Lands’ End Apologizes For Featuring Gloria Steinem In Spring Catalog

Gloria Steinem attends the premiere of "Exodus: Gods and Kings" at The Brooklyn Museum on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014, in New York. (Photo Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

DODGEVILLE, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin-based retailer Lands’ End is apologizing to customers for featuring an interview with feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem in its spring catalog and has removed references to her from its website.

The company removed a feature on Steinem from its website after customers complained about her support for abortion rights, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The retailer issued an apology Wednesday after offended customers complained, including by flooding the company’s Facebook page with hundreds of comments and vows to stop shopping the stores.

“We understand that some of our customers were offended by the inclusion of an interview in a recent catalog with Gloria Steinem on her quest for women’s equality,” the company said in a statement. “We thought it was a good idea and we heard from our customers that, for different reasons, it wasn’t.”

Steinem had been interviewed by company CEO Federica Marchionni for the Lands’ End “Legend Series,” which features people “who have made a difference in both their respective industries and the world at large,” according to the company.

Lands’ End spokeswoman Michele Casper said Friday that the issue of abortion was not raised in the article.

“It was an opportunity for us to provide this interview with Gloria because she’s known for doing great things. She’s a legend. It was never our intention to raise a political or religious issue,” Casper said.

Steinem’s representative at Random House said Steinem was currently in the United Kingdom on book tour and unavailable for comment.

Earlier this month, Steinem drew criticism for her comment about the Democratic presidential race, saying U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ young female supporters were doing it to meet boys instead of backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

At least two private religious schools also have weighed in, saying they plan to stop purchasing uniforms fromLands’ End and are urging others to do the same. In a letter to the company, Missouri College of the Ozarks administrator Sue Head said its decision to feature a “well-known abortion activist” helped lead to the school’s decision to shop elsewhere. Head said the college has spent more than $150,000 in the company’s uniform division.

___

Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

31
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for vonq vonq says:

    Buy direct from China?

  2. Like, what did they expect? Unless you are featuring anodyne celebs like Mario Lopez or Tracey Edmonds (and no‚ as soon as Extra comes on I change the channel— I had to Google the show to find out their names) who have no known position on abortion or guns or Obama— someone, left or right, is going to rise up in holy dudgeon. It truly is a shame.

  3. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    So now not only will the loony right boycott Lands’ End for having run Steinem, the sensible left and middle will ditch them for having purged her.

  4. Avatar for kitty kitty says:

    The twisted panty brigade rides again.

  5. Well ya know, what does she expect when she goes around putting down the all-american pastime, porn?

    http://www.antipornography.org/gloria_steinem.html

    She was great on Finding Your Roots, btw : http://www.pbs.org/video/2365661035/

    Watch, listen to what she has to say at 6:20–>, that part of the audition for Playboy Bunny included a gynecological exam. “You can’t make this stuff up.”

    Freedom, freedom, freedom. And now our daughters are expected to take it up the ass. Trump perfectly represents the patriarchal american dream.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

25 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for paulw Avatar for sandi Avatar for jootjoint Avatar for harry_truman Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for commiedearest Avatar for vonq Avatar for condew Avatar for crackerjack Avatar for Lacuna-Synecdoche Avatar for bethinor Avatar for stephen_maturin Avatar for radgal70 Avatar for kitty Avatar for libertyapples Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for beattycat Avatar for saminchicago Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for professorpoopypants Avatar for synergie Avatar for erratum Avatar for home_invader

Continue Discussion