Day 140

HONORARY BLONDE: GLORIA STEINEM

Gloria Steinem is pretty much responsible for who I am as a woman. I hate to say this because that puts a lot on her. I never really fancied myself a feminist until I went blonde, but lately, it’s been on my mind a lot. It’s shocking to me that some people, including women, are anti-feminist. I guess I should begin by defining feminism – “Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.” [Wikipedia] Does any of that sound like something you would like to disagree with? Sometimes I think the idea of feminism gets warped into other things and uneducated people start spouting their mouth off in disagreement before actually knowing what they are disagreeing with.

The reason I have elected that Gloria Steinem become an honorary blonde is because that woman helped the feminist movement and had to put up with a lot of bullshit along the way. She’s not just a feminist, but she’s a social activist and seems like a wonderful, open-minded lady.

When you take a look at our patriarchal society out of context, it’s pretty astonishing. In what world would it be acceptable for a faction of people to only have two choices in life – a career or a marriage? You’re either the saint or the sinner, the Madonna or the whore. Why can’t we just all be equals as people?

I was thinking about things like how “history” is the white male perspective and there’s “women’s studies” and “black studies” but why isn’t there “white male history”? Why does that have to be the norm? Without Gloria Steinem in my life, I wouldn’t think about this stuff in an analytical way.

So, today, I bestow the title of Honorary Blonde upon Ms. Magazine co-founder and feminist icon Gloria Steinem for being a harbinger of truth and equality and a bad-ass bitch.

Today gets 5 Barbie Warhols: