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Gloria Steinem -
"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." |
Gloria Steinem is an American feminist, and journalist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the1970s. She was among some of the founders Ms Magazine. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, which is an organization that works "to make women visible and powerful in the media". Steinem is still alive today and continues to help in the fight for true equality. Steinem currently travels internationally as a lecturer and is a media spokeswoman on issues of equality.
In 1963 Steinem went undercover as one of the Playboy bunnies working at a club to write an expose. It was written in the style of diary entries with Steinem writing in daily what had happened to her as a Playboy bunny. During her time as a bunny, she wrote about how she took the alias of Marie Catherine Ochs and worked until she heard another "bunny" say, "He's a real gentleman. He treats you just the same whether you've slept with him or not." In the advertisements for the bunnies, it stated that they would be able to make weekly salaries of around $200-300 which is today equivalent to $1600-2400 a week. However, they ended up being nickeled and dime and were expected to pay themselves for their fake eyelashes and for the upkeep of their outfits. She was even greeted by the guards by them saying, "Here bunny, bunny, bunny!"
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Steinem as a Playboy "bunny"
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This article, titled, "A Bunny's Tale" appeared in the May and June issues of Show magazine in the same year that Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published. "A Bunny's Tale" showed Steinem's belief that the sexual revolution would fail if men were the only ones allowed to define it. Steinem showed she could more than hold her own against an opponent with his own media empire since at the time Playboy was reaching a million readers a month, and in 1963, when the article was published, the Playboy Clubs were flourishing. Hefner had in 1962 begun writing monthly essays that insisted he would be "the Emancipation Proclamation of the sexual revolution", however, Steinem was unimpressed. She did not hesitate to treat Hefner's "emancipation" claims as lies. She went after him where he was most vulnerable, showing readers what it was actually like to work at a Playboy Club.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/gloria-steinem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem#Feminist_positions
Playboy Bunny Article
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/26/gloria-steinem-bunny-tale-still-relevant-today
Belen -- I thought this was a good post because of how significant Gloria Steinem is to the role of women today and how empowering she is. It especially contrast a renowned "Playboy" magazine alongside Hugh Hefner. While it is up to the individual whether the magazine and Hefner's portrayal of women was actually productive to the role of women, Steinem was one of hte leaders who helped call him out and voice her own opinion via first handed interaction through facts and figures. She showed the abused that the women felt and how they themselves understood that this was not the job that they felt best represented them. Steinem paved the way for people to understand that a women's right to her own body is important and valuable, a women is not owned and has the ability to make her own choices about herself.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hugh-hefner-dead-death-playboy-mansion-bunny-women-misogynist-predatory-enemy-a7972046.html
Great post, Belen! I like how you discussed the intersection between the women's liberation movement and sexual revolution. Something else I found interesting was that Playboy's bunnies are of the utmost importance to their employment. In her expose, Steinem revealed that Bunnies would exercise and tone their legs on the job, but might risk losing too much weight and becoming too skinny. This would result in them losing their job and other opportunities. Additionally, Bunnies were often encouraged to stuff their corsets even as they were being choked to death. This just all goes to prove Steinem's point that while the sexual revolution changed the way people thought about sex, it also made women that more vulnerable to objectification. Most importantly, Steinem herself was revolutionary for being one of the first challengers of female body standards, a fight that many are still fighting today.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vogue.com/article/playboy-bunnies-hourglass-body-gloria-steinem-hugh-hefner-death-playboy-club-new-york
Belen- Awesome post! I like how you talked about the collision of the Women's Rights Movement and the Sexual Revolution. I was reading a bit more about the Playboy Magazine and the Club, and found that Hugh Hefner started writing essays every month in 1962 that he stated would be the "the Emancipation Proclamation of the sexual revolution". However, Steinem was strongly against this, as she saw the Playboy Mansion as degrading to women and solely used for their objectification. While the sexual revolution did call for sexual acceptance (changing of norms) and other freedoms of choice, Hefner's definition did not align with the "freedom" that he alluded to in his "emancipation". Steinem made this clear by highlighting what it was like to live as a female bunny in the house. The cat calling, the high social standards, low pay (contrary to what was advertised) etc. showed that being a bunny guaranteed anything but your freedom. With a strict dress code, low pay, and even outright sexism, Steinem made clear to the American public that living as a Bunny was the last thing any woman should want and feel obligated to do.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/26/gloria-steinem-bunny-tale-still-relevant-today
I really like your post, and agree that Gloria Steinem was an incredibly important figure within the Women's Rights movement. Gloria Steinem was perhaps one of the most influential writers, alongside Betty Friedan, which pushed for women's equality in all aspects of life. Steinem was able to realize that the Women's Rights movement could never be seen through if there was a double standard hanging over women. She was able to show that it was not acceptable for women to be objectified, and made many people understand that the double standard between men and women was unjustified and had to be removed.
ReplyDeletehttps://dose.com/articles/gloria-steinem-went-undercover-as-a-playboy-bunny/