Jane

92y:

What issues do you find yourself getting fired up over these days? How long do we have? [Laughs] It depends on what’s going on at the moment, because there’s no shortage. Reporters will sometimes say to me, “Aren’t you interested in something besides the women’s movement?” And I’ll say, “Tell me something—find me one thing.” And they never can! Population is the single biggest element in environmental destruction, and the most important thing in humanizing population growth is reproductive freedom. Students on campuses will say, “Why are the same groups against lesbianism and contraception?” [Laughs] To those groups, the problem is the same: Any sexual expression that doesn’t end in conception is wrong. So the women’s movement and the gay and lesbian movement have always come together. And you cannot fight sexism without fighting racism—besides being wrong in a moral sense, it’s also impossible in a practical sense. Finally, if we look at conflicts in the world, we can see there’s a direct line between violence in the home and violence in the street or foreign policy. The cultures that teach inequity in the home are also the ones with the most violence in public life. All of these things are inextricably connected.

She returns to 92Y tonight. Always a great talk. You can still get tix!