Gloria Steinem.Photo: Richard Saker/Shutterstock
Gloria Steinemis marking the 101st anniversary ofwomen’s suffrage— and true to fashion, the feminist icon is hoping to make a difference along the way.
The activist recently joined the video-sharing platformCameo, where she will record 101 personalized videos for $101 each in honor of the Aug. 18 anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment for Women’s Suffrage.
“I thought this was a good opportunity to connect with people about something I’m doing and perhaps other people might also do,” Steinem, 87, tells PEOPLE. “Which is turning my house, when I depart, into a talking circle house.”
“Historically and prehistorically, everything has come out of talking circles,” she continues. “Human beings are communal creatures… We need each other. And so I wanted to leave my house as a talking circle house, so these small groups that have always been here over the many decades that I’ve lived here can continue.”
Marking the milestone anniversary was a no-brainer for Steinem, who believes “there was a lot of effort to suppress votes” during the2020 presidential election.
“Trump’s presence was a warning that we, as a democracy, have work to do,” she explains. “I think the election underlined that for many people in a political and social way… if we don’t vote — whoever we are, whatever our description — we don’t exist.”
Steinem’s videos will be completed on a first-come, first-serve basis, with the activist answering questions, offering advice, sharing words of support and celebrating life milestones.
Gloria Steinem.
Her hope is that the short clips will encourage “activism to become less removed” and simply “what we do when we get up in the morning.”
“If it’s connecting people who need childcare or it’s campaigning for a candidate or raising money forthe women in Afghanistan, whatever it is, is not removed and arcane,” she says. “It’s simple, communal and part of our everyday lives.”
Of thecrisis in Afghanistan, Steinem adds: “Obviously it’s a great tragedy that the anti-democratic forces are coming back and endangering millions of people, and… endangering women.”
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She also hopes her videos will inspire the women’s rights movement to tackle “whatever hurts” next.
“There’s no big orders from above. Of course, there are timetables, legislation that’s coming up for a vote,” she says. “But in fact, it’s whatever it is in our lives that’s unfair.”
“So it would help us, I think, not to romanticize our beginnings, not to deny them,” she adds. “But to celebrate how far we have come from them and how important it is to continue.”
Sam Gillette
source: people.com
