Of Ms. and Men

nineteen seventy two and sold out in eight days. It was called MS Magazine. Thousands of letters poured into the magazine's tiny Manhattan office from grateful women across the United States. The backlash against MS was just as pronounced, and his primary target was one of the magazine's founders, Glorious Dinah Steinen was an outspoken thirty eight year old feminist and writer, a leader of the growing women's movement in America, and she was about to find herself on the pages of

another magazine. A popular men's tabloid called Screw decided to do its own special profile of Steinham. I saw it on the news stands, hanging open outside our offer Miss magazine offices. It was open to a centerfold which was a new drawing of a woman clearly intended to be me because it had my hair and my sunglasses. And then there was drawing of penis along the side, and it said pin pin the cock on the feminist, like

pin the tail on the donkey. And just in case Steina missed her pin up and news stands across New York, Screws editor the flamboyant pornographer Al Goldstein made sure that copies were posted outside her office. Steinn's lawyer sent a letter to Goldstein to protest the demeaning centerfold. In return, he sent me back a box of chocolates with a note that said eat it. Steinham was humiliated, but she wasn't about to eat it. From that point on, I just decided, you know, just you just have to ignore

it and go on. You stand. I'm Sean Braswell, and this is the threat. Each season, we unraveled the stories behind some of the most important lives and events in history to discover essentially how one thing leads to another. To do so, we will travel back through history, one story at a time to explore the origins of an important event, a big idea, or an iconic figure. This season how Glorious Steinham became a leading voice for women and helps spark a revolution for social change that still

rages on today. Gloria Steinham has been a foot soldier in the fight for social justice and women's rights for more than half a century, and she's endured far more than just Screw magazine along the way. Steinham was an early silence breaker, and her path to feminist icon runs through some surprising places. In this episode, we'll hear from Steinham about some of those places, including the time she went undercover as a playboy bunny and one of Hugh

Hefner's famous playboy clubs during the nineteen sixties. This season's thread is also about much more than Gloria Steinham. In the course of six episodes, we will bear witness to a remarkable chapter in American history, one that runs from the casting couches of early Hollywood to the doorstep of the Me Too movement today. It is a tale of power, glamour, and coercion. It is also a tale of liberation. Steinhm put it best, the truth will set you free, but

first it will piss you off. The Women's March brought nearly half a million people to Washington, d C. In January. In Washington, the crowd was so big plans to march near the White House had to be canceled by organizers, not far from where Trump yesterday took the oath of office. Others took to the stage. There were many high profile speakers at the Women's March that day, Madonna, Michael Moore, Angela Davis, Ashley Judd, Bernie Sanders. But there was one

who stole the show. You look great. I wish you could see yourselves. It's like an ocean. And it was that woman, the eight two year old activist Gloria Steine, who could put the moment and that ocean in its true context. This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. Steinham has marched, given speeches, and raised money for feminist causes and other

civil rights issues for much of her life. But to discover where Steinham's journey began, we have to first travel back back to the nineteen sixties nineteen sixty three. To be precise, that's when Betty for Dan Penn The Feminine Mystique, the book often credited for launching feminism so called second wave in the twentieth century. The National Organization for Women Are Now was founded three years later. This is Steinham biographer Patricia Marcello. It was starting to be a thing.

You know, women were burning their bras everybody has heard about that um and you know, starting to say, hey, you know what, women being mothers and wives is okay if that's what you want, But if that's not what you want, then there need to be other options. Are Glorious Dinham was a reporter and editor for New York Magazine at the time. She had her own feminist awakening, her big click moment in nineteen sixty nine. This is Glorious Dinham for me, it was going as a journalist

to cover a hearing about abortion. I listened to people women stand up and tell the truth about something that was unacceptable, illegal, and just tell their stories. She was very moved by the women whose stories were told. She really took that the heart because that was her, you know,

she had lived through that same thing. I had had an abortion when I was about twenty two, and I suddenly thought, wait a minute, if if so many of us have had this experience in our lives, and democracy should start with controlling our own bodies, what's going on here? And she decided then that she was on the path to help women do whatever they wanted to do here.

