I was an adult while the Katherine Gibbs school on Newbury St in Boston was still going strong. A friend attended in the early 1970s and wore the mandatory white gloves every day, but she did get a damn good job on graduation! https://whatshernamepodcast.com/katharine-gibbs
Subscribed to Ms when I couldn’t really afford it. It was that important to me. Also Mother Jones. Nobody confiscated them or arrested me. When we moved to Erlanger in 1980 and opened new joint checking account, the woman was surprised that we wanted two ATM cards.
It was such a pleasant surprise (to me) to learn in Rebecca Traister's piece that Gloria Steinem was a writer on several 1964 episodes of the American version of That Was The Week That Was!
Some other writers on that show were Buck Henry, Calvin Trillin, and Thomas Meehan, who wrote the books for the musicals Annie, The Producers, Hairspray, and Young Frankenstein.
All you old codgers who read MAD magazine every month during the late-60’s through the 70’s may recall, if you take off your rose-colored bifocals long enough, that MAD HAAAAATED “Women’s Lib.” Libbers were all mouthy strident UGLY often mannish ogres who treated men like dirt (Dave Berg was especially fond of this trope). As a boy whose home was pretty evenly divided between MAD, Sports Review Wrestling Illustrated featuring “Apartment House Wrestling” (young models in bikinis fake wrestling in some photographer’s apartment), and MS., my view of women became what you’d call “complicated, in a word.
MAD: the magazine for sorta liberal white middle-class guys FOR sorta liberal white middle-class guys.
Brooke, it's good to see you back at teh Wonket, and I learned a lot from this piece. Younger people really have no concept of how little agency women had as little as 50 years ago. I'd like to share just one more subtle example.
Before I retired from the newspaper bidniss a couple years ago, I had the privilege of working alongside a woman who'd worked as a reporter and then copyeditor at the paper since the 70s. She recounted how back then, married women had no first names in the paper. It was policy. Sue Jones was ALWAYS named for her husband, as in Mrs. Sam Jones.
This was common, and helps explain why "MS." Magazine became such a force. Its very title was a rebellion against systemic patriarchy, and I remember well how people used to sneer at even the title of that magazine, and indeed anyone who would choose to use "Ms." as a courtesy title.
Ummm… Heloise Cruz the elder begs to differ. (Who says a guy can’t love reading 1001uses for Nylon Net and the Letters of Laughter and the Letters of Love?)
I was a copy editor on the magazine of a women's auxiliary of a male-dominated professional society in the 1970s. It was thought kind of daring that instead of "Mrs. Sam Jones" the house style was "Mrs. Sam Jones (Elizabeth)".
Many of us here in the Wonkettariat are Boomers, but for those who are younger and did not live in those olden times of the 1960s and 70s, American women were still in many ways considered the property of men. They could not themselves legally be bought and sold, but they were allowed to own very little property in their own right. They did not have unfettered rights to and control over their own bodies. In many jurisdictions they could not serve on juries, or be judges, cops, or firefighters. They had to fight in the face of widespread social opposition to be anything other than teachers, nurses, secretaries, or housewives. Many did not have their own identity. My mom, who was born in the 1930s and married early in the 1950s, signed documents, other than personal cards and letters, as “Mrs. Robert E. Callis.” That was her legal identity.
In many ways, it was the American military that was at the forefront of changing roles in the workplace, reflecting the changes that were quickly taking place in society. Equitable, respectful relations between the sexes and among the genders, and strict adherence to what could be considered enlightened or even “woke” policies and procedures, were good for morale and effectiveness.
It's a business decision. If your business is war, you have to figure out how to make best use of your resources. There's no room for political bullshit. If your resources change, you adapt.
Ta, Brooke. It's up to all of us to keep the torch lit. Ms. Steinem's memory will always be a blessing. I'm just sorry she didn't live to see the ERA ratified, and hope that doesn't take another fucking 50 fucking years. And of course, while we're promoting equality, we have to include our trans sisters and brothers, and continue to tell the TERFs to fuck off into the sun. Trans rights are human rights, and nothing else, nothing less, will ever do.
