Maggie Kuhn (August 3, 1905 - April 22, 1995) was born in Buffalo, New York. She was an American elderly rights activist. She is most famous for founding the Gray Panthers movement in 1971. She worked for nursing homereform, fought ageism and claimed that "old people constitute America's biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source." She wrote her autobiography, No Stone Unturned, in 1991. Four years later, she died of cardiopulmonary arrest in Philadelphia at the age of 89. August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. ... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Buffalo, also known as the Queen city, and the City of Good Neighbors, is an American city in western New York. ... Gray Panthers is an American organization promoting senior citizens rights, founded by Maggie Kuhn in 1970, in response to her forced retirement at age 65. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... A nursing home is a place of residence for people who require constant medical care. ... Reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make a change in certain aspects of the society rather than fundamental changes. ... Ageism is discrimination against a person or group on the grounds of age. ... For music albums named Autobiography, see Greek eauton = self, bios = life and graphein = write) is a form of biography, the writing of a life story. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Independence Hall Philadelphia (sometimes referred to as Philly or the City of Brotherly Love) is the sixth-most-populous city in the United States and the most populous city in the state of Pennsylvania, occupying all of Philadelphia County. ...
She caused controversy by starting a human sexuality class in which she discussed such topics as the mechanics of sex, birth control, sexual pleasure, pregnancy, and the difficulties of remaining single in a culture where marriage is the norm.
Kuhn raised controversy by openly discussing the sexuality of older people, and shocked the public with her assertion that older women, who outlive men by an average of 8 years, should turn to each other for sexual pleasure.
The film Maggie Growls, which kicks off the new, weekly Independent Lens series on Tuesday, February 4 at 10 p.m., is a portrait of the amazing, canny, lusty, charming and unstoppable MaggieKuhn, who founded the Gray Panthers in 1970 after being forced to retire from a job she loved at the age of 65.
Kuhn's insistence on talking publicly about sex, which often made her listeners squirm, leads to a serious re-thinking about what growing old was all about.
Kuhn, who continued to play a role in the Gray Panthers until her death at age 89 in 1995, is widely acknowledged as having started nothing less than a contemporary cultural revolution, both in terms of redefining the meaning of age and through her insistence on "young and old together."
Feeds |
Contact