WEBVTT - Of Ms. and Men 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:08.160 Why uzzy media productions. So you know, let's say a 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.200 woman's places in the home, and I suppose as long 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:12.760 as she's in the home, she might as well be 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.200 in the kitchen. Welcome to the new wave of feminism. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:21.560 Welcome to each other, Welcome home. A new movement for 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:26.880 women's liberation is launched. This is no simple reform. It 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:34.320 really is a revolution. It was a simple but bold idea, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.280 even a radical one, to create a magazine by women 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.440 for women. The first issue hit news stands in July 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:45.199 nineteen seventy two and sold out in eight days. It 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.760 was called MS Magazine. Thousands of letters poured into the 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.839 magazine's tiny Manhattan office from grateful women across the United States. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.800 The backlash against MS was just as pronounced, and his 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.360 primary target was one of the magazine's founders, Glorious Dinah 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.960 Steinen was an outspoken thirty eight year old feminist and writer, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.160 a leader of the growing women's movement in America, and 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.280 she was about to find herself on the pages of 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:14.399 another magazine. A popular men's tabloid called Screw decided to 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.440 do its own special profile of Steinham. I saw it 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:22.800 on the news stands, hanging open outside our offer Miss 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:28.240 magazine offices. It was open to a centerfold which was 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.240 a new drawing of a woman clearly intended to be 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.520 me because it had my hair and my sunglasses. And 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:41.119 then there was drawing of penis along the side, and 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.760 it said pin pin the cock on the feminist, like 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.559 pin the tail on the donkey. And just in case 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.240 Steina missed her pin up and news stands across New York, 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.720 Screws editor the flamboyant pornographer Al Goldstein made sure that 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.400 copies were posted outside her office. Steinn's lawyer sent a 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.040 letter to Goldstein to protest the demeaning centerfold. In return, 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.920 he sent me back a box of chocolates with a 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.560 note that said eat it. Steinham was humiliated, but she 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.280 wasn't about to eat it. From that point on, I 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.840 just decided, you know, just you just have to ignore 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:27.000 it and go on. You stand. I'm Sean Braswell, and 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.280 this is the threat. Each season, we unraveled the stories 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.640 behind some of the most important lives and events in 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.680 history to discover essentially how one thing leads to another. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.639 To do so, we will travel back through history, one 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.040 story at a time to explore the origins of an 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.359 important event, a big idea, or an iconic figure. This 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.639 season how Glorious Steinham became a leading voice for women 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.799 and helps spark a revolution for social change that still 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:59.240 rages on today. Gloria Steinham has been a foot soldier 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.639 in the fight for social justice and women's rights for 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.720 more than half a century, and she's endured far more 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.160 than just Screw magazine along the way. Steinham was an 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.440 early silence breaker, and her path to feminist icon runs 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.440 through some surprising places. In this episode, we'll hear from 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.440 Steinham about some of those places, including the time she 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.160 went undercover as a playboy bunny and one of Hugh 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:25.960 Hefner's famous playboy clubs during the nineteen sixties. This season's 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.400 thread is also about much more than Gloria Steinham. In 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.040 the course of six episodes, we will bear witness to 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.400 a remarkable chapter in American history, one that runs from 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.560 the casting couches of early Hollywood to the doorstep of 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.360 the Me Too movement today. It is a tale of power, glamour, 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.960 and coercion. It is also a tale of liberation. Steinhm 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.120 put it best, the truth will set you free, but 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:56.920 first it will piss you off. The Women's March brought 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.000 nearly half a million people to Washington, d C. In January. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.560 In Washington, the crowd was so big plans to march 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.520 near the White House had to be canceled by organizers, 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.960 not far from where Trump yesterday took the oath of office. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.400 Others took to the stage. There were many high profile 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.880 speakers at the Women's March that day, Madonna, Michael Moore, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.680 Angela Davis, Ashley Judd, Bernie Sanders. But there was one 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.719 who stole the show. You look great. I wish you 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.240 could see yourselves. It's like an ocean. And it was 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.200 that woman, the eight two year old activist Gloria Steine, 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.040 who could put the moment and that ocean in its 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:48.200 true context. This is the upside of the downside. This 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.720 is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I 0:04:52.760 --> 0:05:02.440 have never seen in my very long life. Steinham has marched, 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.520 given speeches, and raised money for feminist causes and other 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.279 civil rights issues for much of her life. But to 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.400 discover where Steinham's journey began, we have to first travel 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.480 back back to the nineteen sixties nineteen sixty three. To 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.279 be precise, that's when Betty for Dan Penn The Feminine Mystique, 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.839 the book often credited for launching feminism so called second 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.800 wave in the twentieth century. The National Organization for Women 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.719 Are Now was founded three years later. This is Steinham 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.080 biographer Patricia Marcello. It was starting to be a thing. