\n<\/p>\n
Attendees ascended to the second floor for a confab between Dunham and Steinem, moderated by feminist writer, and organizer Amy Richards. \u201cWe\u2019re used to coming up with creative seating,\u201d Richards, a longtime friend and collaborator of Steinem\u2019s laughed, encouraging guests to grab upholstered floor cushions and get close. \u201cThere\u2019s loft stairs right there too\u2014and there\u2019s a bed up there if you really want to get comfortable!\u201d<\/p>\n
Once they got down to it, nothing was off the table. Steinem and Dunham expounded upon some of the slings and arrows of womanhood and feminism today\u2014the splintering that\u2019s taken place since the new wave first reared its head, the \u201cnot-nice feminist\u201d stigma, the generosity economy (which demands hugely of women), and the resounding addiction to saying \u201cyes\u201d to offset it all.<\/p>\n \u201cDo people still ask if you\u2019re a feminist?\u201d Steinem asked the crowd. (While it is mildly daunting to tell Steinem, oft considered the mother of latter-day feminism, that the term itself has become somewhat nebulous following its fever pitch in the 2010s\u2014but her openness made room for even the most complicated truths, so guests matched it with honesty.)<\/p>\n \u201cThis book covers the period of time when feminism was becoming very commercialized,\u201d Dunham said of Famesick<\/em>. \u201cEverybody\u2019s underpants said \u2018Feminist,\u2019 everybody\u2019s shirt said \u2018The Future Is Female\u2019\u2014and I had them all. I\u2019m judging none of them. They all went to the give-away pile, not because they weren\u2019t chic but because they were of a time. It served its purpose.\u201d The important part, beyond all the merch and the pink-washing, was something she says her mother had instilled in her: \u201cFeminism is about protecting each other\u2019s right to make choices\u2014even ones that you don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n The chat played out like an endless ping-pong of snackable soundbites. Let\u2019s call them Steinemisms<\/em> (\u201cHuman is the answer. Dividing us into masculine and feminine is kind of crazy\u201d) and Dunhamisms<\/em> (\u201cAnytime someone says to me, \u2018I\u2019m really selfless, I give and give and give until I don\u2019t have any more, I run as far as I can in the other direction. Anyone who tells you how generous they are is usually not.\u201d) Much to the audience\u2019s amusement, Steinem even spilled some tea about literary men behaving badly\u2014Philip Roth, were your ears ringing?!\u2014making for a conversation that was invigorating, culturally loaded, and hilarious all at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n As for what Steinem and Dunham hoped guests would leave with? \u201cA new friend,\u201d Steinem offered simply, \u201cor a curiosity.\u201d Dunham, naturally, had another idea: \u201cA souvenir. Take one of Gloria\u2019s things,\u201d she deadpanned. \u201cNo, I\u2019m joking.\u201d<\/p>\n There no petty theft was needed, as there were parting gifts for each attendee: signed copies of The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!<\/em> and Famesick<\/em>, alongside Steinem\u2019s favorite Warby Parker frames: a pair of sleek yellow gold wire-rimmed aviators. Summer reading list\u2014and the eyewear needed to speed through it, sorted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n