Between Dolly, Tim Curry, and Gloria, I would really appreciate it if one of them would take a moment to reach out from beyond and push that man down the steps of Air Force One. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Ever servicey, we've updated the piece to note that Irina Dunn coined the phrase "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" in 1970, as Steinem herself long acknowledged (and sometimes even corrected people). Wonkette regrets the error
The Women's Movement, Civil Rights and Opposition to the Vietnam War Were the formative events in young Gary's development of Empathy...I am blessed by this.. thank you, Ms. Steinem- freeing women also frees men.
I love Ted Lasso (well, most of it), but it will forever bug me that they have a shrink character produce an aphorism as though she came up with it: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." That's Gloria Steinem's line, so educate your audience, dickhead writers!
In 1966, when I was 10, I looked around at all the married women I knew, including my own mother, and all I saw was women doing all the housework, all the childcare, all the shopping, all the laundry, all the school activities, all the after-school activities, all the budgeting, while also holding down full-time jobs. The men were working as well, but they were playing golf or going fishing on weekends. The wives were all sacrificing their personal lives, their friendships, their free time, and their educational opportunities.
What I saw was that the wives were all making huge sacrifices while simultaneously having less rights in the legal and commercial worlds than men did, and the men weren't making any sacrifices at all.
So I decided that marriage was slavery. My study of history reinforced that belief.
And then I read Ms Magazine and realized that I wasn't the only girl or woman who understood this. I wasn't alone.
If any of you are feminists or lean in that direction, you should read Antonia Fraser's book "The Weaker Vessel" about things that happened to women in 17th century Britain before, during and after their civil war. Women were always a man's property until very recently, and wealthy women were basically sold at auction to the highest bidder. Women were not legally slaves, but were effectively slaves.
I would not be anyone's slave, so I decided to never get married, and I have never regretted that decision, but I was lucky to be born a Boomer and to have opportunities that earlier generations did not have, primarily due to the work of women like Gloria Steinem.
I was an adult while the Katherine Gibbs school on Newbury St in Boston was still going strong. A friend attended in the early 1970s and wore the mandatory white gloves every day, but she did get a damn good job on graduation! https://whatshernamepodcast.com/katharine-gibbs
Subscribed to Ms when I couldn’t really afford it. It was that important to me. Also Mother Jones. Nobody confiscated them or arrested me. When we moved to Erlanger in 1980 and opened new joint checking account, the woman was surprised that we wanted two ATM cards.
It was such a pleasant surprise (to me) to learn in Rebecca Traister's piece that Gloria Steinem was a writer on several 1964 episodes of the American version of That Was The Week That Was!
Some other writers on that show were Buck Henry, Calvin Trillin, and Thomas Meehan, who wrote the books for the musicals Annie, The Producers, Hairspray, and Young Frankenstein.
😢
All you old codgers who read MAD magazine every month during the late-60’s through the 70’s may recall, if you take off your rose-colored bifocals long enough, that MAD HAAAAATED “Women’s Lib.” Libbers were all mouthy strident UGLY often mannish ogres who treated men like dirt (Dave Berg was especially fond of this trope). As a boy whose home was pretty evenly divided between MAD, Sports Review Wrestling Illustrated featuring “Apartment House Wrestling” (young models in bikinis fake wrestling in some photographer’s apartment), and MS., my view of women became what you’d call “complicated, in a word.
MAD: the magazine for sorta liberal white middle-class guys FOR sorta liberal white middle-class guys.
Brooke, it's good to see you back at teh Wonket, and I learned a lot from this piece. Younger people really have no concept of how little agency women had as little as 50 years ago. I'd like to share just one more subtle example.
Before I retired from the newspaper bidniss a couple years ago, I had the privilege of working alongside a woman who'd worked as a reporter and then copyeditor at the paper since the 70s. She recounted how back then, married women had no first names in the paper. It was policy. Sue Jones was ALWAYS named for her husband, as in Mrs. Sam Jones.
This was common, and helps explain why "MS." Magazine became such a force. Its very title was a rebellion against systemic patriarchy, and I remember well how people used to sneer at even the title of that magazine, and indeed anyone who would choose to use "Ms." as a courtesy title.