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:36.880 You know, women were burning their bras everybody has heard 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.479 about that um and you know, starting to say, hey, 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.800 you know what, women being mothers and wives is okay 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.200 if that's what you want, But if that's not what 0:05:46.240 --> 0:06:00.240 you want, then there need to be other options. Are 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.120 Glorious Dinham was a reporter and editor for New York 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.560 Magazine at the time. She had her own feminist awakening, 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.440 her big click moment in nineteen sixty nine. This is 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.000 Glorious Dinham for me, it was going as a journalist 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:21.880 to cover a hearing about abortion. I listened to people 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.120 women stand up and tell the truth about something that 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:31.000 was unacceptable, illegal, and just tell their stories. She was 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.719 very moved by the women whose stories were told. She 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:39.000 really took that the heart because that was her, you know, 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.360 she had lived through that same thing. I had had 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.320 an abortion when I was about twenty two, and I 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.320 suddenly thought, wait a minute, if if so many of 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:54.800 us have had this experience in our lives, and democracy 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.960 should start with controlling our own bodies, what's going on here? 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.400 And she decided then that she was on the path 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:07.039 to help women do whatever they wanted to do here. 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.920 Steinham addresses a rally for women's liberation in nineteen seventy. Now, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.120 thanks to the spirit of equality in the air, and 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.040 to the work of many of my more four sighted sisters, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.600 I no longer accept society's judgment that my group is 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:28.080 second class. Feminists were often portrayed at the time as 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.760 a motley crew of unattractive, sex starved radicals whose message 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.280 would have a limited appeal to other women in America. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.160 This is news legend Walter Cronkite in nineteen seventy, on 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.880 the fiftieth anniversary of women earning the right to vote. 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.120 On this anniversary, the modan minority of women's liberationists was 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.360 on the streets across the country to demand equal employment 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.040 for women, care centers, for mother's child abortions running one 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.160 who wants them, and generally equality between women and men. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.679 Steinen began to write about women's issues. Her male editors 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.920 warned her she was getting too close to the quote 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.400 crazies in the movement. That didn't stop her. Steinham realized 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.119 that ginger equality would never come about and less women 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.720 organized and supported each other and forced it to happen. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.760 Being an organizer is kind of being an entrepreneur of 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.200 social change. Steinham began criss crossing the country in the 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.640 early nineteen seventies. Her hair was long and streaked. She 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:28.680 often wore aviator sunglasses, turtlenecks, and blue jeans. Steinham campaigned 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.240 for the Equal Rights Amendment. She worked on behalf of 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.960 Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.400 She said what many others were afraid to say. This 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:42.600 is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. This 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.200 is Steinham addressing the National Women's Political Caucus in nineteen 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.160 seventy one. Sex and race, because they are easy, visible 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.520 differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.680 into superior and inferior groups. We are talking about a 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.920 society in which there will be no role other than 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:06.880 those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.040 Steinham undermine the media's caricature of feminism. She was low key, 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.120 soft spoken and approachable, a very mainstream radical. But how 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.800 Gloria more than anything was her ability to get along 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.319 with folks. She could talk to them intelligently, and they 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.480 loved that about her. But Steinham's colleagues in the media 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.640 zeroed in on another one of her traits. They would 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.960 always focus on her because of her looks. She was 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.600 tall and thin and beautiful, and so they made her 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.480 the face of the women's movement. Steinham's critics also trivialized 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.520 her as glamorous and sexy. They focused on her personal 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.760 life and her relationships with men. They suggested there were 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.760 other reasons for her growing influence. You know, if women 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.680 could sleep their way at the top, there would be 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.600 a lot more women at the top. It just doesn't work. 