#FridayFeminist: Barbra Streisand

“There’s a war between people who want to live in the future and look forward to the future, and people who want to live in the past.”

Look who’s got a birthday! There are lots of reasons to love Barbra Streisand, her obvious vocal talent notwithstanding.

She is a gifted actress, known not just for her gender-bending role as Yentl, but for her hilarious characters like Roz Focker, a successful sex-therapist and author of the book Meet Your Orgasm, in the movie Meet the Fockers. It’s worth mentioning, in that particular role, it is she who is responsible for naming a child Gaylord.

Barbra is our feminist today due to her being aware of her power as a celebrity who has worked hard and not been shy about speaking her truth regarding barriers she has faced throughout her career as a singer, an actress, a writer, a director, and a humanitarian.

She has said on her website where she regularly reposts articles related to equal rights for women, “I think women are still treated as second-class citizens. We still don’t get equal pay. Thank God I am in the music industry, so it’s a bit different, but I’m fortunate in that way. The average woman doesn’t get the same pay; she gets 77 cents on the dollar that a man gets. I’m also involved in women’s heart disease and trying to raise awareness and funds; Even in medical research, women are not treated equally. The research on women’s hearts is done in the last 50 years on men. ...So since women are 51 percent of the population I think we should really have that represented in Congress as well”.

Not a fan of the 45th U.S. President, Barbra has even thrown shade at other women who support him. She took a hit for her widely publicized quote to the Daily Mail, that some of the women voters “don’t believe enough in their own thoughts” and that “a lot of women vote the way their husbands vote”.

What we like is how she challenges the way people think, and isn’t afraid to speak her mind knowing she has a voice that people will listen to.

Looking forward a happy year ahead, the inspiration comes from Barbra herself, “There’s a war between people who want to live in the future and look forward to the future, and people who want to live in the past.”

Here’s to the future!