Ummm… Heloise Cruz the elder begs to differ. (Who says a guy can’t love reading 1001uses for Nylon Net and the Letters of Laughter and the Letters of Love?)
I was a copy editor on the magazine of a women's auxiliary of a male-dominated professional society in the 1970s. It was thought kind of daring that instead of "Mrs. Sam Jones" the house style was "Mrs. Sam Jones (Elizabeth)".
Revolution from Within came out in my first year of college. I inhaled that book, and it changed my life. RIP Gloria.
Many of us here in the Wonkettariat are Boomers, but for those who are younger and did not live in those olden times of the 1960s and 70s, American women were still in many ways considered the property of men. They could not themselves legally be bought and sold, but they were allowed to own very little property in their own right. They did not have unfettered rights to and control over their own bodies. In many jurisdictions they could not serve on juries, or be judges, cops, or firefighters. They had to fight in the face of widespread social opposition to be anything other than teachers, nurses, secretaries, or housewives. Many did not have their own identity. My mom, who was born in the 1930s and married early in the 1950s, signed documents, other than personal cards and letters, as “Mrs. Robert E. Callis.” That was her legal identity.
In many ways, it was the American military that was at the forefront of changing roles in the workplace, reflecting the changes that were quickly taking place in society. Equitable, respectful relations between the sexes and among the genders, and strict adherence to what could be considered enlightened or even “woke” policies and procedures, were good for morale and effectiveness.
When 25% of your enlistees are women, it forces changes on you.
It's a business decision. If your business is war, you have to figure out how to make best use of your resources. There's no room for political bullshit. If your resources change, you adapt.
She was an amazing person. May her memory be a blessing.
Ta, Brooke. It's up to all of us to keep the torch lit. Ms. Steinem's memory will always be a blessing. I'm just sorry she didn't live to see the ERA ratified, and hope that doesn't take another fucking 50 fucking years. And of course, while we're promoting equality, we have to include our trans sisters and brothers, and continue to tell the TERFs to fuck off into the sun. Trans rights are human rights, and nothing else, nothing less, will ever do.
Between Dolly, Tim Curry, and Gloria, I would really appreciate it if one of them would take a moment to reach out from beyond and push that man down the steps of Air Force One. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
About 1973 or so...a friend of our family wound up in a NYC apartment in the building across the street from Bella Abzug.
Even from across the street, he said he could hear her mouth day and night...it never stopped. :)
Ever servicey, we've updated the piece to note that Irina Dunn coined the phrase "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" in 1970, as Steinem herself long acknowledged (and sometimes even corrected people). Wonkette regrets the error
The Women's Movement, Civil Rights and Opposition to the Vietnam War Were the formative events in young Gary's development of Empathy...I am blessed by this.. thank you, Ms. Steinem- freeing women also frees men.
I love Ted Lasso (well, most of it), but it will forever bug me that they have a shrink character produce an aphorism as though she came up with it: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." That's Gloria Steinem's line, so educate your audience, dickhead writers!
In 1966, when I was 10, I looked around at all the married women I knew, including my own mother, and all I saw was women doing all the housework, all the childcare, all the shopping, all the laundry, all the school activities, all the after-school activities, all the budgeting, while also holding down full-time jobs. The men were working as well, but they were playing golf or going fishing on weekends. The wives were all sacrificing their personal lives, their friendships, their free time, and their educational opportunities.
What I saw was that the wives were all making huge sacrifices while simultaneously having less rights in the legal and commercial worlds than men did, and the men weren't making any sacrifices at all.
So I decided that marriage was slavery. My study of history reinforced that belief.
And then I read Ms Magazine and realized that I wasn't the only girl or woman who understood this. I wasn't alone.
If any of you are feminists or lean in that direction, you should read Antonia Fraser's book "The Weaker Vessel" about things that happened to women in 17th century Britain before, during and after their civil war. Women were always a man's property until very recently, and wealthy women were basically sold at auction to the highest bidder. Women were not legally slaves, but were effectively slaves.
I would not be anyone's slave, so I decided to never get married, and I have never regretted that decision, but I was lucky to be born a Boomer and to have opportunities that earlier generations did not have, primarily due to the work of women like Gloria Steinem.
Thank you, Gloria.