To the Editor:
Re “Female Icons Tell the Young to Get With It” (front page, Feb. 8):
As a female college student preparing to enter “the real world,” I find that there is little that is more important to me than feminism. But I am tired of being condescended to by other women about the presidential election.
I find Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright’s arguments that young women who support Bernie Sanders need to wise up incredibly offensive. (Ms. Steinem has apologized.) How dare these women imply that young women who vote for Senator Sanders are simply too immature and absent-minded to understand that Hillary Clinton is the better candidate?
Is it possible that some young women are voting for Mr. Sanders because they agree with his policies more?
Sure, to cast a vote for Mrs. Clinton is to support a woman. But she is not a messiah, and her presidency would certainly not be the end of a long road for feminism.
Ms. Steinem and Ms. Albright are reacting to Mrs. Clinton’s lack of support among young female voters by slinging insults at the women who have supported and looked up to them for years. If we are going to assume that women are intelligent enough to form their own opinions, then women must respect other women’s choices.
A woman can be a feminist and vote for Mr. Sanders, and no amount of tantrum-throwing from powerful women will change that. When it comes down to it, Ms. Steinem and Ms. Albright’s inflammatory claims will serve only to further divide feminists, as they perpetuate the very chasm they lament.
NATALIE BEAM
Charlottesville, Va.
