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Steinem's Revv-olution

Ms. magazine founding editor Gloria Steinem,
revs up her rhetoric for the 21st century.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special To The Jewish News

eminist writer and activist
Gloria Steinem, a founding
editor of Ms. magazine, will
bring a strong, contempo-
rary voice to "Voices '98," the
Business & Professional Women's
fund-raiser for the 1998 Allied Jewish
Campaign.
Speaking Tuesday evening, Dec. 2,
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, Steinem builds on her long
association with the magazine that
recently carried her article, "Revving
Up for the Next 25 Years."
The article calls on today's feminists
to work toward making men equally
responsible inside the home, fighting
for women's control of their own bod-
ies, using dollars as conscientiously as
votes and pursuing new approaches
for children supported by government
funds.
Steinem, 63, spoke with The JN
about her upcoming visit to Michigan,
where she spent part of her childhood:

JN: What are some of the basic
themes you will address in Detroit?
GS: I want to talk especially about
the politics of culture, all the various
parts, including religion. That means
what we see on television, what we
read and what we hear on the radio.
JN: What are your current activist
commitments?
GS: I'm part of a group called
Beyond Racism, which has been
formed by activists in the United
States, South Africa and Brazil. Over a
couple of years, we're meeting in each
country in the hope that looking at
racism from these three different
points of view will help us be effective
in our own countries. I'm also hooked
on learning as much as I can about
indigenous cultures, the earliest cul-
tures both historically and to the
extent they continue to exist. They are
very valuable sources of knowledge of

societies that were not patriarchal,
you raised to feel any Jewish identity?
nationalistic or racist. They have so
GS: My mother, who was the
much to teach us and are so endan-
Protestant side of my family, raised
gered.
me to have a Jewish identity. She val-
JN: In your "Revving Up" article
ued the Jewish tradition, and she
for Ms., you called yourself a "golden
gave me a sense of the culture, the
oldie." What personal meaning does
wisdom of the Jewish tradition and
that phrase have for you?
the importance of claiming a Jewish
GS: That's a term they use for rock
identity in the presence of anti-
`n' roll hits, so I meant it humorously,
Semitism.
but I guess the most positive meaning
My Jewish grandmother was born
it has for me is being a long-distance
in what was alternatively Poland and
runner. It's crucial that we
continue to work on social
..4p.
justice in the long term, not
just a few activities and then
opt out.
JN: Are there some areas
that are particularly critical
beyond the ones you men-
tion in the article?
GS: There are some
obvious ones, the chief of
which is reproductive free-
dom. This is crucial to
women of every group
because the only difference
between males and females
is women's reproductive
capacity. It's the definition
of patriarchy to try to con-
trol women's bodies in
order to control reproduc-
tion. Achieving reproduc-
tive freedom is fundamen-
tal, and reproductive free-
dom means the freedom to
have children as well as not
Gloria Steinem will speak at "Voices `98, " which
to have.
starts at 6 p. m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, at Congregation
JN: How are your efforts
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. (248) 642-4260, ext.
going with the group that
183.
helps abused women in
Israel?
GS: The Israel Fund and the Israel
Russia and then grew up in Germany.
Women's Network are both sources of
She came here when she was about 19
progressive funding that have support-
as part of the Jewish reform move-
ed battered women's shelters and laws
ment.
to protect women in Israel. I've had
As it happens, both my Jewish
fund-raisers in my home for the net-
grandmother and my Protestant
work.
grandmother were Theosophists so
JN: Because you have Jewish
to the extent that I was raised in a
ancestry on your father's side, were
tradition, it was the Theosophical

sk: •

. •••••.*.

tradition. I used to go to
Theosophical Lodge meetings with
them as a little girl (carrying) my
coloring book.
JN: Does Judaism hold some place
in your life now?
GS: Almost every year for 21 years,
I've been going to a feminist seder.
Esther Broner (who is from Detroit)
and another woman rewrote the
Haggadah. It's beautifully and poeti-
cally done.
JN: When you go out now just to
have fun, what do you like to do?
GS: What I most often do is go to
dinner with friends, go to the movies
or just sit and talk and relax. What I
wish I did more, in addition to that,
is go dancing. I love to go dancing.
Last month, I went Latin dancing. It
was great.
JN: In all the years you've been
fighting for causes important to you,
are there outstanding lessons you've
learned that motivate and propel
you?
GS: I think I learned that no mat-
ter how hard it is, it's harder not to
do it. To take a very small example,
if there is something said in a group
of people that's very hurtful, biased
or unjust, it feels worse not to say
something about it. It may be diffi-
cult to (make a statement) because
there's a social prohibition against
ruffling the waters, but if you don't
say it, you're haunted by it much
longer. The other lesson is that I
think the art of behaving ethically is
behaving as if everything that we do
matters, no matter how small or how
big. We don't know what will have
an impact.
JN: You closed your Ms. article
with a statement: "If any of us make
it; we all will." Do you think you've
made it and consequently all women
with your interests have "made it" in
some way?
GS: No, definitely not. I think
we're a very long distance from any
definition of making it. 0

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