I noticed in the paper today that Gloria Steinem was one of the Medal of Freedom recipients. I really appreciate her inclusion, because, in my generation at least, she has been a flashpoint for how it is to be a woman in our society here. Her voice lifted so many others, and her journey, both personal and political, mirrors what it was like to be a woman and want to use your brain and skills and heart in a way that reflected self love and dignity for all of us. She has been fluid as well, changing when the times changed, opening to women of color, to lesbians, to the whole broad spectrum of what is female. And like Simone de Beauvoir, she struggled with relationships, and images of beauty and how to be female and sexually active. For both of them, the professional life was at war with the love life. I also appreciate Steinem's honesty about her mother's mental illness, and the effect it had on her lifelong. She spoke at a time when such topics were shrouded in secrecy and shame. She admitted her own mother was not her source of self valuing, and that the world is much more complicated and feminism must reflect that. Not everyone had the nurturing mother and absent father. The struggle to know the female self is sometimes a lonely path in the dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment