This article was originally published by Irma McClaurin on Medium as “Lighting Other People’s Torches: Reflecting on the Legacy of Gloria Steinem.”
“People keep asking me who I’m going to give my torch to. … I am not giving up my torch, thank you very much. I’m keeping my torch, and I’m using it to light other people’s torches. Because the whole idea that there is only one torch is the problem.”
Gloria Steinem, 2017
A recent request from an international magazine to comment on the death of Gloria Steinem made me pause. I sent my responses, but because the resulting article will be in Portuguese, it made sense for me to write something in English as well.
I knew Steinem mostly from the sidelines, but she struck me as a person of integrity who used her celebrity to promote feminism and women’s issues—keeping them front in the public’s mind through appearances on talk shows, speaking engagements, her memoir My Life on the Road and the biographical film derived from it, The Glorias. Produced and directed by Julia Taymor, the film features Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander and Lulu Wilson portraying Steinem at three stages of her life. (Bette Midler, Lorraine Toussaint and Janelle Monáe also make appearances.)
One moment in particular has stayed with me: Steinem’s pronouncement in a 2016 article by Zeba Blay, titled “I Learned Feminism From Black Women.”
What was surprising about this headline 10 years ago was that such an icon of the (white) feminist movement publicly acknowledged what Black women had long been saying: Feminism was never solely a white woman’s movement.
Just as striking was the silence of other white feminists; there was no applause and no cosigning. Because of our history of enslavement and rape—and the ongoing trauma, brutality and perpetual diminution Black women endured as we worked, educated ourselves and struggled to thrive—we were “feminists” eons before white women discovered the word.
I was so thrilled to see such a public announcement, that I used this quote in the first brochure published about the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive, which I founded in 2016 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Amid the deluge of newspaper stories and other media coverage about Steinem, I have also found myself returning to the video clip quoted at the beginning of this article. While sharing the stage with Harry Belafonte, the Black singer, actor and activist, Steinem states unequivocally that she is using her torch to light other people’s torches. The problem, she declares, is that we believe there can be only one.
Without question, Steinem was an inspirational and key figure in the development of the feminist movement in the United States and around the world.
However, I wonder how comfortable she would be with all the hoopla that focuses attention only on her, while ignoring the countless Black, Brown, Indigenous and other white women who struggled for equal rights before her—including the Black women from whom she said she learned her feminism. Those women continued the struggle during Steinem’s lifetime, and they will continue it after her death.
The issues of unequal pay, patriarchy, sexism, misogyny, misogynoir, sexual harassment, rape, violence against women, racialized ageism, health disparities, reproductive rights and reproductive justice do not disappear with the death of a feminist icon. These issues are ever-present and still require continued advocacy from everyone affected, as well as support from allies.
This is not only a time to mourn Gloria Steinem, who led a long, productive life aligned with her values and beliefs. It is also a time to be inspired by her clear vision and example, lift up the torches she lit for us and carry forward the unfinished work of white feminism, Black feminism, womanism, LGBTQIA+ advocacy and more—to make all women, gender minorities, transfeminine people and femme-identifying people “visible and heard.”
I did not know Gloria well, but well enough to ask my African ancestors to welcome her soul as a kindred spirit. Asè.
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Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support reproductive healthcare access. Yet public debate overlooks the lives shaped by abortion access, contraception, IVF, miscarriage care, maternal healthcare or comprehensive sex education—countless women who chose to pursue an education, have children, not have children, protect their health and chart their own future. What’s your reproductive freedom story? Add your voice. Together, these stories will help show not only why reproductive freedom remains a majority value, but also what it makes possible.
