Gloria Steinem Has Never Seemed More Irrelevant: 6.09

I can't talk about the writer's strike--it just makes me too sad. I just wish both sides would start acting like grown-ups and get this thing over with. Instead, there's this...

I know you could probably care less about an op-ed piece in The New York Times, but I just read one and it made me confused and sad. This one was by Gloria Steinem, one of the leading lights of the women's rights movement since the 1960s.

She tries to make the point that if Barack Obama was a woman named Achola Obama, no one would consider her for President because she's a black chick. It's not really clear why no one would elect an African-American woman when most voters seem quite comfortable with both parts of that gender/race equation...other than Steinem says so.

Because sorry, Gloria, I've got two words for you: Oprah Winfrey.

At left, Steinem, back when she really mattered.

Oprah could have a Senate seat, governorship, or probably even the Presidency if she wanted it. Yes, Gloria, both African-Americans and Womyn-Americans have it tougher than us white males. But they both have it easier than say, a Mexican-American lesbian dwarf.

The point for Democrats is who can do the best job of helping Mexican-American lesbian dwarves, not whether black skin or a vajayjay is the bigger barrier to the Presidency.

Which, really, is my entire problem with Clinton supporters--and to a lesser extent, Baby Boomers. They want to keep arguing about things that should've been settled long ago by either agreeing to disagree .

But the part that really makes me mad is that Gloria claims she'd support Obama as the nominee, then writes:

"What worries me is that some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system; thus Iowa women over 50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once again that women are the one group that grows more radical with age."

It's this sort of sophistry that makes young people remember why they wish everyone would just shut the f--k up about the 60s.

At right, Gloria today.


Because seriously, Gloria, a vote for a former first lady, current Senator and long-time Washington insider can hardly be called radical. It's about as Establishment as Establishment gets.

What's radical is that this hetero white male considers a radical feminist icon be part of a backwards, conservative, and out-of-touch Establishment.

And it's all thanks to Barack Obama.