Women Finally Call Out Writer Gay Talese As Still A Sexist 50 Years After Gloria
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What's so interesting is that I researched the quote my subconscious mind attributed to Gay Talese, the one I recalled him making about Gloria Steinem in the back seat of a taxi. Rewire got to the same quote, and so did Marisa Bellack just now. Gloria told the story in her recent memoir 'My Life on the road. '
Gloria shares tales from the bad old days, like a taxi ride in 1964 with Saul Bellow and Gay Talese. Mr. Talese leaned across her — as if she weren’t there — to explain to Bellow:
“You know how every year there’s a pretty girl who comes to New York and pretends to be a writer? Well, Gloria is this year’s pretty girl.”
When a man comments about female writers, as Gay Talese did about Gloria, and 50 years later asks Nikole Hannah-Jones if she shouldn't get her nails done, then perhaps we should just apply the common adage of not being able to teach at least some old dogs new tricks.
Once a sexist, always a sexist. Goodness knows, it's a year for it out there. Something tells me this story isn't over ~ Anne
Related: Gay Talese's Other Problem Slate
Gay Talese probably wishes he'd had a cold. Instead, the 84-year-old journalist ventured out to Boston University last week, and made a series of simultaneously inane and offensive comments about female writers. Since that time, Talese has been the unsurprising object of mockery and scorn on Twitter and elsewhere. But within the same week, to less fanfare, Talese revealed an even darker side of himself via a massively long piece in the current issue of the New Yorker, titled “The Voyeur’s Motel.” Although it has been on the magazine's “most read” list for days, it hasn't elicited a fraction of the commentary that his remarks did. But the article is a failure of journalistic ethics and a revealing window into Talese’s character.
