From, “Gloria Steinem, a Woman Like No Other,” by Sarah Hepola, 3/16/12, The New York Times:
History’s most formidable figures have always been a tough act to follow, of course. There will never be another Martin Luther King Jr., but Jesse Jackson was certainly waiting in the wings to give it a go….
Twenty years after Ms. Faludi and Ms. Wolf burst onto the scene, both have receded from the front lines. For her part, Ms. Faludi said she was not interested in leading any battles….
“Gloria Steinem did not invent feminism,” said Rebecca Traister, author of “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” “She was a figurehead chosen by the media for complicated reasons. She was young and white and pretty, and she looked great on magazine covers. I’m not deriding her. She tells this story about herself.”….
This was back when the three big networks and a handful of must-read magazines could anoint even a reluctant spokesperson, which Ms. Steinem certainly was. But that star-making monolith has splintered into a pluralism of blogs, social media and niche cable outlets….
And so the 21st century labors on with a more inchoate sense of feminist leadership….
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Formidable: inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable
Recede: go or move back or further away from a previous position
Deride: express contempt for; ridicule
Monolith: a very large and powerful organization that acts as a single unit; a massive structure
Inchoate: just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary
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