A few weeks ago the Los Angeles Times printed an interview with Gloria Steinem. In that interview Ms. Steinem gave her opinions on the current state of the women’s liberation movement.
It is not Ms. Steinem’s interview or opinions that I want to discuss in this posting but one reader’s response to her remarks and I quote:
“It’s time for Gloria Steinem to recognize the early stages of dementia. We’re not living in the 19th century anymore.”
“She and her fellow travelers need to think more about where to be buried than the so –called inequalities women of today are supposed to be facing.”
“Please tell her that the 60’s ended a long time ago”
The reader who responded to Ms. Steinem’s interview was unable to dispute Ms Steinem’s arguments with facts of his own. He chose instead the well worn path of indolent resistance when faced with an opinion which differs from ours…discrimination based on personal characteristic. He demeaned her personally and her argument by suggesting that her age made her incapable.
I agree with much of what Ms. Steinem said in her interview. Women have made enormous strides and there is still much work to be done to equalize pay and opportunity and to ensure that the issues of women worldwide are given equal time and consideration in policy making and personal strategy.
But Ms Steinem is a far better voice for that argument than I and my voice it seems is needed in another direction…ageism.
Having fought a long and difficult battle to bring equal rights to women in the US and across the world Ms Steinem and her “fellow travelers” will now spend the mature years of their lives being victimized by yet another form of bigotry.
In Ms Steinem’s interview she makes the point that an African American president in the White House does not erase the huge disparity in health, income and employment which still faces many African Americans .She reminds us that racial prejudice is still a reality.
Yes, Meg Whitman ran EBay but many women still work beside men, in the same job, for less pay. Gender discrimination is still a reality.
And now it seems the media supports yet another form of discrimination. Have we learned nothing?
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Jaki. I think you should have slammed the critic for the logical fallacy of "argumentum ad hominem" - attacking the person instead of his or her argument. It's an attack commonly seen in school playgrounds.
"Babe Ruth did not play in the NFL."
"Oh yeah? Well, your mother wears combat boots."
You can see it's the same sort of logic Gloria Steinem's critic employed.
Thank you Gordon, and good point.in my experience emotional negative arguments often do not contain much logic and this is an example. There are many angles from which to point out the craziness of the Gloria Steinem critic and thank you for providing another.