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The Development of Communication Networks Among Women, 1963-1983
by Martha Allen
Chapter 6
SPECIAL IDENTITY WOMEN'S PERIODICALS: 1963-1983
In addition to multi-issue and single-issue women's periodicals,
scores of others arose that derived from a particular perspective.
Women with special identities founded these periodicals. We will
examine the periodicals of the three most significant of women's
special identities -- those relating to their origin, to their
beliefs and to their sexual preference: black and ethnic women,
religious women, and lesbian women.
Women in each of these areas have, by building communication networks
within their special identities, made major contributions to the
women's movement.
While special identity periodicals have a chosen focus, we will
frequently notice that they shared -- sometimes even to a greater
extent -- the same eight characteristics of other women's media.
These women most clearly were speaking for themselves, not reporting
for others. They also showed a preference for collective rather
than hierarchical structures, had a sharing and noncompetitive
approach, analyzed with a clear understanding mass media's role
relative to women of their particular identity, believed in a
non-attack approach, sought to provide an "open forum,"
revealed new information not found in the mass media, and played
an activist role to improve the quality of life.
The unique contribution of these special identity periodicals
was the addition of perspectives long missing from public understanding.
The public and many women in the movement itself did not know
how these individuals perceived issues nor what had been their
experience that had given them such perspectives. Their experience
was not to be found in any media; on the contrary, the vast majority
of all Americans had mistaken notions about them caused by mass
media stereotypes. Without this knowledge, women and society as
a whole have not been able to adequately assess priorities and
strategies either in public life or in their personal lives.
The multi-issue women's periodicals and the ethnic and religious
press expressed some of the information and experiences of these
women. But all women with special identities knew that they needed
a much deeper exploration of issues and concerns. They felt the
necessity to communicate first of all among themselves where many
things could be taken for granted and where each point did not
always have to be put in other people's terms. In articulating
their common experiences they would give each other mutual support.
They understood the need to include all women sharing their identities,
and their members included poor and working class women.
These special identity periodicals were numerous: although undoubtedly
there were more, 237 are on record as having arisen in this period
through 1983.
Ethnic Women, Women of Color/Third World Women
Thirty six of these special identity periodicals were devoted
to women of a particular ethnic origin and women of color.
Several of them dealt comprehensively with all of these concerns.
The first of these was Triple Jeopardy, published on an
irregular basis between 1971 and1975 by the Third World Women's
Alliance in New York and edited by Frances M. Beal. Triple
Jeopardy discussed racism, imperialism, sexism, news of women
of color around the world, health, radicalism, politics, and international
relations, often in Spanish. In 1974, for instance, a special
edition in Spanish on women in the struggle for liberation [Edicion
Especial: La Mujer En La Lucha de Liberación] appeared
with one section in English on Puerto Rico.
Harriet McCombs and Erlene Stetson edited another of the comprehensive
periodicals, Sojourner: A Third World Women's Research Newsletter,
published at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1977.
The third also appeared in 1977 when Thelma Dailey began publishing
The Ethnic Woman. "The need for a communications vehicle
for 'third world' women has long existed," she wrote in its
first issue. "We are women of African, Latin, American Indian,
and Asian heritage." Dailey knew these women had much to
communicate. "There are many messages that need to be communicated,
many stories to be told, many plans to make, many minds to shape
and reshape," she noted, setting out an activist orientation
for the periodical.
The Ethnic Woman was a place where these women could speak
for themselves and communicate their information and ideas. "It
will be your drum, your smoke signal," she stressed. "It
will be what you want and need it to be." By providing a
communication network among these women, she wrote, "The
Ethnic Woman will be your link to the sisterhood." The
periodical had an international focus: "The Ethnic Woman
is here to act as a medium of exchange among ethnic women throughout
the world."
Thelma Dailey saw the lack of a communications network among ethnic
women as a serious hindrance to progress. "We have been handicapped
by our lack of communication with and knowledge of each other."
As a black woman, she saw the importance to maintaining unity
with other women of color and ethnicity. "We have too long
allowed ourselves to be divided by persons, races, and institutions
that are not acting in our best interests." She saw the role
of the periodical as a way to be part of the growing "sisterhood,"
and told the women in her first issue: "You, the ethnic woman
-- the propagator of great races, the protector of our heritages
-- are now in touch with the Sisterhood."
Each issue of The Ethnic Woman, handsomely put together
with artistic sophistication, maintained a high standard of content
which reflected input from women of various ethnicities. The periodical's
consulting editor was Pauline Hayes, a 33-year old Cherokee Indian
active in Native American affairs. Goldie Chu wrote in the first
issue about the activities of the Asian Women's Caucus at the
First National Women's Conference held in Houston, Texas in November
1977, to which eighty-four Asian and Pacific women had been elected
or appointed as delegates from around the U.S. and from U.S. territories.
Ana Ortiz wrote in the second issue of The Ethnic Woman an
article entitled "El Grito De Mujer Latin" [The Cry
of Latin Women] which discussed media stereotyping of women.
