Marie Shear

{{Infobox person

| name = Marie Shear

| image = MarieShear1963.png

| alt = Newspaper photograph of a young white woman wearing glasses.

| caption = Marie Shear as a college student, from a 1963 newspaper.

| other_names = Marie Meiselman Shear

| birth_name = Marie Shear Meiselman

| birth_date = {{Birth year|1940}}

| death_date = {{Death year and age|2017|1940}}

| alma_mater = Brooklyn College

| occupation = Writer, feminist activist

}}

Marie Meiselman Shear (1940 – December 2017), also known as Marie Shear Meiselman, was an American writer and feminist activist, known for her definition of feminism as "The radical notion that women are people."

Early life

Marie Shear Meiselman{{Cite news|date=1962-12-22|title=Top Students Receive Awards|pages=3|work=Kings Courier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50575839/top-students-receive-awards/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1963-12-11|title=Simply Topping Students|pages=587|work=Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50574707/simply-topping-students/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}} majored in English at Brooklyn College,{{Cite news|date=1962-11-10|title=473 Students Named to Dean's List|pages=16|work=Kings Courier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50576001/473-students-named-to-deans-list/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}} and graduated in 1964.[http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/new_publications/070901_BCMagazine_Fall07.pdf#page=39 Brooklyn College Magazine], volume 21, number 2 (Fall 2007), page 37.{{Cite journal|date=Spring 2019|title=In Memoriam|url=https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/alumni/alumni-engagement/stayintouch/inmemoriam/v6-i1.php|journal=Brooklyn College Magazine|volume=6}}

Career

Shear described herself as a "widely unheralded writer & editor".For example, in [https://www.wcwonline.org/WRB-Issues/295 'The Right Woman'], Women's Review of Books (May/June 2006). She was an active member of the National Writers Union and the Brooklyn chapter of the National Organization for Women.{{Cite web|title=Marie Shear, 1940–2017|url=https://www.the-efa.org/marie-shear/|last=Thaler-Carter|first=Ruth E.|date=2018|website=Editorial Freelancers Association|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-31}} For eight years, Shear wrote a satirical column in New Directions for Women entitled "Shear Chauvinism". She also wrote opinion and advice essays for Ms. Magazine and the San Francisco Examiner,{{Cite news|last=Shear|first=Marie|date=1986-07-13|title=Potty Politics|pages=253|work=The San Francisco Examiner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50573796/potty-politicsmarie-shear/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Shear|first=Marie|date=1986-05-25|title=Big Tobacco's Smokescreen|pages=160|work=The San Francisco Examiner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50573942/big-tobaccos-smokescreenmarie-shear/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Shear|first=Marie|date=1985-12-22|title=Solving the Great Pronoun Problem|pages=207|work=The San Francisco Examiner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50574437/solving-the-great-pronoun-problemmarie/|access-date=2020-05-09|via=Newspapers.com}} and contributed to The Women's Review of Books.{{Cite journal|date=1989|title=Front Matter|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4020404|journal=The Women's Review of Books|volume=6|issue=8|pages=2–27|jstor=4020404|issn=0738-1433}}

Shear coined the phrase "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people" in her review of A Feminist Dictionary in New Directions for Women in 1986.Marie Shear, [https://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=d&d=DGBHBCA19860601.1.6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------------1 'Media Watch: Celebrating Women's Words'], New Directions for Women volume 15, issue 3 (May/June 1986), page 6. It appears as one of over thirty additional definitions created by Shear as a 'toast' to the compilers of the dictionary, which has led to its misattribution to those compilers (Cheris Kramarae, Paula A. Treichler, and Ann Russo).Beverly McPhail, [http://www.beverlymcphail.com/feminismradicalnotion.html 'Feminism: A Radical Notion']

Personal life

Shear died in late December 2017, in her seventies.

Marie Shear

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading