With RBG’s Passing, We’ve Lost Our Small Giant
The late Justice was one of the most important figures in women’s history. Without her, our future is uncertain.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an iconic figure in the American feminist movement and one of the most reliable liberal votes on the Supreme Court, has died of complications from cancer at the age of 87.
Ginsburg’s ill health was not a secret. She was first diagnosed with cancer over 20 years ago; she began treatment for her fifth recurrence in July. Liberals had long ago made a running joke out of praying for her well-being; there was, as New York Times writer Amanda Hess once put it, a “national death watch” for her survival.
Yet somehow, Ginsburg’s death was still a gut punch. My husband told me to sit down before he gave me the news. Within the hour, the phrase “No. No. No.” was trending on Twitter. Ginsburg had become a meme of the #resistance in recent years. She was Notorious RBG, she of the fabulous dissent collars and pithy interview quotes. (When asked at what point she’d be satisfied with the number of women on the Supreme Court, her preferred answer was “when there are nine.”) We made her a hero, a cartoon, a meme, a bumper sticker (“You can’t spell ‘truth’ without ‘Ruth’”) until it was easy to forget that she was just a…
