Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism (Gender and American Culture) [Hardcover]

Amy Erdman Farrell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807824240 | ISBN-13: 978-0807824245 | Publication Date: September 1998

The author traces the history of "Ms"., from its pathbreaking origins in 1972 to its final commercial issue in 1989. Drawing on interviews with former editors, archival materials, and the text of "Ms". itself, Farrell examines the magazine's efforts to forge an oppositional politics within the context of the commercial culture. 17 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There have been a number of books recently on the history of Ms. magazine. But unlike most of the others, Farrell's has a strong critical approach, a point of view and a sharp focus. Farrell doesn't simply run down a list of accomplishments, but examines whether or not the magazine kept its promise of bringing feminism to the masses. After a chronological account of the magazine's history, Farrell concludes with a lively section focused on readers' letters. As Farrell points out, these stand as the strongest proof that readers saw Ms. as something more than the usual magazine, and her analysis of what was published and what was not skillfully dissects that relationship. Sometimes accusatory ("I don't believe you, Ms. Magazine. In sisterhood??????") and sometimes laudatory, the letters are consistently engaged. Many readers were concerned with advertising, which was debated from the magazine's inception until its present-day incarnation as a subscription-only publication free of ads. Farrell reports that more than 100 readers sent an ad (for a Lady Bic Shaver) from Ms. itself to the magazine's "No Comment" section, which features sexist media portrayals. Farrell, a professor of American studies and women's studies, has plenty of interesting information and even opinions often lost in her academic jargon ("scholars have paid little attention to the role of popular culture in forming a collective oppositional consciousness"). It's too bad that a book examining the dissemination of "popular feminism" couldn't have a more accessible style.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Ms. magazine celebrated its 25th birthday in 1997 and has now been the subject of two books. Mary Thom's Inside Ms. (LJ 7/97) is a history of the magazine from an insider's point of view; Farrell (American studies/women's studies, Dickinson Coll.) approaches Ms. from an academic perspective, exploring the contradictions of its being a mass-market women's magazine with an explicitly feminist agenda. Ms. staff attempted to balance the demands of advertisers with the expectations of feminists, often to the dissatisfaction of both. In particular, advertising demands forced editors to focus on change at the individual level rather than advocating sweeping social reform. Farrell looks at Ms. in its social and economic context, using both primary and secondary sources to good advantage. This readable, scholarly book complements Thom's and belongs in all academic libraries as well as public libraries with women's studies collections.?Judy Solberg, George Washington Univ., Takoma Park, MD
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807824240
• ISBN-13: 978-0807824245
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,807,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amy Farrell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and majored in English at Ohio University. She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Minnesota in American Studies and Feminist Studies. She is currently the John and Ann Curley Chair in Liberal Arts and Professor of American Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant analysis of timely topic, October 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book providing a fresh perspective on the history of this all important magazine. Farrell lucidly analyzes the tensions that this publication faced as it became the most recognized publication to emerge out of the feminist movement in the United States over the past 30 years. She coins the term "popular feminism" in this book to describe what Ms. set out to accomplish. She uses this term seriously and addresses its implications with care, neither condemning the magazine or its publishers for seeking a mass audience, nor naively celebrating Ms. as a "true" mouthpiece of women everywhere. On the contrary, her text reveals the complexity of this idea: the difficult, and ultimately impossible, negotiations between commercial and social interests that the magazine attempted to negotiate, the possibilities created by a mass media periodical that addressed its audiences as political subjects, and the claim that readers made to make the magazine their own. Farrell's brilliant account of the history of Ms. comes at an important time as the publication has recently hit hard times. Some have argued that the magazine serves no useful purpose anymore, even that feminism is dead. After reading Farrell's book, it is clear to me that neither is true, and that both Ms. and feminism are involved in complex cultural dialogues and are continually evolving.