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Created: April 24, 2002
Latest Update: April 24, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

"Old" Feminism

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, April 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on Activism Is Part of Fashion Magazine's Makeup "Beauty isn't the only cause addressed by Marie Claire--it also tackles grave issues, getting some readers politically involved." By Lauren Sandller. April 24, 2002. At p. E-1.Backup. Link added April 24, 2002.

"Seymour is hardly attempting to turn her title into a Ms. competitor. "We're trying to avoid the taint of old feminism, the feeling that you have to be on the feminist bus or off it," she says. And Seymour, who reads e-mail that her readers send her directly, says they're not exactly looking for a movement rag, just a smarter beauty magazine. "They're saying, 'Don't throw it in my face--I don't want to look like an intellectual egghead freak,'" Seymour says. And yet, in reader polls, it's the news stories that rank highest among features. This phenomenon breaks all rules in the magazine industry. While other women's titles sometimes run some tough stories--especially since Sept. 11, as has been often noted--Marie Claire is the only member of the fashionista pack to include monthly international reporting about something other than, say, Milan's Prada show. It's certainly the only one with an activist thread that runs though each issue, from the front-of-the-book "You Need to Know" page that regularly features political letter-writing campaigns, to the "how to participate" box alongside each issue story. But the real phenomenon is this: They're making a fortune doing it." About halfway down the file.

I like the description of "old" feminism as "old feminism, the feeling that you have to be on the feminist bus or off it." This would seem to reflect a post-modern sense of interdependence and multi-perspective analysis. We'll discuss this.

More on the essay will have to wait. No time this week. jeanne April 24, 2002.

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