Off Our Backs In Financial Trouble
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Posted by Lucinda Marshall July 11th, 2008 |
Off Our Backs, the venerable feminist journal that has been publishing now for 38 years is in deep financial trouble and may not be able to continue publishing. This week the collective that publishes the magazine sent out a plea for funds. Print media in general is struggling these days, but as many of us know all too well, funding anything feminist can be close to impossible.
Many of us in the business of putting out feminist media have been involved in conversations about the need to get feminist voices into mainstream and liberal media that routinely excludes women’s voices and to also have feminist-owned media. There is a need for both. OOB has published many of my essays, and although they have never been able to pay writers, I have felt that it was urgently important to participate in producing feminist media and it has been an honor to write for them.
They are in the process of producing what may be the last issue of OOB unless funding comes through. I am guest-editing that issue which will focus on women and peace. It is an amazing issue with essays from more than 20 women from around the world and I feel very privileged to have been able to work with Off Our Backs to produce this collection of urgently needed woman wisdom. To be blunt, I had approached several other feminist publishers about working with this material and they were not able to do it and let’s face it, women talking about peace tends not to be a financial winner in the publishing biz. If it were not for OOB, I don’t know if publishing this work would have been possible.
Off Our Backs needs your financial help to continue to publish which you can do by clicking here. I urge you to do so, we cannot allow this longtime voice of women everywhere to go silent.
July 13th, 2008 08:46
Maybe this is a good thing…oob has been the home of many a hate screed against trans women.
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/07/off_our_backs_i
July 16th, 2008 12:38
Wow, oob. That takes me back. I haven’t read that since the nineties. Too many biphobic screeds turned me off.
oob sure did its part to make it unpleasant to come out as a bisexual woman. As I recall, I gather we’re a bunch of twitterheaded, lying betrayers who sell out our lesbian sisters either because we are too faddish and cowardly to recognize our true desires, or because we do not have the necessary gumption to Do The Right Thing and start identifying as lesbians despite our actual orientation. Furthermore, we should all shut up and let the Kinsey-6 ladies lead us to feminist utopia, because their purity makes them better than us. Oh, oob was charming.
I actually had a brief moment of nostalgia for oob, almost enough to kick them a few bucks, but on second thought, maybe not.
Have they gotten any better about the bi- and transphobic crap, or is their outreach limited to people they haven’t published hate screeds about?
July 17th, 2008 10:46
@Charity,
Nope. They are even backing a hate speech website called “Questioning Transgender.” So, they remain committed to hatred of bisexual women and trans women.
That said, we should throw a beer bash and dance party for all the ‘unacceptable” women when this POS finally sinks beneath the waves. And I know we will serve better food!
These folks have the serious crazy. And they sill are by and for white political lesbians. All other women can go hang. They’ll even provide the gallows.
Anyway come on over to the F word at http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/07/off_our_backs_i
and talk with us! This site here has a blinders on attitude towards transmisogyny in feminism, so I really don’t feel comfortable giving the folks here the attention.
So, come on down with all the cool women!
Lyssa
August 3rd, 2008 14:39
The OOB collective seems to live in the eternal 1970s. The feminism they are representing is not the feminism of today which, to me (and many others), is about inclusiveness, and most importantly, the advocacy of PROGRESSIVE values. Perhaps they should call it a day?
I do not always agree with everything Ms. Magazine says, but at least they are in-tune to what’s going on. A Ms. issue from earlier this year had a feature on the most-excellent make/shift (http://www.makeshift.com) magazine. I’d rather take the $$ I could support the hate-filled OOB with, to support the promising make/shift instead. I urge everyone to check it out. Support progressive-values media and not the irrelevant, hate-filled dribble of OOB.
August 3rd, 2008 14:41
The link I provided to make/shift is incorrect. Here is the correct url http://www.makeshiftmag.com Please support this one instead of OOB. Thanks.
April 25th, 2009 12:13
Another interesting article from your blog
When will it stop….hopefully never