Jezebel: marlo thomas

Marlo Thomas Celebrates Free To Be You And Me On Today

Sadie — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Marlo Thomas is making the rounds to promote the 35th anniversary reissue of her 70s progressive blast from the past Free To Be...You And Me. While they're keeping the album intact and haven't mentioned re-doing the star-studded TV special (and seriously, check out the incredibly bizarre young Michael Jackson in the clip), the book has been updated with new illustrations in, as Thomas put it on the Today show, "the visual language of today's kids." As far as we're concerned, the original illustrations add to the book's optimistic 2nd-wave charm, but sure! Unfortunately, Thomas unwittingly puts us off slightly by mentioning that Gwyneth Paltrow cited the book as a major influence on who she is — bringing home some of the consequences of all that Me-Decade self-esteem building.

When We Grow Up

Sadie — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:20:00 EDT

It's been 35 years since a generation of kids learned it was "All Right To Cry." That's right, Marlo Thomas' classic 1973 children's book Free To Be...You And Me is all grown up and resissued! The junior manifesto for children of the Me decade was a feminist landmark for its stance on celebrating differences and exploding gender roles. "The message is a rather deep one, that you can choose your own role models, you can fight stereotypes," says Thomas. The children of all those little boys who learned it was okay to play with dolls, or girls who were told they didn't need to grow up to be princesses will surely thrill to the classic soundtrack and timeless prose — the authors, including Judy Blume and Shel Silverstein, were a who's who of kids' all stars — but we gotta say, we're going to miss those classic 70s illustrations! [USA Today]

We Are Not Modern American Women

Anna — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:46:09 EDT

This morning, The Today Show celebrated its latest segment on "The Search For The Modern American Woman" with yet another visit from our favorite second-wave feminist, Marlo Thomas. Today Marlo explained that the rate of women-owned businesses is growing at twice the rate of that of other American businesses, bringing in $1.1 trillion dollars into the U.S. economy. And as for just who this modern American woman is, Marlo said she's a "very confident" type who is "willing to take the risk". Hmm: We'd describe ourselves as "very confident" too, but we're pretty sure it's just the meds and boob implants!

The Today Show
Related: We Are All Bad Feminists

Gender Equality: It's All About Sex With The Fix-It Guy

Anna — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:25:09 EDT

Whither the "Modern Woman"? The Today Show may have the answer! Earlier today, the morning show kicked off its new series, "In Search Of The Modern Woman", with a Meredith Vieria-moderated discussion about representations of single-women on TV over the decades, from the groundbreaking That Girl to, um, Friends. (No mention of Sex And The City. Funny that!) Although we were thrilled to see clips of Marlo Thomas from the old days ("Free To Be You And Me" even got a shout-out), what we really loved was the old white guy explaining how female TV characters over the years have not only taught us how to assemble our identities... but our plumbing!

The Today Show