Black Women
Black women's periodicals constituted half (17) of the 37
special identity periodicals that came from ethnic women, women
of color and Third World women. In 1974, Barbara J. Hudson published
and edited Black Women's Log, An Independent Monthly Magazine
For and By Black Women, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Lenore
Gourley served as associate editor and ten women made up a local
Advisory Board. In "An Open Letter to Black Women" the
editors wrote that the new monthly magazine was dedicated to "freeing
ourselves from passed-down myths which hold us back."
"It is the purpose of this magazine to summon our strength
and talent, and move forward as a powerful unit. Through the magazine,
we hope to facilitate the sharing of thoughts, needs, problems,
possible solutions, and goals of Black women. Our magazine is
offered as a resource to increase our strength and solidarity,
and to develop a new and richer appreciation of ourselves and
our sisters."
The editors urged the support of black women to make the periodical
effective and useful, stating "This is your magazine."
They wanted the women of their community to speak for themselves,
not just be a one-way communication from the editors.
"It is time for us to begin to develop our own self image
and make definitions as to our own identities and lifestyles,"
a woman wrote in Black Women's Log. "We can no longer
allow anyone else to do this for us."
Reflecting the characteristic recognition of the importance of
understanding mass media's role, black women, even more than did
those in other women's media, published many insightful articles
concerning mass media. In one issue Black Women's Log had
articles on movies, books and recordings, the arts, and television
-- including the description of a program put together by Lena
Horne aimed at the black woman, called "Lena's Grapevine."
A commentary discussed the effect of television: "We are
living in an age in which television has been confused in a crazy
way with reality. If an event is not on television it hasn't happened.
If you -- or those with whom you identify -- are not on television,
you don't exist. Traditionally, women on television, if they are
not ignored, are often presented in an insulting or stereotyped
manner." The editors urged women to make use of a television
show locally produced in Hartford, Connecticut called "What
About Women" which was open to all women.
The first concern of black women's media, however, was always
to build through their periodicals a communication network for
support among themselves. Even a crossword puzzle was "designed
to aid our sisters with their Black awareness" and information
was published on higher education opportunities available to black
women.
When Margaret Sloan of the National Black Feminist Organization
spoke in Hartford, Connecticut, Black Women's Log reported
the gathering of the 50 to 60 black women. These black women subsequently
continued to meet as Black Women for Progress and set up two consciousness
raising groups. "The women, all Black, and whose ideas and
opinions vary as much as their personalities," Black Women's
Log wrote, "all come together under one mutually shared
umbrella, their blackness and their womaness [sic]." Black
Women for Progress formed, said the paper, as "an organization
designed by and for Black women to include all economic, social,
political, and cultural backgrounds: with the intent to respond
to the needs of Black women as manifested on both the local and
national level." The creation of networks among them was
stressed by the new organization. "Recognizing that we live
in a society that is both racist and sexist," it stated,
"we feel the need to develop an organization which creates
a humanistic vehicle for addressing ourselves to both of these
conditions."
Black women's periodicals, as did all of the special identity
periodicals, published the strategies and approaches that the
women felt would contribute to their progress. For example, The
American Negro Woman of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in its first
issue March, 1974, "The fight for women's rights parallels
the fight of Negroes for their rights; thus, Negro women who have
fought for the civil rights of Negroes should be in the front
lines, fighting for the passage of ERA since Negro women are,
and always have been, at the very bottom of the economic, educational
and employment ladders." The National Council of Negro Women,
Inc., founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, published the quarterly
Black Woman's Voice in New York. In the Fall 1979 issue
Dorothy I. Height, the national president, stressed their determination
to strengthen communication.
The National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) published newsletters
in several cities, including Chicago and New York. The Chicago
Chapter newsletter reported their monthly general meetings, the
first part of which consisted of a business meeting open to black
women only -- non-members welcome -- and the second part consisting
of a speaker and panel, open to individuals other than black women
as panelists, members of the press, or observers in the audience
closely allied to the topic under discussion. Information on the
organization's activities to improve the media image of black
women appeared in the first issue, and a subsequent issue reported
a coalition meeting with the Citizens Committee on the Media.
In addition to activities of the organization, the newsletter
covered broader issues and events, such as for example, in a February
1975 article, Angela Davis' coming to Chicago. Like all women's
media, this newsletter, too, was action-oriented. It not only
reported in depth on the Joanne Little case, it strongly urged
support of her right to defend herself against the sexual attack
by her white jailer whom she had killed.
The New York NBFO chapter newsletter began publishing in January
1975, reporting, as again characteristic of women's press, information
rarely found in the mass media or not reported from a woman's
perspective, as, for example, information varying from the Dalkon
Shield to "no fault" divorce. Its reports on the conferences
of the National Black Feminist Organization provided valuable
information. "We have to deal with issues that directly affect
us in this racist, sexist society," stated Sylvia Witts Vitale,
co-founder and first Vice-Chairwoman of the National Black Feminist
Organization. Reflecting the open-forum characteristic of all
women's media, Vitale expressed the need to include all
black women. "We must be about having communications with
our poor sisters, incarcerated sisters, household technicians,
welfare mothers and other Black Women who comprise over 51% of
our Black population."
Radicalized by their bad experience with mass media, black women
were conscious of, and frequently mentioned, the need to create
networks of communication among all segments of black women, whatever
their interests. For example, the Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers
began publishing their Newsletter in 1975 in New York with
this goal in mind. Founded by Daphne Busby and edited by Diann
Ellis, this newsletter provided warnings to women about the dangers
of the Dalkon Shield, told of the importance of self defense and
nutritional information, and provided extensive information about
representatives of black women's organizations across the country
who were "planning to hook-up an informal but effective line
of communication to strengthen their ability to speak out on significant
public issues."
In the activist mode, the editor described concerns about the
heavy sex themes in the lyrics of songs. Calling some of these
lyrics "outright pornographic in their explicitness,"
the paper urged women to listen to songs on popular "black
stations" and to protest when they felt the "sex mania
craze" of the record industry was harmful.
Elsewhere in the country other periodicals by, for, and about
black women appeared. In 1979, the Black Women's Network, a "support
system for black women," began publishing Connections,
an eight-page periodical in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Aché,
A Black Lesbian Journal, appeared in Oakland, California and
published interviews, political analyses, reviews, essay, and
poetry. AMA: Women in African and American Worlds was published
in Washington, D.C. as a resource periodical and carried articles
of concern to black women. Truth was the newsletter of
the Association of Black Women Historians.
In 1981 Patricia Bell Scott began the Black Women's Educational
Policy and Research Network Newsletter at the Center for Research
on Women at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. The newsletter
editor, Joyce Everett, then a Brandeis University doctoral student,
stated that the response to the publication had far exceeded their
original expectation and had become a widely distributed resource
and instrument for the creation of a network of individuals and
groups interested in educational equity. The Network included
a media focus, monitoring the development of cable television
franchises in inner city areas and lobbying to change policies
that were not considered in the best interest of black women.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall began a similar periodical, Women's Research
and Resource Center Newsletter, at Spelman College in Atlanta,
Georgia. One issue provided a history of black feminism, mentioning
the women in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who
brought up the issue of sexual inequality in the summer of 1964,
the formation almost ten years later in 1973 of the National Black
Feminist Organization, and the writings of various black women
as individuals and in groups, analyzing the pervasiveness of sexual
politics in the lives of black women. In 1983 Patricia Bell-Scott
and Beverly Guy-Sheftall together founded Sage: A Scholarly
Journal About Black Women, a national periodical to be published
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Onyx Newsletter, a bimonthly by and about black women in
Kansas City, Missouri, began publication to provide a forum for
communication on relevant news, issues, and events. Onyx
was published by a group of black women who met as a support group
-- teachers, nurses, social workers, artists, mothers, wives --
representing a wide spectrum of experiences and lifestyles. "We
are ordinary women leading everyday, ordinary lives," they
stated. "Yet, like the black onyx, a strong, beautiful and
precious stone, we Black sisters, are quite extraordinary indeed.
Out of Kansas City, Missouri, also came Network, A National
Newsletter for Black Women, edited and published by Lorene
Lake. "Mass media, whether it be newspapers, magazines, radio,
or TV, reflects a reality which is distorted by the attitudes
and biases of the people who control it," she wrote in the
premier edition. "Therein lies its power and its danger,"
she warned. Analyzing mass media, Network exhibited a clear
understanding of mass media's role relative to women. Lake stressed
the relevancy to black women: "Black women don't control
any media in America. It's unrealistic to expect well-informed,
non-stereotypical, intelligent representations of black women
from a media whose ownership is predominantly wealthy, white and
male. It is wrong that black voices must depend almost exclusively
on that media for a forum and for recognition."
Black women need their own communication network, she said. "Black
women have to begin to provide their own forums for the discussion
of issues that relate to their interests. That's why Network
came to be." Expressing the need for black women to speak
for themselves, Lake described the purpose of the newsletter as
being, "to provide a forum for black women and other interested
people to share and express their thoughts on a variety of issues.
She stated: "You are invited and welcomed to become part
of this supportive informational network of black and other Third
World women. Black women are the only ones who can define themselves
for their daughters and for the world."
By the end of this period, unlike 20 years earlier when few such
periodicals existed, black women were now very much in communication
with each other, articulating their perspectives, shaping their
future and their actions, and making their unique contributions
to the movement as a whole, many of whose participants had come
to learn of black women's perspectives through these periodicals
and could begin to relate constructively to their efforts and
actions on common problems.
Latin American Women
The same phenomenon was happening in the Latin American women's
community. Examination shows that Latina women published more
than fifteen periodicals to create a communications network among
them for disseminating information of their special concerns.
In 1971, the Comisión Femenil Mexicana put out the CFM
Report in Los Angeles, one of the first of the Chicana feminist
publications.
Hijas de Cuantemoc also appeared in 1971 in California.
An impressive publication with comprehensive articles, such as
"La Mexicana," containing historical information and
analysis, this periodical included unusual historical photographs,
news and information concerning Chicanas, their graphics and their
poetry. Perhaps ten percent of the periodical was in Spanish.
Three women constituted the Editorial Group with nine more women
serving as the staff. They wrote that the purpose of the newspaper
"is to encourage all Chicanas to begin to express their ideas
in as many ways as possible." Characteristic of women's media,
they included all Chicana women, and they were speaking
for themselves. They were also an activist media, publicizing
and working with conferences of Chicanas.
