today on the ever amazing postsecret the following secret was posted:
i’m sure we can all related to this person. i find standing in line at a checkout to be a disheartening experience as i am faced with painfully airbushed celebrities and headlines such as:
“Guy Tested – Little Touches He’ll Love You More For” (cosmo may ’08)
“Is Your Skin Aging Too Fast?” (marie claire ’08)
“Don’t Get Spitzered – Understanding Men Who Stray” (elle june ’08) [what exactly is there to understand? how your failure to be perfect sent him straying?]
personally i think these magazines solely serve to perpetuate stereotypes surrounding “proper” feminine concerns…. either that or they are trying to further marginalize smart girls everywhere.
but fear not my grrrls because there are magazines who do speak to the feminists of the world!
☆ bitch magazine (“a feminist response to pop culture”) publishers quarterly and dissects popular women’s culture, including the aforementioned magazines, in an intelligent and fearless way. (wiki)
☆ bust (“a magazine for women with something to get off their chests”) is one of my all time favourite magazines (right up there with sassy!). it inspired me to learn how to knit – a feat my grandmother couldn’t accomplish in 20 years of trying! i feel that it’s geared to sex positive, crafty riot grrrls and it’s published bi-monthly. i’m currently saving my pennies for a subscription (i live in canada so it’s a bit more expensive), but if you live in the US a one year subscription is only $20! i’m sorry i sound like an ad but i seriously cannot say enough about my love for this mag. it truly fills the sassy void ♥ (wiki)
☆ ms. magazine is the first feminist reading i was ever exposed to. its been publishing since 1971 and is still the benchmark for all feminist journalism. it has truly paved the way for some amazing social change. for example, in 2006 they did an issue called “we had abortions” which contained abortion stories from women who were unashamed of their choice. it was amazing. the magazine currently publishes quarterly. (wiki)
☆ venus zine is a magazine i stumbled on when compiling the links for this post. according to wikipedia it was founded by a girl named amy schroeder “in her michigan state university dorm room as a freshman in 1995″. from what i’ve seen of the website and magazine so far i am in love. any magazine that has a front page headline that reads “Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time – Joan Jett, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, Marnie Stern, Joni Mitchell, Kim Deal, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and 40 more” is fine by me! (wiki)
now why am i pimping out these magazine to you readers? because i strongly feel that we as grrrls should support magazines that represent us. did you know that corporation that owns cosmo (hearst magazines) had revenues of $4.5 billion in 2006? and that cosmo now has 3 tv networks (one of them being in my own canada)?
perpetuating female stereotypes is a HUGE business and its up to us to fight back.
start by supporting feminist magazines today!