Steinham addresses a rally for women's liberation in nineteen seventy. Now, thanks to the spirit of equality in the air, and to the work of many of my more four sighted sisters, I no longer accept society's judgment that my group is second class. Feminists were often portrayed at the time as a motley crew of unattractive, sex starved radicals whose message would have a limited appeal to other women in America.

This is news legend Walter Cronkite in nineteen seventy, on the fiftieth anniversary of women earning the right to vote. On this anniversary, the modan minority of women's liberationists was on the streets across the country to demand equal employment for women, care centers, for mother's child abortions running one who wants them, and generally equality between women and men. Steinen began to write about women's issues. Her male editors warned her she was getting too close to the quote

crazies in the movement. That didn't stop her. Steinham realized that ginger equality would never come about and less women organized and supported each other and forced it to happen. Being an organizer is kind of being an entrepreneur of social change. Steinham began criss crossing the country in the early nineteen seventies. Her hair was long and streaked. She often wore aviator sunglasses, turtlenecks, and blue jeans. Steinham campaigned

for the Equal Rights Amendment. She worked on behalf of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president. She said what many others were afraid to say. This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. This is Steinham addressing the National Women's Political Caucus in nineteen seventy one. Sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings

into superior and inferior groups. We are talking about a society in which there will be no role other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. Steinham undermine the media's caricature of feminism. She was low key, soft spoken and approachable, a very mainstream radical. But how Gloria more than anything was her ability to get along with folks. She could talk to them intelligently, and they loved that about her. But Steinham's colleagues in the media

zeroed in on another one of her traits. They would always focus on her because of her looks. She was tall and thin and beautiful, and so they made her the face of the women's movement. Steinham's critics also trivialized her as glamorous and sexy. They focused on her personal life and her relationships with men. They suggested there were other reasons for her growing influence. You know, if women could sleep their way at the top, there would be a lot more women at the top. It just doesn't work.

So the whole idea of attributing your accomplishments or lack of accomplish most to your appearance is not something we do with men. Why do we do it with women? The focus on Steinham's personal life and appearance didn't stop. The Washington Post called her the mini skirted pin up girl of the intelligentsia. Elsewhere, she was labeled a manizer,

an overseex frustrated spinster and much worse. For the most part, she was berated in public, just treated like she was trying to do something wrong instead of trying to do something very right. Esquire magazine published a damning profile of Steinham in one called she it transformed Steinham into a feminist fim fatale, one whose fame stemmed from her effect on men. No man who seeks to know how the wind blows, Leonard Levitt wrote, can afford to ignore Gloria.

The article implied that her methods and motivations were also less than noble. He was characterizing me as someone who just cynically or self aggrandizing. Lee attached myself to movements and came complete with a cartoon strip. As I remember, so it was. It was quite painful. Steinham's treatment by men in the media only made her more determined to change things. She knew there was really nothing for women to read on newsstands that was controlled by women, which

brings us back to Miss magazine. So, you know, we just had the revolutionary idea of working for a magazine we read because there there were, and I have to say there's still are very few publications for women that are owned and controlled by women. Then there was absolutely not. It was a totally new idea and it was the first publication that took us seriously, you know, and said, yes, you are a citizen in the world. Yes you are equal to men in every way, Wake up and realize it.

The first issue of Miss carried a petition signed by hundreds of women saying they'd had abortions and demanding an end to its criminalization. Here is Steinham in a interview describing what made MISS magazine special. What makes us different from other women's magazines is that, first of all, our bottom line is we assume that women are equal human beings.