"Chicanas all over the U.S. are realizing the need for a
closer communication between themselves," the editors wrote
in their story on the purpose of the National Chicana Conference
to be held in Houston, Texas. "They are finding that in their
own evolution, they have many unique ideas." The agenda of
the Conference and a detailed description of the workshops were
reproduced, including a workshop entitled "Chicana and Communication"
which planned to seek support for a newspaper, dissemination of
Chicana literature, and dissemination of ideas of and about the
Chicana.
La Razón Mestiza was another important periodical
by and for Latinas. Its first issue appeared in San Francisco
in March 1974, published by the organization Concilio Mujeres,
founded and edited by poet Dorinda Moreno of San Francisco State
University. She and her co-editor Yolanda Miranda wrote in their
Summer 1975 issue about the formation of their periodical: "with
limited experience some 40-50 mujeres [women], poor, average,
non-professional women from Santa Rosa, California, began to meet
with Dorinda Moreno y [and] Yolanda Miranda and a host of others
to begin a crash course in media to put together this newspaper."
La Razón Mestiza obtained 200 subscribers after
sending out 3,000 copies of their first issue. This paper reported
meetings of Concilio Mujeres and other information, such as the
struggles of Native American women, the Chicana Welfare Rights
Organization, the Mexican-American Business and Professional Women's
Club, Lolita Lebron and her fellow Puerto Ricans in jail since
1954, and the defense of Inez Garcia, a Latina who killed her
attacker after being violently raped in 1974. "We have so
much to say, nosotros mujeres del movimiento [our sisters of the
movement]," they stated, mixing English with Spanish. In
addition to the newspaper, Concilio Mujeres had two other media
forms: a performing arts group and a monthly educational television
show.
Al Dia was the quarterly newsletter of the National Conference
of Puerto Rican Women (NACOPRW) based on the East Coast. NACOPRW
also published Ecos Nacionales, co-edited by Cecilia Núñez
and Paquito Vivó, writers and editors who were among the
founders of NACOPRW. The Mexican American Women's National Association
published their MANA Newsletter in Washington, DC, which
they described as a Chicana perspective to national news and which
provided resource information to affiliates across the country,
with the stated goal to be a national communication network. The
National Network of Hispanic Women published the quarterly Intercambios
Femeniles. The Hispanic Women's Center in New York City, founded
in 1979, published Network Newsletter.
Creating a communications network was also the aim of Malintzin:
Chicana Newsletter/Carta Informante Chicana, which appeared
on an irregular basis out of San Antonio, Texas in 1981 in both
Spanish and English. The women described the mission of their
periodical to be building a communication and support network
for Chicanas and providing a forum to stimulate discussion with
Chicanos on the nature of relations between men and women.
Two academic periodicals dealt with literary concerns of Hispanic
women. Letras Femeninas was a journal of contemporary Hispanic
literature by women, edited by Dr. Victoria Urbano, and published
by the Asociatión Femenina Hispánica at Lamar University
in Texas. Members of the Association published in Spanish and
English essays, narrative, poetry and news. Third Woman,
a journal of literature and the arts, focused on the creative
work by, about and on behalf of Hispanic women in and outside
of the United States. The periodical, edited by Norma Alarcón,
began publishing in 1981 at the Chicano-Riqueño Studies
Department in Bloomington, Indiana.
Marla Wonn edited Noticias De Mujeres in Albuquerque, published
by the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. And Latinas
also published periodicals with particular focuses, such as El
Faro, the journal of the National Association of Hispanic
Nurses, edited by Janie Menchaca-Wilson in San Antonio, Texas.
Native American Women
The concerns of Native American women were unique and not
adequately served by either their ethnic presses nor the mass
media which presented negative stereotypes of them. Their need
for their own communication was particularly acute.
Two Native American Women's periodicals arose in Wisconsin. Between
1974 and 1976 Wisconsin Tribal Women's News, Najinakwe
was published irregularly in Madison. Later in the decade the
North American Indian Women's Council on Chemical Dependency published
Shenabe Quai in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, also on an irregular
basis, focusing primarily on the issue of alcoholism and drug
abuse as they related to Native Americans.
The Northwest Indian Women's Circle published Moccasin Line.
They expressed an activist perspective, for example, in coverage
and calls for support for women sentenced to jail for killing
men in self-defense, as in the case of Rita Silk-Nauni. OHOYO
["woman" in Choctaw], was a bi-monthly news bulletin
"for, about and by American Indian Women," edited by
Sedelta Verble and published by Owarah Anderson. It "focused
on activities of American Indian--Alaskan Native Women, and public
policy impacting on their lives."
Asian Women
Asian-American women were also in need of their own communications.
An Asian American Women's Caucus made up of women of Filipino,
Chinese, Japanese and Korean origin, in a workshop held June 2-5,
1977 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said, "In sharing our information
and experiences with each other, we began the task of dispelling
stereotypes, myths and misinformation." "As a poor Asian-American
woman, I see the need for us to break the image that has been
created for us," wrote Milan Chong of New York Working Women
in "Asian-Americans: The Model Minority" in The Ethnic
Woman, "and to show our real lives. Otherwise we'll stay
in poverty tenements garment sweatshops and the restaurants. We
can join with other poor and working women to break this stereotype."
