A bestselling first collection of humorous and insightful essays by a luminary of the women's liberation movement.


These essays from Gloria Steinem's first three decades of work offer a portrait of a woman who was not only one of the savviest leaders of the women's liberation movement, but also a profoundly humane thinker with a wide-ranging intellect and irresistible wit. In "If Men Could Menstruate," Steinem engages readers in a flight of imagination as incisive as it is hilarious. She offers first-person journalism in her underground exposé "I Was a Playboy Bunny," provides heartbreaking memoir in the story of her mother's struggles in "Ruth's Song," and stakes important positions in feminist theory in "Erotica vs. Pornography." This is Steinem at her most provocative-and most compassionate.

Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) is an American feminist, activist, writer, and editor who has shaped debates on gender, politics, and art since the 1960s. Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, and was raised by a single mother from her tenth year on. Cofounder of Ms. Magazine and a founding contributor of New York magazine, Steinem has also published numerous bestselling nonfiction titles. Through activism, lectures, constant traveling as an organizer, and appearances in the media over time, Steinem has worked to address institutional inequalities of sex, race, sexuality, class, and access to power in the United States and abroad. She lives in New York City.