We're not still arguing about it like other magazines. Miss Magazine published stories about abortions, gender bias in the English language, the views of presidential candidates on women's issues, and more. It was communal, cooperative, and democratic. Inside the magazine's offices, there was no hierarchy. The masthead was an alphabetical list of its staff and Steinham and still the organization with

a deep sense of purpose and intensity. If she didn't like the people that were coming in, if they didn't have the same mindset as she did, they didn't work there. In fact, um. She required that they were to be able to say the F bomb, and if they couldn't say that, you know, they didn't work at Miss magazine. But there were major obstacles to starting a women's magazine. The biggest getting advertisers. We UM tried to get ads that otherwise we're directed at man cars and insurance and

wine and so on. Such efforts met with little success, and it was nearly impossible to find advertisers who didn't want to dictate the editorial content of a women's magazine. But after a while we discovered that actually we were economically better off if we didn't take any advertising, because what readers wanted and what advertisers wanted were two different things. And so if you look at Miss magazine to this day, you will see there's no commercial advertising. Gloria Steinham and

Miss faced more than reluctant advertisers. Many critics could not see the point of the magazine. One national news anchor gave the publication six months before it ran out of things to say. MS did not run out of material and left its mark on the world. Steinham herself, however, left her first big mark nearly a decade for the

launch of Miss Magazine. Up next, we turned the clock back to Steinham's frustrating early years as a journalist and a pivotal experience that kick started her journey to feminist icon. Gloria Steinem was a voracious reader as a young woman in Toledo, Ohio. I mean I would just pick up one and keep reading until I finished, regardless of whether it was a day and a half later. So I think that that's why I wanted so much to be

a writer. She eventually moved to New York City in the late nineteen fifties to start her career in journalism. Stein and biographer Patricia Marcello again, and you know, if you've watched any TV shows or movies about that period, and I lived through it, so I know, women were not considered to be equal to men. They didn't want women writers, They didn't think we were capable bull of

producing it, you know, proper news story. At that time, female college graduates were considered overqualified for the secretarial pool but underqualified for just about everything else. When I first graduated from college, I tried to get a job as a researcher at Time magazine because there was a system there which meant that women researched and men wrote. There were no women writing, and uh, I could see therefore that it wasn't wasn't going to lead to writing. Steinham

struggled as a freelance journalist for years. She was the quote girl reporter who often settled on penning lightweight women's stories for outlets like Glamour and Vogue. Then, in nineteen three, at an editorial meeting for Show, an arts magazine, the young Steinen was thrust into an assignment that would change her life. I was sitting in a magazine editorial meeting, and because the Playboy Club was just opening in Manhattan, I suggested that Lillian Ross, who was a wonderful New

Yorker writer, great great writer, go be a bunny. But I was kidding, you know, because she was, you know, much too old and too smart to ever be a bunny. And the editors said, aha, you do it, so she did. Playboy clubs strive to entertain and titillate their wealthy male members and guests. They were the offspring of Hugh Hefner, founder of the popular Playboy magazine. The magazine had become famous for its nude centerfolds, known as Playmates of the Month.

The Playboy clubs were quickly becoming known for another species of female sex object, The playboy bunny. Bunny is an American creation. She's a cross between a hostess, showgirl and the bomb maid waitress, well versed in the art of charming the cash customers in a string of plush international clubs. Yes it's true, proclaimed the Playboy Club ads. Attractive young girls can now earn two hundred three hundred dollars a week at the fabulous New York Playboy Club. Please bring

a swimsuit or leotar it the twenty year olds. Dynham did exactly that. She showed up at the Playboy Club under an assumed name and with no legal identification. She was certain she would be rejected and her undercover assignment would soon be over, but it turned out they were so desperate for employees that they hired me. Steinham later wrote, hippote Hop, I'm a bunny. She soon began her bunny training.

So they just sort of made you take off your coat and walk around and see if you could pronounce the name of drinks uh, And then they showed you the costume, which it was incredibly barbaric. I mean it left welts on your ribs and they stuffed your bosom with plastic dry cleaning bags. So they had to be packed into a bunny suit, which was more like a one piece bathing suit strapless bathing suit. They had to work cuffs with cuff links, uh black tights that they

had to buy for themselves. They had to have shoes that matched their costumes, which they had to have died to match the same color as their costume, and they had to pay for all of that. The bunny is paid the best part of two thousand pounds a year. She's trained to perfection, the meticulously groomed, and the rules are sticked. No dating customers, for instance, is permitted on plane of dismissals. Every new Bunny was given the Club Bible,

the Playboy Club Bunny Manual. It proclaimed you were holding the top job in the country for a young girl. I remember one part of the Bunny manual said always remember your proudest possession is your bunny tail. This is Russell Miller, author of Bunny, The Real Story of Playboy in These Days, So Fat you lu to Chris. The manual also provided detailed instructions on proper bunny protocol and behavior, and experienced club trainers showed aspiring bunnies the ropes good,

