Senator Bergstein to Challenge the Surly Bonds of Privilege. Mr. Bergstein May Disagree.
State Senator Alexandra Bergstein (D-Greenwich) declared to a TEDx event at Wesleyan University on Saturday that she’d had enough with privilege and the patriarchy.
The Wesleyan Argus provides this summary of Bergstein’s contribution to the event:
Alexandra Bergstein ’88, a state senator for Connecticut’s 36th district, discussed a similar experience to Hayes regarding resistance to her candidacy, but in her case, the problem was internalized rather than external. Bergstein says that patriarchal values shaped the course of her life, holding her back from pursuing what she wanted. However, at the insistence of her friends, she ran and became the first woman to hold the position of state senator for her district, and the first Democrat in 88 years.
“When I turned 50, I made a simple decision that changed everything,” she began. “I decided to live fearlessly, and to reclaim my narrative of what success was. Because after 50 years on the same path, I realized that I had been giving my power away to two of the strongest forces in our society: patriarchy and privilege.”
“I have never felt more alive and fulfilled, and I didn’t even know it was possible,” she said. “And the more I put myself out there, the more love and purpose I got back. And all those layers of conditioning telling me who I should be and what I should want melted away. I was breaking the bonds of patriarchy and privilege and anything else that told me I was not enough.”
Bergstein’s taste for privilege may be winning her internal war against it. An April 4th contempt motion filed by Seth Bergstein, the defendant in Alexandra Bergstein’s divorce action, asks the court to intervene to put the brakes on the victim of privilege’s spending. The motion included examples and also mentions Senator Bergstein’s hiring a private aide to assist her in discharging her public duties duties.
Privilege is an especially heavy burden when you try to persuade others you don’t possess and enjoy it.