How Gloria Steinem Put The Feminist Movement Into The Hands Of Everyday Readers

How Gloria Steinem’s Books Changed The Language Of The Feminist Movement

In 1978, Gloria Steinem asked readers to imagine something biologically impossible but socially revealing: what if men menstruated instead of women? Her answer was not that periods would remain embarrassing. She imagined the opposite. Menstruation would become a source of pride, institutions would accommodate it, and men might even use it as further evidence of their supposed superiority.

The satire, published in Ms. Magazine as 'If Men Could Menstruate', distilled one of Steinem's greatest strengths as a writer. She could take an inequality so familiar that people barely noticed it, reverse the circumstances and make its absurdity difficult to ignore.

Steinem died on September 2 at the age of 92. Much will rightly be written about the feminist movement she helped shape, the organisations she founded and the political battles she fought. But there is another legacy sitting on bookshelves. Long before many people encountered Steinem the activist, they encountered Steinem the journalist, essayist and author.

Steinem began as a freelance journalist, and writing was central to the public figure she eventually became. Her 1963 undercover investigation 'A Bunny's Tale', written after working at New York's Playboy Club for…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle