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Fall 2009

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PHOTO BY M.J. ALEXANDER, TAKEN AT HEDGEBROOK WWW.HEDGEBROOK.ORG Birthday Wishes When we asked Gloria Steinem if we could honor her 75th birthday on the cover of Ms., we weren’t surprised that she wanted to celebrate the feminist movement rather than herself. So here are her wishes for the changes she wants to see in the world before she turns 100. As a bonus, we asked renowned writer Alice Walker, Gloria’s dear friend and a longtime Ms. contributing editor, to appear with her on the cover and share a poem she wrote for Gloria (see page 45). Finally, many readers contributed to Ms. in honor of Gloria’s 75th in order to help ensure that one of her legacy achieve- ments—this magazine—continues to thrive long into the future; their names appear on page 44. BY GLORIA STEINEM I did when I was, say, 45. I just care more deeply about the people and work and possibilities and “Aha!” moments I’ve always loved. Perhaps this is the best-kept secret of aging: We just become more of who we already are. Some birthday wishes stay the same: I want to write more, stay home more and dance more. And some that once were quixotic now seem practical: For instance, I want to live with elephants. Ever since I first met these wise, humorous, ma- trilineal creatures when I was living in India, I’ve wondered if they weren’t my totem; that is, the animal I need to learn from. Each of us has a particular teacher, and that’s some- thing we would know if we weren’t so isolated from nature that children now suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder. As I write this, for instance, I’m on a plane to Zambia where I’ll be visiting rural women on the Lower Zambezi, something I did for the first time last year. Because I helped find support for an electrified fence to keep a small field of maize safe from roaming elephants—a modern version of the traditional drummer who once warned humans of ele- phants and vice versa—they showed me the banks of the Zambezi where elephants come to drink and splash and swim. Seeing them where they live free is enough to make anyone unchain every elephant in the world.* This kind of trading of abilities is a gift of the global I women’s movement, and makes our differences into sources of learning from each other. Difference itself becomes a gift. In the same way, my birthday wishes are not yours, but maybe they will encourage you to think of more of your own. Since I have every intention of living to be 100, I’ve made a list that will take at least 25 years to come true. 42 | FALL 2009 CAN’T TELL YOU THAT SOME MYSTERIOUS WIS- dom descends with age. I’m more surprised than any- body that I’m 75, and I feel pretty much the same as So in no particular order: I want to walk past a newsstand or movie marquee—or go online—and find lots of erotica and no pornography. I want any two adults to be able to marry—as long as they don’t hit each other. I want Oprah, by now a very old lady, to be interviewing men about how they combine career and family. I want to go for a walk in Central Park and see as many white men wheeling the prams of babies of color as I do women of color wheeling white babies—and all are very well-paid and actually like babies. I want to see women and men of all ages and colors on news shows, reporting what went right as well as what went wrong. I want every news outfit to have not only a war corre- spondent but also a peace correspondent who reports on conflict resolution without war. I want to see a history about back in the day when peo- ple thought they had to surgically change their bodies to fit society—breast implants! nose jobs! liposuction!—in- stead of changing society to fit our different bodies. I want to walk past buildings that used to house Wal- Mart, Bloomingdale’s, Banana Republic and all the other chains—as well as masses of concrete once known as shop- ping malls—and find them turned into really nice schools, community centers, rollerblade rinks, tennis courts, pock- et parks, whatever the community needs. This has become possible because now, people only buy what they really need or love. I want schools and child-care centers to have the mili- tary budget, and the military to have the school and child- care budget—providing the military is engaged in truly necessary defense here or peacekeeping elsewhere. www.feminist.org

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