Gloria Steinem apologizes for being ‘misinterpreted’

Above, Steinem on February 1, 2016, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Gloria Steinem appears to have offended a large group of Bernie Sanders supporters by suggesting that his young female supporters are only backing the senator because of “boys”.

“When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys?'” Steinem said.

“Ooh, now if I said that…you’d swat me”, Maher responded.

“They’re going to get more activist as they get older”, Steinem said, implying that a vote for Sanders is not an activist vote. Younger women in particular, she said, have “a desire for a transformative figure, and [Clinton] doesn’t embody that”.

“People who have gone online to defend Hillary, to explain why they supported her, have been subject to vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often, not to mention sexist, to repeat”, the former president said.

“Bernie is running a campaign that is inspiring women to stand up and take an active part, many of whom this is their first experience in the world of politics”.

Then, on Saturday morning, during a Clinton rally in Concord, NH, Albright pulled out her famous, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women” line (that Taylor Swift is also fond of) when talking about women who are supporting Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton. The boys are with Bernie, ‘ ” she said.

Framing a pro-Hillary argument as an ultimatum (i.e. “you’re not a feminist if you don’t vote for Hillary”) could very well do the opposite of what Albright and Steinem are trying to accomplish-electing the first female president.

In addition, these young women grew up in a much more female-friendly society paved by their Second Wave counterparts. Even more importantly, gender issues are in conversation with all the other issues a presidential candidate must address. The icons of the past are being replaced by icons of the future, and the political revolution is being led by a septuagenarian man.

For better and for worse, battles over today’s feminism are fought on the Internet, where an echo chamber of gaffes and takedowns and call-outs can drown out nuanced discourse, and a heedless remark can survive for eternity. “I know she’s smart, and I know she works hard, and I know she’s dedicated, but she’s had to give up little bits of honesty all along the way”. “Impossible standard men never held to”, Sophie Wilkinson tweeted on Sunday of the backlash against Steinem. Oh no, I didn’t misinterpret anything, Steinem.

The last two days of reaction after the show found pretty similar views to Maher’s, as Steinem took a lot of heat for her insinuation over the weekend. Young feminists already have.