A BLACK WEEK

Heroines are dropping like flies.  It has indeed been a black week.

Wendy Wasserstein died on Monday January 30 of lymphoma at the age of 55.  Her plays, including The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig and Uncommon Women and Others "chronicled the feminist struggles and successes of the baby-boomer generation."  As a loyal Mount Holyoke College alumna, I should note that Wasserstein graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1971.  The ironic title of her play, Uncommon Women and Others, is taken from a speech by a past Mount Holyoke president who claimed that it was a college of "uncommon women."

Coretta Scott King died on Tuesday January 31 at the age of 78.  She worked side-by-side with Martin Luther King, Jr. during the most contentious and difficult period of the Civil Rights Movement.  She carried on his legacy after he died, becoming a civil rights leader in her own right.   In recent years, King also declared gay marriage to be an important civil rights issue, a position I understand to be controversial among black civil rights leaders. 

Betty Friedan died yesterday, Friday February 4, at the age of 85.  She was one of the founding mothers of the modern feminist movement and author of The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963.  "A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.  It's amazing how this simple statement still remains controversial!  She also said, "For a great many women, choosing motherhood makes motherhood itself a liberating choice." (emphasis added).

Comments

[Jessica]

At such a low time for all of us, I think this can serve to renew and inspire us again to work for women's rights and choice. They were amazing women who did so much for us, while never asking for anything in return.

I feel lucky to have been inspired.

Jes

[chipmunk]

These things always happen in threes. The passing of Al Lewis should also be noted. His politics was not as notable as the three you mentioned. However, he made an impressionable run as a third party candidate a few years back in the NY gubenatorial race. His platform focused on NYs draconian drug laws and the death penalty.

[The Happy Feminist]

I'd never heard of him, but anyone against draconian drug laws and the death penalty is my kinda guy.

[girltuesday]

amen, sister. appropriate recognition of three great people.

[chipmunk]

You probably know Mr. Lewis from one of his other persona's. In the early 1960's he played "grandpa" on the "Munsters." While that role is how most people know him (or even his role on "car 54 where are you"), he's later forays into politics is quite interesting.

Many fascinating people who contributed so much passed this past week.

[lawyer2]

I just got an email from NOW with a little article on Coretta Scott King. They included a great quote from her. At the NOW National Conference in 1978 she said:
"So let us continue to work together, because when we are together there is a kind of strength that we get from each other, and when we are right, as we are, then we certainly will win our cause… Therefore, my sisters, let us walk together, and don't get weary."