| « Eye on #OCHI: Aldermanic Puppets and Protests | City Employee Expenses Are Now Public and Searchable » |
Social Issues Fri Feb 10 2012
Gloria Steinem Visits Columbia College
By Joycelene Fernandez
On Tuesday, Columbia College welcomed Gloria Steinem as the second guest in their "Conversations in the Arts" program. Steinem, a seasoned journalist, speaker, and feminist activist, started off the night with a light joke that the auditorium was in fact the "smallest biggest place on a campus" that she had ever lectured within. But regardless of how big or small the space, Steinem found herself facing a completely full house — just another aspect that sets Steinem apart from the average septuagenarian.
Not that Steinem is your "average" anything. A co-founder of Ms. magazine, a bestselling author and founder of several women's rights organizations, Steinem's long career has not only been prolific, but pivotal in the fight for human rights. For over half a century, she has contributed years of work in helping change the world, and all for the better.
But when talking to Steinem, this legacy of life-changing activism would not necessarily be immediately apparent. Steinem herself was more modest than even her streamlined biography found in the event's program. While it could have easily been an evening spent discussing Steinem's career highlights or groundbreaking journalistic endeavors, Steinem instead turned to what she does best: reporting on current human rights injustices, fleshing them out, and connecting the dots and the seeming spaces between them.
Naturally, the recent news of Planned Parenthood's defunding (and its reversal) and the overturning of California's Proposition 8 were hot topics, but Steinem brought plenty of additional news and information to the discussion. From the issue of rising student debt, a suggestion of googling "sex trafficking Chicago" and the underlying privilege found in language ("The dominant group gets the noun, and everyone else requires an adjective"), Steinem's objective was readily clear: "It helps us to see the world whole, instead of partially."
After a brief Q&A session, moderator Kathy Brock of ABC 7 News drew the lecture to a close. Her final question was deceptively simple: what did Steinem want her audience to take away that evening?
Steinem offered some advice. "Look around you, and see if you see two, three, four people you don't know. Introduce yourselves; say who you are, what you're doing," she suggested. "It's about us, you know? It's about change that's built from the bottom up, like a house."
