Dear Gloria Steinem, I am currently in the midst of reading your book My Life On The Road as it was chosen as the first book in Emma Watson’s feminist book club. In that context, and as a feminist myself, I quite anticipated it to be good, and you to become a feminist role model for myself too. And you were well on your way to being that, until after the New Hampshire presidential primaries when I read about your comments regarding young women who support Senator Bernie Sanders.
Even though I am not eligible to vote myself, I am a supporter of Sanders – and I am also a young woman and a feminist. According to you, I, and other young women like me, only support Sanders “because the boys are with [him]”. Does that really seem likely to you? Please do not underestimate the intelligence of young women. Our support of Sanders has got nothing to do with whom men are supporting. We support him because we truly feel like he is the best chance America has at becoming a better, more equal country. Unfortunately many feel that Hillary Clinton as an establishment candidate will not truly inflict change. And that has got nothing to do with her gender.
As a feminist, I feel like any political candidate I support has to advocate feminist values too. Bernie Sanders has sent a clear message of gender equality and I am certain he would not act against it. I find the idea that a woman must support a woman, whatever the opinions of the candidate, ridiculous. Did you support Sarah Palin when she was running for vice president in 2008? I didn’t think so. I will support a candidate who promotes gender equality and who in other aspects has opinions that align with mine. Whether they are a man or a woman is irrelevant. A man who advocates gender equality is as good as a woman who does the same.
I find your comments sexist and inherently un-feminist. You are implying that young women are not able to think with their own brains while young men are. Furthermore, you reduced Hillary Clinton into only representing her gender when it is only a part of her. You also implied that the reason older women are voting for Clinton in bigger percentages than young women is that women get more radical as they age, because women lose power as they get older. I find that idea very weird, since out of these two candidates, isn’t Bernie Sanders considered the more radical one? I’m aware that you probably meant women getting more radical with their feminism. Still, the majority of liberal young women seem to believe that Sanders as the president will execute feminism and equality in general better than Clinton will.
You tried to shame young women into voting Clinton, and that is something a lot of us find hard to overlook.
You haven’t even offered a proper apology for your words yet.
I, too, would like to see a female US president sooner rather than later, but right now it just doesn’t look like the best choice there is. And as for your book, I want to finish it, but right now I’m having trouble getting myself motivated to doing it. I suspect I’ll cool down in time; you have, after all, done a lot for gender equality throughout the years. But that is why it is even more outrageous to hear such comments from you.
Sincerely,
Eve, a fellow feminist