Gloria Steinem

I went to see feminist icon Gloria Steinem speak tonight. She spoke about some very interesting things, and I don't mean to detract from the important messages that she focused on. Nevertheless, I'd like to dedicate this post to the topics I usually talk about: Judaism and animal rights.

Steinem is Jewish on her father's side, and she has said that "the Jewish tradition encourages your mind to work, includes social justice, is more circular and less hierarchical." My sources tell me that she's a vegetarian, and she has noted that animal rights and feminism go "much more hand in hand than people think." Steinem devoted a chapter to animal issues in her bestselling book Revolution From Within, and she was married to animal advocate David Bale. Here are some pearls of wisdom from Gloria Steinem:

* "There is still slavery in the world. There is still a valuing of human beings according to their race or class or gender or culture or sexuality. Part of the reason for this cutting off of empathy is the anaesthetizing of our senses to the suffering of animals. Once we grow callous, we cannot feel fully for anyone—not even for ourselves." (source)
* “I am adding my voice to others calling for an end to these and other cruel and useless experiments—on behalf of the animals who are being pointlessly made to suffer and die, on behalf of women whose health concerns are starved for funds, and on behalf of taxpayers who are being defrauded.” (source)
* “The reason why the animal rights movement is so disproportionately women is … first of all … we don’t have our masculinity to prove, so nobody is as likely to tell us that we’re supposed to master—or dominate—animals. And also I think we identify with them—there’s that kind of voicelessness and powerlessness and vulnerability that perhaps, though many men identify with it, too, perhaps especially women do.” (source)