The fearless New Journalist nobody ever talks about
by digby
I was chatting about the new journalism with Rick Perlstein the other day and he brought up the fact that one of the unsung heroes of that movement was Gloria Steinem, with her radical muckraking piece in 1963 called “A Bunny’s Tale.” (It came out the same year as the Feminine Mystique.) I hadn’t thought of it quite like that but when I went back and read it I realized it was truly a remarkable example of the kind of brave journalism that changes the world.
I found this piece written about it on the 50th Anniversary that puts Steinem in the pantheon of the New Journalism as she deserves:
“A Bunny’s Tale” takes the form of a diary and moves from Steinem’s initial decision to adopt the alias of Marie Catherine Ochs to her last day on the job when she overhears another Bunny say of a customer, “He’s a real gentleman. He treats you just the same whether you’ve slept with him or not.” In between, Steinem learns the requirements of being a Bunny. On the club’s orders, she is tested for venereal disease, and after being hired, she is told which club members she can date (Number One keyholders) and which she cannot (all the rest).
Her new status leaves no room for doubting how she is viewed. A guard greets her by calling out, “Here bunny, bunny, bunny!” The club wardrobe mistress stuffs a plastic dry cleaning bag down the front of her Bunny costume to increase her cleavage. Finally, the job doesn’t come close to paying the $200 to $300 weekly salary the Playboy Club advertizes that Bunnies earn. At every turn, Steinem and the other Bunnies are nickeled and dimed. They must, she notes, pay for the upkeep and cleaning of their costumes as well as the false eyelashes they are expected to wear. The club also takes 50% of the $30 in tips they make on food and liquor bills that are charged. It’s a no-win trap for the Bunnies, whose vulnerability Steinem captured by sharing their ordeal.
In taking this approach to her article, Steinem was doing what many new journalists did in the 1960s when they made their personal experiences central to the events they reported on. Tom Wolfe took this path in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Norman Mailer in The Armies of the Night, and Hunter Thompson in Hell’s Angels. In Steinem’s case the great challenge was resisting the temptation to lash out against those who were alternately patronizing and exploiting her. She had to know that when “A Bunny’s Tale” appeared in print, she was going to be accused of exploiting her good looks. A homely woman, as the Playboy Club made clear in its ads, could not be a Playboy Bunny. Since “A Bunny’s Tale” first appeared, it has taken on a life of its own. In 1985 “A Bunny’s Tale” was made into an ABC television movie starring Kirstie Alley, and today Steinem’s story, which she retitled “I Was a Playboy Bunny” when she included it in a collection of her own writing, retains its freshness.
You can read the original piece here. It’s well worth it. We’ve come a long way baby, but we’ve got a long way to go.
It’s holiday fundraiser time …
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