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:59.400 So the whole idea of attributing your accomplishments or lack 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.200 of accomplish most to your appearance is not something we 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.080 do with men. Why do we do it with women? 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.680 The focus on Steinham's personal life and appearance didn't stop. 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.679 The Washington Post called her the mini skirted pin up 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.480 girl of the intelligentsia. Elsewhere, she was labeled a manizer, 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:19.000 an overseex frustrated spinster and much worse. For the most part, 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:24.640 she was berated in public, just treated like she was 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.480 trying to do something wrong instead of trying to do 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.600 something very right. Esquire magazine published a damning profile of 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:36.040 Steinham in one called she it transformed Steinham into a 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.679 feminist fim fatale, one whose fame stemmed from her effect 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.199 on men. No man who seeks to know how the 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.880 wind blows, Leonard Levitt wrote, can afford to ignore Gloria. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.640 The article implied that her methods and motivations were also 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:54.320 less than noble. He was characterizing me as someone who 0:10:54.480 --> 0:11:00.760 just cynically or self aggrandizing. Lee attached myself to movements 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.760 and came complete with a cartoon strip. As I remember, 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.600 so it was. It was quite painful. Steinham's treatment by 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.960 men in the media only made her more determined to 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.880 change things. She knew there was really nothing for women 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.240 to read on newsstands that was controlled by women, which 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:24.280 brings us back to Miss magazine. So, you know, we 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.680 just had the revolutionary idea of working for a magazine 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.320 we read because there there were, and I have to 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:37.040 say there's still are very few publications for women that 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:41.000 are owned and controlled by women. Then there was absolutely not. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.440 It was a totally new idea and it was the 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.079 first publication that took us seriously, you know, and said, yes, 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.280 you are a citizen in the world. Yes you are 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:55.000 equal to men in every way, Wake up and realize it. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.640 The first issue of Miss carried a petition signed by 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.920 hundreds of women saying they'd had abortions and demanding an 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.280 end to its criminalization. Here is Steinham in a interview 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.560 describing what made MISS magazine special. What makes us different 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.719 from other women's magazines is that, first of all, our 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.400 bottom line is we assume that women are equal human beings. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.280 We're not still arguing about it like other magazines. Miss 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.200 Magazine published stories about abortions, gender bias in the English language, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.720 the views of presidential candidates on women's issues, and more. 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.440 It was communal, cooperative, and democratic. Inside the magazine's offices, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.200 there was no hierarchy. The masthead was an alphabetical list 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.360 of its staff and Steinham and still the organization with 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.000 a deep sense of purpose and intensity. If she didn't 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.280 like the people that were coming in, if they didn't 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:51.240 have the same mindset as she did, they didn't work there. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.440 In fact, um. She required that they were to be 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.920 able to say the F bomb, and if they couldn't 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.480 say that, you know, they didn't work at Miss magazine. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.240 But there were major obstacles to starting a women's magazine. 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:09.280 The biggest getting advertisers. We UM tried to get ads 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.959 that otherwise we're directed at man cars and insurance and 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.000 wine and so on. Such efforts met with little success, 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.920 and it was nearly impossible to find advertisers who didn't 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.960 want to dictate the editorial content of a women's magazine. 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.199 But after a while we discovered that actually we were 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.840 economically better off if we didn't take any advertising, because 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.880 what readers wanted and what advertisers wanted were two different things. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:37.840 And so if you look at Miss magazine to this day, 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.439 you will see there's no commercial advertising. Gloria Steinham and 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.120 Miss faced more than reluctant advertisers. Many critics could not 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.319 see the point of the magazine. One national news anchor 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.200 gave the publication six months before it ran out of 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.160 things to say. MS did not run out of material 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.560 and left its mark on the world. Steinham herself, however, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.400 left her first big mark nearly a decade for the 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.199 launch of Miss Magazine. Up next, we turned the clock 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.880 back to Steinham's frustrating early years as a journalist and 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.720 a pivotal experience that kick started her journey to feminist icon. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.360 Gloria Steinem was a voracious reader as a young woman 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.120 in Toledo, Ohio. I mean I would just pick up 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.720 one and keep reading until I finished, regardless of whether 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.360 it was a day and a half later. So I 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.800 think that that's why I wanted so much to be 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.040 a writer. She eventually moved to New York City in 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.400 the late nineteen fifties to start her career in journalism. 