Partly because they, too, were badly treated in mass media stereotypes
or not mentioned at all, Asian American women's papers brought
another important dimension to the developing women's communication
networks. In at least three early periodicals Asian American women
discussed their concerns and perspectives. First, a group in 1971
called Asian Women of University of California began publishing
Asian Women. Two years later Asian-American women at the
YWCA of Los Angeles published Asian Women's Center Newsletter,
issuing it on an irregular basis for just over a year. In New
York Asian Women United published a monthly entitled In Touch,
which exchanged information covering the concerns of Asian women.
It also monitored legislation of interest to Asian women.
The Organization of Chinese American Women published OCAW SPEAKS
in the Washington DC area to provide a communication network
among Chinese American women. The logo, with its horizontal parallel
lines symbolized the parallel heritage, Chinese and American,
a dual heritage which they saw as complementing each other.
Religious and Spiritual Women
The second principal area of special identity periodicals
consisted of those published by women with religious and spiritual
perspectives and concerns. Religious and spiritual women communicated
their particular perspectives among themselves and to other interested
women in more than sixty periodicals. These periodicals were predominantly
those of women in traditional religions who wished to eradicate
the sexism within their denominations or within religion as a
whole and to help religious women make their contributions to
society by enabling them to network together through exchange
of information. Some of these periodicals cut across denominations
to include all religious women, while others came from specific
religions, such as Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian,
Mormon, Quaker, Lutheran, Evangelical, and Methodist.
Still another kind of periodical provided a forum for women to
develop their own spirituality. A dozen or so focused on "women's
religion," which some identified as a feminist religion,
including witchcraft, pagan and neo-pagan spirituality, and Goddess
worship. Other spiritual publications included a journal of women
and Zen, and a journal of self-empowerment and transformation
leading to harmony and integrity.
A-CROSS, a quarterly tabloid of Christian feminism begun
in Iowa City in the fall of 1976, edited by Ann Knight, and delved
into questions about the roles of women in religion. In 1977 the
periodical reported on a presentation by Georgia Fuller, coordinator
of the National Organization for Women's Task Force on Women and
Religion, where she charged church hierarchy with being sexist,
racist and classist in its values. The question of whether it
was better for a woman to leave the church or stay within to make
changes was raised during the workshop. Fuller posited that the
answer lay with each individual woman as she evaluated her energy
level and her spiritual development. She said that the decision
might be a tactical one which might be expected to change over
time. A-CROSS reported a workshop participant as responding to
Fuller's comment with "I'm not leaving the church! I'm taking
a sabbatical." Beginning around 1975 Ann Knight also edited
De-Liberation which carried articles on women priesthood.
Her editorial stated that the word de-liberation suggests the
debate was "to-be or not-to-be liberated." By the fourth
issue, subscribers reached 700.
Christian feminists published Come Forth in Washington,
DC, edited by Gertrude Kramer, to promote the Christian dimension
of the feminist movement. Daughters of Sarah, a bi-monthly
Christian feminist newsletter, appeared in Chicago in 1974. That
same year, in Seattle, Jo Haugerud edited The Flame, the
monthly publication of the Coalition on Women and Religion. "The
purpose of the newsletter is to provide information on a wide
range of religious/feminist issues and events," it wrote.
"Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Goddesses, witches,
and Independents are all part of our constituency." The newsletter
was a forum for these women to share their experiences and their
spirituality. "Over the years and with contacts across the
nation and around the world, we have found that our members share
a dissatisfaction with the roles assigned to women by traditional
religions, and that, as we tell our reality, we have more common
ground than differences no matter which tradition we come from,
or go to."
Christian feminists published periodicals not only in large cities.
In Allentown, Pennsylvania, Diane Jepsen and Jan Abramsen put
out a bi-monthly magazine entitled Free Indeed. In Satellite
Beach, Florida, Mother Church Bulletin, later entitled
Bulletin of the Feminist Religion, was published between
1977 and 1979; it proposed "to encourage communication among
women everywhere in order to develop a philosophy/religion that
satisfies feminists' needs and beliefs."
Sistersharing, published bi-monthly 1976-1977 by the National
Sisters Communications Service in Los Angeles provided women opportunity
for discussion of practical issues in religious communications.
The second issue of Sistersharing discussed the role of
mass media at the 1974 convention of the National Assembly of
Women Religious in St. Louis. Two communicators, Elizabeth Thoman,
CHM, founder of the National Sisters Communications Service and
of Sistersharing, and co-worker Shirley Koritnik, SCL,
were elated that television had come to cover what they considered
an important event, "but they were soon frustrated by the
quality of coverage they witnessed." The cameras focused
on women in the pews, rather than women taking active roles and
speaking from the pulpit, for instance. The women raised questions
about the role of mass media in stereotyping them, in focusing
on superficialities rather than on the deeper issues, and coming
at the last minute, getting only part of the story. The National
Sisters Communications Service then turned in 1977 to publishing
an interfaith media magazine entitled Media & Values, A
Quarterly Resource for Media Awareness. Sister Elizabeth Thoman,
executive editor, who held a masters degree in communication management,
was well aware of the importance of presenting not only a full
variety of information, but information from various perspectives.
