Gloria Steinem on Tuesday cheered activism against President Donald Trump as “fan-fucking-tastic.”
While delivering the commencement address to graduating students of the School of the Visual Arts in New York, Steinem said that while the Trump era has brought “great danger,” it has also reignited the spirit of activism.
“Now is a time of division, when a government and a president defeated by the popular vote ― lost by 3 million votes, let’s remember,” she said, to resounding applause. “We are in a time of maximum change, on one hand great danger ... and on another hand, we are woke. I have never in my life seen so much organic, sustained, enthusiastic, inventive, creative and fan-fucking-tastic activism as I do.”
Steinem gave as an example January’s historic Women’s March, at which she was a keystone speaker in Washington, D.C. The 83-year-old first became involved with political activism while championing civil rights and speaking out against the Vietnam War.
Steinem’s speech echoed remarks she made on Saturday, when she said that while Trump has ultimately been “a disaster and a danger,” he’s also been a “consciousness raiser.”
Addressing the budding artists on Tuesday, Steinem also underscored the role that creativity plays in activism today.
“It is a rebellion of the visual arts, the arts of the heart,” she said. “You are going to have the best of all revolutions.”
Watch her full speech in the video above.