Steinem, Gloria. 1992. Revolution From Within. Toronto: Little, Brown & Comapany (Canada) Ltd.
REVIEW by Alisa Gayle
As one of the prominent leaders of feminist movement, Gloria Steinem has long fought for women's right and social justice. With Revolution From Within Steinem leads the fight for personal strengths and inner justice. For every one of us working towards personal, political and social change this is, indeed, a long-awaited book.
Having spent her childhood taking care of her mother and her adult life fostering an entire social movement, Steinem becomes the universal mother. In her thirties she began to suspect that there "might be an internal centre of power neglected", and recognized this is an obstacle to any political or social movement. Several years later, upon recognizing that she was once again neglecting herself, she began to rewrite her manuscript. In the process, she began a personal journey to self-esteem and self-discovery.
Recognizing the pervasiveness of sacrificing oneself for others is an important realization, especially for women. We are told that it is not only an acceptable but an expected sacrifice, and we continue to neglect ourselves. We do this in various ways and for many of us this means depriving ourselves of food and nourishment. Steinem devotes an entire chapter to the relationships between our bodies and self-esteem. In the contest of current beauty standards, cosmetic surgery, sexuality, body image and the epidemic of eating disorders, Steinem examines the politics of beauty and our self-worth. Interestingly, body image has played a significant role in Steinem's own personal journey and she remains caught within contradictions. Although she recognize the oppression of "body politics" and the "beauty myth", Steinem seems unable to allow this recognition to release her. In fact, Steinem's new "thin body" and "muscle definition" appear to be a source of her own pride and self-esteem. Like so many of us her internal reality is governed by the external self and by societal pressures.
Steinem begins her exploration of the multidetermined nature of self-esteem with the creation of self-esteem in childhood and ends with a series of exercises and a meditation guide to help us begin our own journey towards self-esteem.
Steinem has given us the opportunity to empower ourselves and has invited us to join her in this quest for our inner voice. For it is with this voice that we will find true happiness, internal peace and the power to fight for social justice to begin our own "revolution from within".