She wrote of national news: "When Walter Cronkite signs off
each night with 'that's the way it is,' one might realistically
request another half-hour of the very same news stories, but presented
from another point of view. [T]he reported 'facts' may differ
depending on the class, race or sex of the reporter."
Catholic women had begun periodicals as early as 1970, publishing
The Deaconess Movement, in Des Moines, Iowa, on a quarterly
basis at that time. Around 1975 the National Coalition of American
Nuns Newsletter appeared in Chicago. Lilith's Rib,
published by the North American Jewish Feminists Organization,
arose in 1973 in Chicago. Quaker women published The Friendly
Woman, covering topics such as spirituality, violence, mothers
and daughters, and sexuality, from a feminist perspective. Update,
a quarterly published by Evangelical Women's Caucus International
in San Francisco, focused on the concerns of Christian feminists.
Jewish women issued the quarterly Lilith, beginning in
1976 in New York. Mormon Sisters, Inc. began the quarterly Exponent
II in Arlington, Massachusetts in 1974. United Presbyterian
Women in New York put out Concern. Around 1980 Lois Roden
edited and published a quarterly in Waco, Texas, entitled Shekinah,
which argued that the Holy Spirit is a feminine image of God.
She was the president of the Branch Church, a breakaway of the
Seventh Day Adventist church. Sisters United appeared in
Galena, Kansas, around 1979 to provide "spiritual teachings
offering an alternative to man's religion and Goddess worship."
Several periodicals indicate a new direction toward a feminist
religion for women and provided a spiritual perspective to the
developing communication network of women. A major one of these
was, and still is, Thesmophoria, Voice of the New Women's Religion,
began in 1979 as Themis, The Voice of the Feminist Witch.
Editor Z. Budapest, born in Hungary to a psychic-artist mother,
was educated in classical mythology and witchcraft as a child
and later attended the University of Vienna and the University
of Chicago. She founded the Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1 in 1971
and produced the periodical with other women.
Another periodical specifically directed to feminist religion
was The Wise Woman, a newsletter of feminist witchcraft and
Goddess lore, published by The Temple of the Goddess Within,
and edited by Ann Forfreedom and Julie Ann. It appeared four times
a year, out of Sacramento, California, beginning in February 1980.
The increasing numbers of women seeking to build a spiritual dimension
to women's communication produced still other papers. Harvest,
for example, describing itself as a "national neo-pagan
journal and publishing eight times a year, focused on Nature religion,
Goddess worship, spirituality, politics, and more." Homebrew,
published quarterly in Berkeley by Deborah Bender and Levanah
Bdolak, was a journal of women's witchcraft, covering ceremonies,
chants, women's pagan news, songs, and a contact column. Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-Night
emerged in 1976 as a yearly of new mythologies for feminists,
integrating a vision of politics, herstory, art, and ritual. The
Shadow's Edge, a quarterly out of Escondido, California, considered
itself "a publication of ancient feminist mysteries, witchcraft,
and their role in modern Patriarchy." In 1979 editor Janice
Scot Reeder began the monthly Which Way/Witch Way, in Pompano
Beach, FL, dealing with the subjects of witches and neo-paganism.
In 1978 Kahawai, Journal of Women and Zen, which was begun
as a quarterly by Deborah Hopkinson and Susan Murcott in Honolulu,
devoted its coverage to women in contemporary Buddhist practics,
including topics on feminism and Buddhism, abortion and social
action. The Artemis Path: A Journal of Self Transformation,
published by Dana Densmore, was a collection of essays and analysis
of the self-empowerment process, providing a path for women leading
to harmony and integrity.
Lesbian Women
Women who identified themselves as lesbian by sexual preference
were among the most prolific communicators. Over 92 periodicals
arose in this period with the goal of providing the lesbian perspective.
The Ladder, periodical of Daughters of Bilitis, and pioneering
communication forum for lesbian women which had begun in October
1956, became decidedly feminist by 1970. When The Ladder
ceased after its August/September 1972 issue, it had a circulation
of 3,500, marking it as a major early network among lesbian women.
Other newsletters of Daughters of Bilitis chapters continued to
appear during the 1960's, such as one in New York in 1967, and
thereafter.
Other early lesbian periodicals were Focus: A Journal for Gay
Women [The Maiden Voyage], in 1970 in Cambridge, Massachusetts;
Sisters: By and For Gay Women in San Francisco; The
Lesbian Letter, in New York, and Purple Star: Journal of
Radicalesbians, published by Women's Liberation of Ann Arbor
in Michigan.
In 1971 Lavender Woman appeared in Chicago, begun "because
we felt there was no line of communication anywhere," stated
Betty Peters Sutton, a collective member. "There was no way
for new women to find out about what we were doing." Stutton
stressed the characteristic desire of women's media to avoid attacks
on other women, "We knew we did not want women attacking
other women," she said. "That was the first no-no."
Another collective member, Susan Edwards related, for example,
that the collective withheld the printing of a letter that disparaged
another woman. Sutton stated that the women intentionally had
their newspaper appear at the same time as the first issue of
Ms. magazine in order to present a different perspective.