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.440 Stein and biographer Patricia Marcello again, and you know, if 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.880 you've watched any TV shows or movies about that period, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.760 and I lived through it, so I know, women were 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.920 not considered to be equal to men. They didn't want 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.280 women writers, They didn't think we were capable bull of 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.440 producing it, you know, proper news story. At that time, 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.560 female college graduates were considered overqualified for the secretarial pool 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.200 but underqualified for just about everything else. When I first 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.320 graduated from college, I tried to get a job as 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:20.320 a researcher at Time magazine because there was a system 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.120 there which meant that women researched and men wrote. There 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.760 were no women writing, and uh, I could see therefore 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.240 that it wasn't wasn't going to lead to writing. Steinham 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.400 struggled as a freelance journalist for years. She was the 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.920 quote girl reporter who often settled on penning lightweight women's 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.320 stories for outlets like Glamour and Vogue. Then, in nineteen three, 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.800 at an editorial meeting for Show, an arts magazine, the 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.520 young Steinen was thrust into an assignment that would change 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.320 her life. I was sitting in a magazine editorial meeting, 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.440 and because the Playboy Club was just opening in Manhattan, 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.920 I suggested that Lillian Ross, who was a wonderful New 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.920 Yorker writer, great great writer, go be a bunny. But 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.640 I was kidding, you know, because she was, you know, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.520 much too old and too smart to ever be a bunny. 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.800 And the editors said, aha, you do it, so she did. 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.120 Playboy clubs strive to entertain and titillate their wealthy male 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.280 members and guests. They were the offspring of Hugh Hefner, 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.240 founder of the popular Playboy magazine. The magazine had become 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.480 famous for its nude centerfolds, known as Playmates of the Month. 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.320 The Playboy clubs were quickly becoming known for another species 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.200 of female sex object, The playboy bunny. Bunny is an 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.520 American creation. She's a cross between a hostess, showgirl and 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.840 the bomb maid waitress, well versed in the art of 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.440 charming the cash customers in a string of plush international clubs. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.640 Yes it's true, proclaimed the Playboy Club ads. Attractive young 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.880 girls can now earn two hundred three hundred dollars a 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.840 week at the fabulous New York Playboy Club. Please bring 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.080 a swimsuit or leotar it the twenty year olds. Dynham 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.760 did exactly that. She showed up at the Playboy Club 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.239 under an assumed name and with no legal identification. She 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.920 was certain she would be rejected and her undercover assignment 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.280 would soon be over, but it turned out they were 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.560 so desperate for employees that they hired me. Steinham later wrote, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.600 hippote Hop, I'm a bunny. She soon began her bunny training. 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.080 So they just sort of made you take off your 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.280 coat and walk around and see if you could pronounce 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.199 the name of drinks uh, And then they showed you 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.720 the costume, which it was incredibly barbaric. I mean it 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.320 left welts on your ribs and they stuffed your bosom 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:46.520 with plastic dry cleaning bags. So they had to be 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.639 packed into a bunny suit, which was more like a 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.560 one piece bathing suit strapless bathing suit. They had to 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:58.159 work cuffs with cuff links, uh black tights that they 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.200 had to buy for themselves. They had to have shoes 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.639 that matched their costumes, which they had to have died 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.679 to match the same color as their costume, and they 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.800 had to pay for all of that. The bunny is 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.000 paid the best part of two thousand pounds a year. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.320 She's trained to perfection, the meticulously groomed, and the rules 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.359 are sticked. No dating customers, for instance, is permitted on 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:29.640 plane of dismissals. Every new Bunny was given the Club Bible, 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:34.080 the Playboy Club Bunny Manual. It proclaimed you were holding 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.160 the top job in the country for a young girl. 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.440 I remember one part of the Bunny manual said always 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.000 remember your proudest possession is your bunny tail. This is 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.480 Russell Miller, author of Bunny, The Real Story of Playboy 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.320 in These Days, So Fat you lu to Chris. The 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.600 manual also provided detailed instructions on proper bunny protocol and behavior, 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.520 and experienced club trainers showed aspiring bunnies the ropes good, 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.720 I'm your gunny. Izzy. Noticed that she smiles and gives 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.879 eye contact with all four of us. We imagine that 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.560 there's another gentleman sitting there. She places the napkin. Now, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.439 you noticed that she placed the napkins for the ladies 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.880 first and with the bunny emblem facing the guests. Now 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:13.840 when she places this one, you notice that she is 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.880 doing what we call a bunny dip. The bunny dip 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.200 was one of several prescribed bunny poses. You leaned back 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.879 when you placed drinks on low tables in parts, so 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.840 you wouldn't fall out of your costume. Bunnies were also 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:27.919 given to merits if they're tights, head runs, or if 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.960 their ears were bent. They were told that company spies 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.120 were watching them if they fell out of line. Steinham 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.400 shared these inside details and many more with the world. Well, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.679 she was taking on the playboy bunny image. You know. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.359 Everybody thought it was so cool and oh, if you 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.760 could work in a club like that, how cool would 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.920 that be? Well, it wasn't cool at all. Steinham served 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.159 drinks as a table bunny, and took coats as a 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.560 hat check bunny. The exclusive club was unlike anything else 0:19:55.560 --> 0:20:00.000 in the city. Smooth orchestra playing, there'd be a dance floor, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.879 there'll be a bar area. Um, that would be a restaurant. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.439 But the Playboy Club offered this unique facility of the 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:15.360 bunny who was always pretty, always smiling, the and um. 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.040 You know, it was the tremendous successful concept, a great 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.720 night out for the lads. Some of the lads, as 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.359 Steinham wrote about, did more than admire the club's costume staff. 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:30.400 They pinched and pulled tails, they padded and propositioned. You know, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.400 I was just wanting to show the reality of those 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.680 working women. It was subject to constant what we would 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.760 now term sexual harassment, but there wasn't even a word 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.520 for it then. It was a terrible job. Steinin remembers 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.439 one customer who grabbed a hold of her after his 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.320 fourth martini. When she pulled away, he grew angry. He yelled, 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.080 what do you think I come here for the roast beef. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.720 Steinham worked less than two weeks at the club. She 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.000 with swollen feet, but also one hell of a story. 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.800 Her subsequent essay about her undercover stint, A Bunny's Tale, 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.960 made a big splash, but it did not receive the 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.880 kind of reception she had hoped for. For the most part, 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:18.920 it was taken as lighthearted and frivolous. Steinham received suggestions 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.399 from editors at other magazines that she posed as a 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.600 call girl and do an expose on prostitution. They weren't joking. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:31.080 I was just beginning to get serious assignments, journalistic assignments, 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.520 and after I did that, I was, you know, getting 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:40.800 a lot less serious ideas directed at me. For years, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:45.199 she regretted the Playboy story. However, in retrospect, you know, 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.159 once the women's wovement got started, I was I was 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.199 glad I did it. The story improved working conditions for 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.359 women at the Playboy clubs, and it also opened Steinham's 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:57.240 eyes in new ways to how women were treated and perceived. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.960 Steinham later wrote, eventually feminism made me understand that reporting 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.159 about phony glamor and the exploitative employment policies of the 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.600 Playboy club was a useful thing to do. She says 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.760 she came to realize that in many ways, all women 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.840 are bunnies, and that was one of the reasons that 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.920 she got into feminism. She saw the women were being 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.680 mistreated on a regular basis in all walks of life, 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:28.320 not just as playboy bunnies. Working at the Playboy Club 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:30.840 gave Gloria stein Him the chance to challenge the world 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.440 of male privilege for the first time and to break 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.480 the silence on how women were being treated there. It 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.919 was an endeavor that would change her life and with it, 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.520 the lives of countless other women. The playboy world that 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.080 helped transform Steinem and helped her transform the lives of others, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.760 was the brainchild of a very different kind of American icon. 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.080 Next time on the Thread, Hugh Hefner, the audacious playboy, 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:56.640 set out to reinvent what it meant to be a worldly, 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.600 sophisticated man, only to become the poster boy for man's 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:18.600 baser instincts. Thank You Stand, We Must From the Threat 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.119 is produced by Libby Coleman and me Sean Braswell. Chris 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.800 Hoff engineered our show special thanks to Gloria Steinhum, Cindy 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.919 Carpi and Tracy Moran and James Watkins. This episode features 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.680 music by Bill McGarvey, with a song called Standing Next 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.800 To Gloria Stye. To learn more about the thread, visit 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:39.320 ausi dot com. Slash the thread all one word, and 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.600 make sure to subscribe to the thread on Apple Podcasts. 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:44.520 Check us out at ausi dot com or on Twitter 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:48.320 and Facebook. If you love surprising, engaging stories from history, 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.880 look no further than the flashback section of ausi dot com. 0:23:51.960 --> 0:24:00.000 That's o z y dot com.