Marlo Thomas: The Movement

[sufrommich]

I was a young actress in Hollywood trying to sell a TV show about a single girl living in New York who had every interest in a career, and zero interest in marriage. So when I went to my first pitch meeting at the network, I took along a copy of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan's 1963 treatise on the unhappy state of the American woman.

My point was to convince the guys in the suits that That Girl was not a revolutionary figure, but, in fact, a fait accompli. True to Friedan's observations in her seismic book, across the country the foundation beneath women's lives was dramatically cracking. We were not our mothers' daughters. We were a whole different breed. One of the network executives paged through Freidan's book, then looked at me in horror. "Is this gonna happen to my wife?" he asked.

Yeah, I thought. It probably will.

As Gloria Steinem so wisely commented, "A movement is only people moving." And that's what was happening in 1965 -- women were moving, separately, but headed in the same direction. Gloria had gone undercover for New York magazine, posing as a bunny at a Playboy Club -- wearing that famous scanty, black satin bustier, complete with cottontail and rabbit ears -- exposing the sexism and low wages experienced by the women who worked there. Then there was Bella Abzug, an attorney and activist whose organization, Women Strike for Peace, was speaking out against the Vietnam War, eventually landing her in the House of Representatives -- and on Richard Nixon's enemy list. And in her pink sunglasses and cowboy hat, the audacious Flo Kennedy was fighting for civil rights and stepping up to the explosive issue of abortion with her characteristic wisdom and wit: "If men could get pregnant," she said, "abortion would be a sacrament."

There were fresh and startling revelations bursting from all corners. "Of my two handicaps," thundered New York's Shirley Chisholm, "being female has put more obstacles in my path than being black" -- this, as she was about to become the first African-American woman elected to the U.S Congress.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlo-thomas/feminist-movement_b_831761.html


Happy International Women's Day 2011! :woohoo:

[Stinky The Clown]

1. This from a time when so many of us had real reason for hope.

People were moving.

In the right direction, which is not to the right.

[prairierose]

2. Thank you Stinky...you are correct..we had hope that people...

were moving in the direction of enlightenment and not darkness.

[BeFree]

3. K&R

Free women. What a concept.

[NC_Nurse]

4. Too bad we seem to have gone backwards in this country ever since.

I am appalled at the shit that passes for wisdom these days. Everywhere you look there are new measures afoot to hold women back and tread on their rights. Draconian new restrictions on choice, rollback of equal pay laws, threats to children and the family (of the non-rich variety). It's shameless.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)