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 majored in English at Brooklyn College, and graduated in 1964.Brooklyn College Magazine, volume 21, number 2 (Fall 2007), page 37.
Career Shear described herself as a "widely unheralded writer & editor".For example, in '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. 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, and contributed to The Women's Review of Books.
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, '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, 'Feminism: A Radical Notion'
Personal life Shear died in late December 2017, in her seventies.
References
Further reading 'Shear, Marie' in Barbara J. Love (editor), Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 (University of Illinois Press, 2006) Deborah Cameron, 'Radical notions', Language: A Feminist Guide (January 26, 2019)