Gloria Steinem on Beyonce: “You Had Me at Hello”

Good news: Gloria Steinem loves Beyonce as much as you do.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan published online this week, the cofounding Ms. editor opens up about sex, relationships, Hillary Clinton’s chances at the presidency and more—and offers up this great little tidbit about fierce feminist—and Ms. cover woman!—Beyonce:

I was there when Beyoncé did Chime for Change—you know, it’s the biggest concert I’ve ever seen in my life, for the Violence Against Women Project—she came out and said to this audience of thousands of mostly women, “I know life is hard, but we’re together for the next hour or so, and you’re safe.” And I thought, OK, you had me at hello. We need to build bridges to those folks [celebrity feminists], not sit and nitpick what they have on. A feminist is just someone who believes men and women are equal beings.

Steinem has been making the media rounds recently as she prepares to release her new memoir, My Life on the Road, due out Oct. 27. She spoke to Lenny cofounder Lena Dunham last week and had this advice for women who feel they’re letting go of their power if they cry at work:

A woman who was an executive told me once that she got angry in work situations where she needed to get angry, cried, and just kept talking through it. She had mostly men working for her, so it wasn’t so easy to be understood. And she would just say to them, “I am crying because I’m angry. You may think I’m sad. I am not sad. This is the way I get angry.” And I’ve always wanted to do that. It’s still my goal.

If you want more life advice, feminist reflections on pop culture and general Gloria goodness, stop by “On the Road: Gloria Steinem in Conversation with Melissa McCarthy,” an event we’re cosponsoring in Los Angeles on Nov. 12.

Photos via Shutterstock

About

Stephanie hails from Toronto, Canada. She is a Ms. writer, a master of journalism candidate and a hip hop dancer/instructor/choreographer. She got her start in feminist journalism at the age of 16 when she was a member of the first editorial collective at Shameless magazine—and she has never looked back.