or something. But, actually, I had sex with my husband last night!” With that disclosure out in the open, the rest of the squirmy attendees subtly sank deeper into their seats, accepting Steinem’s orbit as a safe space. Although at least one guest was admittedly nervous that a journalist was sitting in: “Off the record!” one woman shouted in my direction after detailing a sexy secret. (The conversation was …

Gloria Steinem on Her New Memoir, An Unexpected Life: “Not Sure I Saw Any of It Coming”

Gloria Steinem on Her New Memoir, An Unexpected Life: “Not Sure I Saw Any of It Coming”

Published by Sam Flores

In her memoir, Steinem delves into a childhood spent cycling through books, going on road trips with her traveling salesman father, and caring for her journalist mother amid ongoing mental health struggles. “It’s difficult for a neglected child, because it isn’t that there’s something wrong—it’s that there’s nothing,” Steinem told Vanity Fair back in 1992 about how her adolescent struggles led to a life of service. “You experience it as a lack of reality, as invisibility. So I set about making myself real by being useful.” Her book also sheds new light on the origins of Steinem’s most passionate beliefs—from a childhood rat bite that opened her eyes to the dangers of poverty to her attendance at the 1970 Women’s Strike for Equality that honored the right to vote. In revisiting the equal-rights movements Steinem helped build, she offers wisdom to new generations about what the next chapters of the fight for equality will demand. “I definitely feel hopeful when I look at what women and men, mostly way younger than me, are doing,” says …

Gloria Steinem Gathered Celebrities to Discuss Masculinity. They Argued Over the Dishes

Gloria Steinem Gathered Celebrities to Discuss Masculinity. They Argued Over the Dishes

Published by Jenni Sidey

Imagine your dad throwing your birthday party. It’s a chilly Tuesday afternoon on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but here, inside Gloria Steinem’s cozy, knick-knack-filled apartment, where a guest has just shared this prompt, the atmosphere is warm. Steinem, 91, is hosting one of her occasional “talking circles,” and the topic today is masculinity. The guests include celebrities Amy Schumer, Emmy Rossum, and the Real Housewife of Atlanta Kandi Burruss, as well as zeitgeisty experts like Dr. Corinne Low, associate professor at Wharton and author of Having It All, and the tatted, media-friendly divorce lawyer James Sexton, whose Instagram @nycdivorcelawyer boasts nearly half a million followers. Steinem’s living room before guests arrive. Photos by Jamie Pearl. The group laughs—even scoffs—at the idea of one’s dad organizing a birthday party. And why shouldn’t they? How many of us imagine a comedy of errors: last-minute invites, lackluster decorations, nonexistent party favors. The idea of this exercise, of course, is to illustrate how domestic duties usually fall on moms, while dads often fumble the basics (or worse, …

Feminism is for pigs too: Miss Piggy receives feminist award from Gloria Steinem

Feminism is for pigs too: Miss Piggy receives feminist award from Gloria Steinem

Published by Sam Flores

Male chauvinist pig? More like female feminist pig. Miss Piggy was honored with the Sackler Center for Feminist Art’s First Award Wednesday, joining a long list of powerful women like Sandra Day O’Connor, Toni Morrison and Anita Hill. Despite being a puppet, Elizabeth Sackler, the founder-namesake of the awards told MSNBC that Piggy completely fit the bill: “We’re talking about tenacity, strength, intelligence, strategy, a sense of humor… She also believes that who you are is all you need to be and [to] really go for it.” The award, according to the center website, is given to women “who are first in their fields” and was presented to Piggy by Gloria Steinem and Sackler at the Brooklyn Museum. “She has spirit. She has determination. She has grit,” Sackler told USA Today. “She has inspired children to be who you are — and this squares very directly with feminism.” While all of this mat be true, not everyone was super thrilled to see a Jim Henson “Muppet” walk away with the title apparently — particularly, one …