It eventually reached between 1,500 and 2,000 readers.
In 1971 Siren: A Journal of Anarcho-Feminism and Killer
Dyke, also arose in Chicago; Lavender Vision in Cambridge,
Massachusetts; The Lesbian Tide in Los Angeles; Proud
Woman in Stanford, California; Reach Out in Detroit
and Spectre in Ann Arbor; Scarlet Letter in Madison,
Wisconsin; Purple Rage and Sisterhood in New York;
and Lazette in Fanwood, New Jersey.
In 1972 The Amazon Nation Newsletter appeared in Chicago;
The Furies in Washington, DC; Atalanta: Newsletter of
the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance in Georgia; Echo
of Sappho in Brooklyn, New York; Gay Women's Newsletter
in Champaign, Illinois; the National Lesbian Information Service
Newsletter in San Francisco; and Lesbians Fight Back
in Philadelphia.
In 1973 more journals appeared throughout the country, such as
Moonstorm in St. Louis; Mother Jones Gazette in
Knoxville, Tennessee; So's Your Old Lady in Minneapolis;
WICCE in Philadelphia, and One-to-One, A Lesbian/Feminist
Journal of Communication in New York.
The year 1974 saw Lesbian Connection started by Ambitious
Amazons in East Lansing, Michigan, as a free publication with
news and ideas by, for, and about lesbians, expressing the goal
of establishing a national communication network. This same year
the Lesbian Mother's National Defense Fund in Seattle, began their
quarterly newsletter, Mom's Apple Pie.
The rapid increase each year in the number of lesbian perspective
periodicals necessitated many new archives developing country-wide.
In1975 the Lesbian Herstory Archives started a tri-annual newsletter
to report archive activities, new acquisitions, research queries,
bibliographies, and announcements.
Ms. Atlas Press published its quarterly Lesbian Voices
in San Jose, CA, "to present a dignified format and positive
and constructive sense of life, in our belief that lesbianism
can be wholesome and joyful." Conditions emerged in
1976 to cover women's writings with an emphasis on writing by
lesbians. Its fifth issue, in 1979, which was devoted to black
women, guest edited by Barbara Smith and Lorraine Bethel, reflected
the characteristics of women's media. It encouraged women to speak
for themselves and to provide an open forum so all women would
have a means of communication, in this case making it possible
for black women to share their writings directly with others.
This same year Sinister Wisdom began in Lincoln, Nebraska
as a lesbian literary journal. The Wishing Well, a quarterly
in Santa Rosa, CA, provided lesbian feminists with a network to
confidentially contact other women having similar interests. The
Leaping Lesbian, begun in 1978, stressed that it included
first-person reports from the Ann Arbor lesbian community.
The pace of new lesbian periodicals continued into the 1980's,
from one end of the country to the other. Big Apple Dyke News,
a monthly published by Susan Cavin and Rhonda Gotlieb, began in
1981 in New York City to cover national and international lesbian
news, politics and culture. The quarterly Common Lives/Lesbian
Lives also began in 1981 in Iowa City, to document the experiences
and thoughts of lesbians. In Pleasant Hill, California, Telewoman
appeared that same year as a monthly to connect women through
their writing, art, and spiritual vision.
Other aspects of the sexuality issue also yielded periodicals
that provided women with networks. These included The Celibate
Woman, A Journal for Women Who Are Celibate or Considering this
Liberating Way of Relating to Others, in Washington, D.C.;
Coyote Howls, in San Francisco, published by prostitutes
and dealing with prostitution and other related issues, subsequently
published as National Task Force on Prostitution News; Moonshadow,
in Miami Beach, about transsexuals, sex change surgery, and sexism;
and, in New York,WISE, Women for the Inclusion of Sexual Expression
with a focus on sexuality but also including some articles on
birth control and abortion rights.
The periodicals founded by women with special identities contributed
perspectives often not found in other media. These women built
communication networks within their special identities, exploring
issues and formulating analysis in a way that was not possible
in the multi-issue periodicals. They thus contributed insights
to the overall women's movement, which was struggling to counter
the mass media's false stereotype of the women's movement as being
a white movement, and at the same time tackling the issue of racism
among movement women. The development of communication networks
among black and ethnic women were extremely important for the
entire women's movement. The strengthening of networks among black
and ethnic women provided white women with leadership and insights
in areas where they were trying to confront racism. This undoubtedly
enabled more white women to learn that eradicating racism meant
not only eradicating it from their personal life, but working
on a program to eradicate it from the women's movement and from
society. These steps were necessary for coalitions were to be
more effective and the input from the networks among black and
ethnic women were vital.
The networks among lesbian women were also important, not only
for defending their rights and utilizing their insights, but because
divisiveness on the issue of lesbianism had indeed hurt the women's
movement. Mass media "lesbian-bated" women's organizations,
and some women, particularly in the early years, discriminated
against lesbians in fear of being called lesbians themselves.
Lesbian periodicals helped them to see the intense hostility and
discrimination that many lesbians faced. The contributions of
lesbian perspectives clarified many issues for heterosexual women,
as well as minimizing the isolation experienced by many lesbians.
