Gloria Steinem may have once admired Harvey Weinstein for his professional support of women, but she has now admitted that she is not at all surprised by the dozen allegations of sexual harassment and assault being made against him.
The 83-year-old feminist icon weighed in on the movie mogul’s downfall in an interview with Elle.com that took place on Tuesday and was published two days later amid the mounting public accusations against Weinstein.
‘He’s existed, and these people have existed forever,’ Steinem said. However, she has hope that the news coverage and ongoing discussions will be what makes these accounts different than the ones she and other women have endured in the past.
Weighing in: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem admitted she wasn’t surprised to hear of the allegations of sexual harassment and assault against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein
‘When I was growing up, this would have been considered normal human behavior,’ she explained. ‘There was no law against it, there were no words for it; it was just the way the world was.’
Steinem recalled how she used to have to file all of her stories in person at the start of her writing career in the late 1960s, and one time an editor at a New York-based magazine told her she could either ‘mail his letters on the way out’ or she could spend the afternoon in a hotel room with him.
Her words: ‘He’s existed, and these people have existed forever,’ she said of Weinstein
She made sure to warn other women of his advances and many did the same for her, telling her which editors didn’t demand sexual favors or belittle women.
Steinem admitted that she admired Weinstein’s films and his support of powerful women, and before the allegations against him were made public, he had helped endow Rutgers University’s new Gloria Steinem Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies.
‘He is two things: he is both probably the best in Hollywood for supporting talented, powerful women and doing great movies…and turned on by powerlessness, because male-dominant culture has told him he has to dominate,’ Steinem said of Weinstein.
‘He can deal with smart women whom he sees as his equals; presumably, that’s not sexualized to him. It’s dominance that’s been sexualized.’
She also didn’t mince words when she called the late Hugh Hefner a ‘jerk’ and the ‘least secure person’ because he was also made to feel like he needed to be dominate all of the time.
Speaking out: Kate Beckinsale (left) and Gwyneth Paltrow (right) are among the actresses to accuse Weinstein of unwanted advances
Looking back: Gloria explained that when she was growing up the accusations against Weinstein would have been considered ‘normal human behavior’
Horrific behavior: Gloria recalled having an editor asking her to share a hotel room with him when she starting her writing career in the ’60s. She is pictured in 1964
Steinem pointed out that ‘we have a president who is a sexual harasser’ and was recorded on tape admitting to be one, which means ‘a third of the country still thinks this is either inevitable or okay.’
The author also slammed the presidents eldest daughter Ivanka for promoting a paid family leave proposal when employees at her fashion brand reportedly had to advocate for their own maternity leave policy.
‘She’s hopeless. She didn’t give maternity leave to her own employees at her own company!’ Steinem said.
Although she was allegedly reluctant to do so, the company started granting employees two months of paid family leave in 2014.
Hitting back: Steinem pointed out that ‘we have a president who is a sexual harasser’ and was recorded on tape admitting to be one. She also slammed his daughter Ivanka
Not holding back: Steinem called Ivanka ‘hopeless’ for not giving maternity leave to her own employees
Her side: Although Ivanka was allegedly reluctant to do so, her fashion company started granting employees two months of paid family leave in 2014
Of course, this isn’t the first time Steinem has hit back at the first daughter for her claims to be a feminist.
During a conference for Create & Cultivate NYC in May, Refinery29 asked her what she thought about criticism that Ivanka was trying to ‘co-opt feminism’, but Steinem flatly disagreed with that assessment — and Ivanka’s insistence that she is a feminist, period.
‘She hasn’t co-opted feminism. Nobody on earth thinks she’s a feminist, are you kidding me?’ said the activist.
A feminist, she said, is someone ‘who believes in the full equality of the sexes’.
Steinem explained that despite Ivanka’s claim that she is feminist, her actions and public statements don’t actually line up with feminist dogma.
‘I have not seen her standing up and saying women should have a right to control their own bodies and decide when and whether to have children,’ she said.