All
right, well I came to say thank you to the
folks who put dot com in feminist [laughter].
Who brought us into this millennium, who
made us even beyond Women 2.0, and also to
Marianne.
Marianne,
I think when someone celebrates and succeeds,
you can tell how much they’re
loved by all the people who celebrate with
them. And there’s not a human being
in this room that does not know how generous
you are – how kind; how smart, you
know - better to have a smart, kind person.
[laughter] There’s nobody here that
has not benefited from your generosity. And
I think each of us feels when you succeed,
it’s almost as good as when we succeed;
and that is saying a lot. We love you and
we celebrate with you.
Now I
have discovered, as you already know, that
we can also take credit for you [laughs],
because Rita Waterman (hold up your hand,
Rita) who was a pioneer of Ms Magazine,
known there as ‘Rita
Waterperson’ [laughs]; sent me an email
about what I did not know, and it said, ‘Here
is a small world story. When I lived in New
York City, my neighbors across the hall were
the Schnall’s: Carol, Norman and their
little children, Marianne and Eric. Yes,
the same Marianne who founded Feminist.com
and whose book launching anniversary you
and both of us are helping to celebrate next
Friday.’ So though they have been
out of touch, I think, you folks have been
out of touch? The Schnalls found Rita
- thank you, thank you parents. ‘And
invited me to the reception, reminding me
that I always knocked on their door on Halloween
in a Wonder Woman costume [laughter] and
initiated them into feminism.’
So
Rita, we thank you and now Marianne’s
daughter, is wearing a Wonder Woman costume,
is this not true? So as somebody who grew
up on Wonder Woman when Wonder Woman was
born, I feel this is some kind of connective
tie to all of us. I still buy two bracelets
whenever I buy one [laughter] and I hope
we all know actually, that she was invented
on purpose to unite us because she was a
very conscious invention of a psychologist
who was alarmed by the sadistic violence
in boys’ comic books. So extreme that
there was a congressional hearing, actually,
into the sadism of those comic books. So
he invented Wonder Woman to be someone who
conquers, but never kills; who converts and
who befriends and who has a girl gang [laughter].
So welcome
to the girl gang and the honorary girls
who are here, the honorary women who are
here - and thank you most of all for understanding
in your work that stories are everything.
That our brains work on narrative and imagery.
We can kind of understand and hang on to
statistics and generalities, but it isn’t the way our brains work. Actually
I think that the so-called serious press
thinks that narrative is feminine, and that
only statistics and generalities are masculine,
is part of the reason they overemphasize
those things. And its part of what makes
people turn to celebrities - in desperation,
you know - because they are the only narrative
in town. So I really came to say thank you.
That’s it, that’s the whole thing.
And thank you Marianne.
December 3, 2010, New York City