By 1983 the major women's periodicals showed lesbian input.
Religious women, while not playing the same type of influential
role in the women's movement, nevertheless were very much a part
of the communication networks, due in large degree to the male
dominance they experienced in religious institutions. From this
perspective, the periodicals of religious and spiritual women,
both within the traditional male-dominated religions and outside
of them, contributed special insights to the women's movement.
Hardly an area of life was without some periodical voice of women
adding new facets of their lives to the collective understanding
that both broadened and deepened the women's movement. The immensely
more accurate, more extensive and intricate communication networks
were beginning to reveal the complexity of the real lives of women.
By now, at the end of this period, women had well documented the
reality that mass media was not a possible communication system
for any of them. They saw, instead, an antagonism toward their
goals and ideologies, and realized repeatedly the need for ever
stronger communication networks. This radicalizing process carried
political overtones for the future. Nowhere was this clearer than
in the creation of communication networks in forms of media other
than periodicals.
_____
Chapter Six Footnotes
1
Thelma Dailey, "Editorial," The Ethnic Woman,
December 1977, p. 2.
2
The Ethnic Woman, Spring/Summer 1978, pp. 6, 15-17, 19.
3
"An Open Letter to Black Women," Black Women's Log,
An Independent Monthly Magazine For and By Black Women, August
1974, p.1.
4
Beth Rawles, "A Consciousness Raiser," Black Women's
Log, May 1974, p. 7.
5
Black Women's Log, August 1974.
6
"Black Women Unite To Form Organization," Black Women's
Log, May/June 1974, p. 3; "Black Women for Progress;
Statement of Purpose," Black Women's Log, May/June
1974, p. 4.
7
The American Negro Woman, March 1974, p. 1.
8
"President's Message," Black Woman's Voice, Fall
1979, p.2.
9
National Black Feminist Organization Newsletter (Chicago,
Illinois), November 1974, pp. 1, 5-7; February 1975, pp. 7; March
1975, p. 13.
10
"Black Sisterhood," flier by Sylvia Witts Vitale included
in National Black Feminist Organization Newsletter (New
York, NY), September 1975.
11
Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers Newsletter, April 1975,
p.2.
12
Diann Ellis, "Personality Speaking," Sisterhood of
Black Single Mothers Newsletter, February 1976, p. 2.
13
"Editor's Note," Black Women's Educational Policy
And Research Network Newsletter, August/September 1982, p.
1.
14
Black Women's Educational Policy And Research Network Newsletter,
August/September 1982, p. 14.
15
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, "Remembering Sojourner Truth: On Black
Feminism," Women's Research and Resource Center Newsletter,
May 1983, p. 3.
16
Lorene Lake, "Positive Note," Onyx, 1 July 1982,
p. 8.
17
"Editor's Note Welcome!," Network, A National Newsletter
For Black Women, 1 June 1982, p. 1.
18
Hijas De Cuantemoc (San Diego/Long Beach, California),
1971, p, 12.
19
La Razon Mestiza, February 1975, pp. 7, 8; and Special
Edition, Summer 1975, pp. 1-2.
20
"150 Year Sentence for Self - Defense. Lost Her Appeal!,"
Moccasin Line, Northwest Indian Women's Circle, Spring
1984.
21
"Asian Women Work on Media Stereotypes," Media Report
to Women, August 1977, p. 2.
22
Milan Chong, "Asian Americans: The Model Minority,"
The Ethnic Woman, Spring/Summer 1978, p. 17.
23
OCAW SPEAKS, December 1980, p. 1.
24
Lilly Ann Edmonson, A-CROSS, Summer 1977. P. 13.
25
Editorial, De Liberation, Fall 1975.
26
The flame, July 1982. P.2.
27
1979 Index/Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1979).
28
"The NAWR Convention Publicity Project: How it was Done,"
Sistersharing, A newsletter for religious communicators,
May /June 1976, p.1.
29
Sister Elizabeth Thoman, CHM, "Filling The Gaps in the News,"
Media and Values, A Quarterly Resource for Media Awareness,
Summer 1981, p.1; Sister Elizabeth Thoman, CHM, " No, Walter,
That's Not the Way It Is," Media and Values, Fall
1979, p.1.
30
1984 Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1984), P.12.
31
1984 Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1984), P.3.
32
1984 Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1984), P.12.
33
1984 Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1984), P.13.
34
Letter From Deborah Hopkinson, editor of Kahawai (September
10, 1980) to Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, Washington,
D.C..
35
Gene Damon, " Women's Liberation Catches up to The Ladder,
" The Ladder, August / September 1970, p. 4.
36
Ann Mather, " Ahistory of Feminist Periodicals," p.
86.
37
Michal Brody, ed., Are We There Yet? A Continuing History of
Lavender Woman (Iowa City: Aunt Lute Book Company, 1985),
pp.26, 27,31,170-171.
38
1975Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1975), P. 16.
39
1976Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1976), P. 25.
40
1978Index/ Directory of Women's Media, (Washington, D.C.:
Women's Institute for the Freedom of the Press, 1978), P. 22.
41
Margo St. James, "Coyote Howls," Coyote Howls,
Spring 1979, p. 15.
Washington, DC
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