For the men who criticized some feminists’ esteem for the late Gloria Steinem.

By now I’ve read you all. 

The first thing you do is taunt us for ever even reading about or mourning the death of American feminist Gloria Steinem, at age 92.  Accurately, you refer to the fact that in 1959 she was co-founder of Independent Research Services, a bureau directly funded by the CIA. How could we respect someone who not only worked for, but also lauded the spooks in the CIA?. 

OK.

And you criticized Ms Magazine, a “bougie” rag that pushed women to get out of the house and land a job on the ladder to potentially a high class career. 

OK.

But I have something to ask you. 

If someone like Steinem did something wrong, then did some things right –is she really an unforgivable monster?

Let’s look at this example from Canadian history, regarding Tommy Douglas, once voted “the greatest Canadian”. 

Who was Dorise Nielsen?

In 1940, Dorise Nielsen won a seat in Canada’s parliament, becoming the first woman Communist MP — and only the third woman to be elected.  She had to run as a “Unity Party” candidate because the Communist Party had been outlawed. The member for North Battleford in Saskatchewan was an outspoken force for good, a party fundraiser, and a great organizer.

In Ottawa, during her five years as an MP, she struggled being a single mother to three children. For starters, no one would rent to an unattached mother – despite her being a Member of Parliament. 

By 1943, Prime Minister Mackenzie King had directed the  RCMP to covertly investigate Nielsen.  King didn’t want a communist in the Commons.  He joined forces with former MP and the newly-elected Saskatchewan Premier, Tommy Douglas.  Douglas too didn’t want a communist to represent any  riding in his now CCF province. The two leaders did what they could to undermine and weaken her status and her position.   In the 1945 general election, Nielsen lost her seat to CCF candidate Frederick W Townley-Smith, a 58 year old farmer who had no special history with the party or politics.  He served only one term. That’s it; one can’t find much about him on the internet prior to 1945 – nor after 1950. This was the person Douglas (with King’s blessing) ran against Nielsen. 

Somehow, I cannot forgive Tommy Douglas for what he did to Dorise Nielsen…

When I found out about Douglas’ deliberate scheming to oust Nielsen, I was furious with Douglas.  We all know Douglas did some good things as premier; he paved the way for electricity in rural Sask; he brought electricity to more than 40,000 farms.  He was the father of medicare whose successor Woodrow Lloyd stared down the province’s doctors who struck in 1962 because they didn’t want medicare. But somehow I cannot not forgive Douglas for what he did to Nielsen. 

Steinem was director of a research group funded by the CIA.  This was in the late 50s and early 60s.  She never disavowed her relationship to The Company.  In fact, she said in a 2015 interview that if she had the chance, she’d do it all again.  

In a 1967 interview she admitted, 

“I found them [the CIA] liberal and farsighted and open to an exchange of ideas. The CIA was the only one with enough guts and foresight to see that youth and student affairs were important.”   

How prescient, in view of the fact that in 1967, the CIA was waging a huge  war against the anti-war students that the SDS had organized 30,000 students on more than 300 college campuses across the US.  

Just so you know, Steinem never took a word back about her fondness for the CIA.  

Truth be told, due to Steinem’s empathy for the CIA and her connections, I couldn’t trust her as far as I could have thrown her.  

She even defended some rich and the powerful men (including Bill Clinton) for their sexual antics  She gave men way more credit than they were due.  As American educator, filmmaker, and author Jackson Katz noted recently on Twitter, 

“Gloria Steinem was also one of the first prominent feminists to express empathy for men—like me—who struggled with the question of what it means to be a strong man who supports gender justice and wants men to lead more connected and authentic lives.”

Doesn’t cut much ice for me. As Kelly Hayes notes on her Substack,  

“The whitewashing of powerful people matters. History matters. The people harmed by someone’s actions should not be erased simply because that person has died. Death does not cleanse anyone’s record, and grief does not give mourners ownership of the truth.” 

Truth be told, due to Steinem’s soft-spot (empathy) for the  CIA and her connections, I couldn’t trust her as far as I could have thrown her.  

But just as in the case of Tommy Douglas, am I supposed to despise her and deny she did anything for the feminist cause.  With Douglas it isn’t true he did nothing right and it’s not true about Steinem. 

Ms Magazine was a big deal. Feminists around the world and certainly here in Canada read it and took heart. Though Steinem was one of the first wave of bourgeois white feminists, she had values and value to the women’s movement.  Fellow activists, even politicians, thought she was a good listener, kind, “cool, calm and witty.”   

She helped change attitudes of many women in the US; she fought for abortion rights, to get women elected; she brought domestic abuse to light and fought for equal rights. 

Did she hold public office?

Did she understand intersectionality?

Did she lead a revolt among the Washington press corps?

Was she a socialist?

The answer is no to all the above. 

My question is this …

My question is this:  Why is it mainly leftie men who disparage Steinem’s feminism and activism, knock down her admirers and want to prove she was a mere CIA dupe? Do the men know more about feminism and feminist icons than women? Are the men more radical and more committed to the fight for social justice than women?   Here’s a response from  Cornell University philosophy professor Kate Manne,

“…what irks me is the sense that reductive dismissal is the safer and more politically savvy option when it comes to women, as well as other marginalized people, following their passing. It’s quite something when some people in your own circles smile indulgently about the legacy of Hugh Hefner, and spew invective about Gloria Steinem. It’s quite something, and—I submit—it’s no kind of feminism.” 

For more on Dorise Nielsen, MP read A Great Restlessness: the Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen by Faith Johnston (2006) University of Manitoba Press.

Image at the top and below: Wonder Woman graces the cover of Ms. in July 1972. From an article in Ms. here.