Last night, during the opening evening of the International Conference On Masculinities there were some big feminist players mingling over bite-sized sandwiches. Notable guests and participants ranged from renowned masculinities studies professor Michael Kimmel to "Lean In's" Sheryl Sandberg and, of course, the Great Gloria Steinem.
After some discussion about why she wasn't wearing her newly famous clitoris ring, The Huffington Post spoke to Steinem about what her advice would be to young men who want to get involved in the feminist movement. "First of all, men should know that there's always been a huge, vibrant's men's movement," she said. "And I hope that because this [conference] is bringing the information together the male feminists will now be more recognized."
Steinem explained why men have as much at sake in feminism as women. "I would say that each of us has only one thing to gain from the feminist movement: Our whole humanity," she said. "Because gender has wrongly told us that some things are masculine and some things are feminine... which is bullshit."
She went on to give some great advice to young feminists, telling HuffPost, "To young feminists I would say, what do you care about? What do you love so much that you forget what time it is when you're doing it? And just do it. We're all here to support each other."
In its first year ever, the three-day conference, created by Stony Brook University, will feature talks and panels on a range of topics concerning men and boys, from fatherhood, men's health and how more men can involve themselves in the feminist movement. Partners and supporters of the conference include Men Engage Alliance, HeForShe, The American Men's Studies Association and #LeanInTogether.
Part of the HuffPost Women team meeting Gloria Steinem (trying very hard not to freak out).
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