I'm your gunny. Izzy. Noticed that she smiles and gives eye contact with all four of us. We imagine that there's another gentleman sitting there. She places the napkin. Now, you noticed that she placed the napkins for the ladies first and with the bunny emblem facing the guests. Now when she places this one, you notice that she is doing what we call a bunny dip. The bunny dip was one of several prescribed bunny poses. You leaned back when you placed drinks on low tables in parts, so

you wouldn't fall out of your costume. Bunnies were also given to merits if they're tights, head runs, or if their ears were bent. They were told that company spies were watching them if they fell out of line. Steinham shared these inside details and many more with the world. Well, she was taking on the playboy bunny image. You know. Everybody thought it was so cool and oh, if you could work in a club like that, how cool would

that be? Well, it wasn't cool at all. Steinham served drinks as a table bunny, and took coats as a hat check bunny. The exclusive club was unlike anything else in the city. Smooth orchestra playing, there'd be a dance floor, there'll be a bar area. Um, that would be a restaurant. But the Playboy Club offered this unique facility of the bunny who was always pretty, always smiling, the and um. You know, it was the tremendous successful concept, a great

night out for the lads. Some of the lads, as Steinham wrote about, did more than admire the club's costume staff. They pinched and pulled tails, they padded and propositioned. You know, I was just wanting to show the reality of those working women. It was subject to constant what we would now term sexual harassment, but there wasn't even a word for it then. It was a terrible job. Steinin remembers one customer who grabbed a hold of her after his

fourth martini. When she pulled away, he grew angry. He yelled, what do you think I come here for the roast beef. Steinham worked less than two weeks at the club. She with swollen feet, but also one hell of a story. Her subsequent essay about her undercover stint, A Bunny's Tale, made a big splash, but it did not receive the kind of reception she had hoped for. For the most part,

it was taken as lighthearted and frivolous. Steinham received suggestions from editors at other magazines that she posed as a call girl and do an expose on prostitution. They weren't joking. I was just beginning to get serious assignments, journalistic assignments, and after I did that, I was, you know, getting a lot less serious ideas directed at me. For years, she regretted the Playboy story. However, in retrospect, you know, once the women's wovement got started, I was I was

glad I did it. The story improved working conditions for women at the Playboy clubs, and it also opened Steinham's eyes in new ways to how women were treated and perceived. Steinham later wrote, eventually feminism made me understand that reporting about phony glamor and the exploitative employment policies of the Playboy club was a useful thing to do. She says she came to realize that in many ways, all women are bunnies, and that was one of the reasons that

she got into feminism. She saw the women were being mistreated on a regular basis in all walks of life, not just as playboy bunnies. Working at the Playboy Club gave Gloria stein Him the chance to challenge the world of male privilege for the first time and to break the silence on how women were being treated there. It was an endeavor that would change her life and with it,

the lives of countless other women. The playboy world that helped transform Steinem and helped her transform the lives of others, was the brainchild of a very different kind of American icon. Next time on the Thread, Hugh Hefner, the audacious playboy, set out to reinvent what it meant to be a worldly, sophisticated man, only to become the poster boy for man's baser instincts. Thank You Stand, We Must From the Threat

is produced by Libby Coleman and me Sean Braswell. Chris Hoff engineered our show special thanks to Gloria Steinhum, Cindy Carpi and Tracy Moran and James Watkins. This episode features music by Bill McGarvey, with a song called Standing Next To Gloria Stye. To learn more about the thread, visit ausi dot com. Slash the thread all one word, and make sure to subscribe to the thread on Apple Podcasts. Check us out at ausi dot com or on Twitter

and Facebook. If you love surprising, engaging stories from history, look no further than the flashback section of ausi dot com. That's o z y dot com.