Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has drawn the wrath of the Twitterverse for suggesting that young women supporting Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign are doing so to gain the attention of men.
“When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie,’” Steinem told Bill Maher Friday night on the comic’s HBO show “Real Time.”
Maher leapt right on her comment. “Now if I said that, ‘Yeah, they’re for Bernie because that’s where the boys are,’ you’d slap me,” he said.
“No, I wouldn’t,” she replied.
Maher had been pressing the 81-year-old feminist about why polls suggest that young American women are backing the Vermont senator over Steinem’s preferred Democratic candidate, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
“Women are more for [Clinton] than men are,” Steinem said. But when asked why millennials seem to support Sanders more, Steinem explained, “Women get more radical as we get older…. I don’t mean to overgeneralize, I’m sure that you got more radical, but men tend to get more conservative because they gain power as they age and women get more radical because they lose power as they age.”
Plenty of people online seemed willing to slap Steinem for implying that millennial women are fickle (or hormonal) for choosing to support Sanders instead of Clinton.
#ThatMomentWhen feminist icon Gloria Steinem says something ridiculously sexist to female #Sanders2016 supporters. pic.twitter.com/37pLagmtzK
— Out Of Order (@MercurialMiss) February 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/insopherable/status/696111763247370240
https://twitter.com/jaclynf/status/696111593059454976
https://twitter.com/KatProgramming/status/696102878084071424
@cnnbrk This just in, Gloria Steinem loses respect and can kiss millions of young women's asses!
— Chelsea Sparks (@OleChelsChels) February 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/Heldora/status/696108294008496129
Gloria Steinem broadswipe insulted every millennial chick in the country. Mark the damage done to feminism for HRC. https://t.co/OFmUZ3xrM0
— #SmashTheDuopoly🔻 (@LianaCorr) February 6, 2016