| Ms. | |
| Editor: | Katherine Spillar |
| Editor Title: | Executive Editor |
| Frequency: | Quarterly |
| Circulation: | 110,000[1] [2] |
| Category: | Feminism |
| Company: | Feminist Majority Foundation |
| Publisher: | Liberty Media for Women, LLC |
| Firstdate: | [3] |
| Country: | United States |
| Based: | Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Language: | English |
| Issn: | 0047-8318 |
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem.[4] It was the first national American feminist magazine.[5] The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, Margaret Sloan-Hunter, and Gloria Steinem.[6] Beginning as a one-off insert in New York magazine in 1971,[7] the first stand-alone issue of Ms. appeared in January 1972, with funding from New York editor Clay Felker.[7] It was intended to appeal to a wide audience and featured articles about a variety of issues related to women and feminism. From July 1972 until 1987, it was published on a monthly basis. It now publishes quarterly.
At its peak in the 1970s, Ms. enjoyed great success but was not always able to reconcile its ideological concerns with commercial considerations. Since 2001, the magazine has been published by the Feminist Majority Foundation, based in Los Angeles and Arlington, Virginia.
The preview issue of Ms. magazine was published in December 1971 by New York magazine. The cover, illustrated by Miriam Wosk, depicts a pregnant version of the Hindu goddess Kali using eight arms to hold a clock, skillet, typewriter, rake, mirror, telephone, steering wheel, and an iron.[8] [9] 300,000 test copies of the magazine sold out in three days, and generated 26,000 subscription orders within the next few weeks.[10] Steinem advocated for this cover as she liked the imagery of a woman juggling multiple facets of life, something that Ms. magazine would focus on.[11] Additionally, the cover displays a Hindu goddess to convey messages of neutrality and female universality.
Ms. was viewed as a voice for women by women, a voice that had been hidden from and left out of mainstream media. The magazine's first publication as an independent issue included articles about women who had experience with abortions, promoting the removal of sexist wording from the English language, and literature focused on helping women realize they could stand up for themselves against social norms.[12]
Co-founder Gloria Steinem explained the motivation for starting Ms. magazine, stating: "I realized as a journalist that there really was nothing for women to read that was controlled by women, and this caused me along with a number of other women to start Ms. magazine."[13] Steinem wanted a publication that would address issues that modern women cared about instead of just domestic topics such as fashion and housekeeping.[8] Steinem originally wanted Ms. to be a newsletter but was convinced to make it into a magazine by her peers. Patricia Carbine thought a magazine was better because of the money from advertisers and that it could reach their audience with its portable, visually pleasing, easy format.[14] The creators of Ms. expected there to be significant participation of the general public as well as readers.[15] For example, the first issue published in 1972 included a feature titled "We have had abortions", a list of famous women acknowledging that they have gone through this particular medical operation. The feature had a coupon for readers to include their own names as part of this list. In addition, readers frequently interacted with the magazine through sending in letters to the editors about the personal importance of Ms. magazine.[16]
As to the origin of the name chosen for the magazine, she has stated: "We were going to call it Sojourner, after Sojourner Truth, but that was perceived as a travel magazine. Then we were going to call it Sisters, but that was seen as a religious magazine. We settled on Ms. because it was symbolic, and also, it was short, which is good for a logo." "Lilith" and "Bimbo" were considered titles for the magazine as well. At this time, the honorific "Ms.", an alternative to "Miss" or "Mrs." that neutralizes a women's marital status, was being promoted by Sheila Michaels but not yet well known or defined by the media.[17] In particular, when Michaels suggested the use of "Ms." in 1969, in a lull during a WBAI-radio interview with The Feminists group, a friend of Steinem heard the interview and suggested it as a title for her new magazine.[18]
Gloria Steinem placed Wonder Woman, in costume, on the cover of the first independently published issue of Ms. v1 #1, July 1972 (Warner Communications, DC Comics' owner, was an investor), which also contained an appreciative essay about the character.[19] Steinem was offended that the world's most famous female superhero had had her powers removed in the most recently published comics. The progressive author wrote two issues of the Wonder Woman comic book in 1972, during this controversial period in the publication's history when the lead character abandoned her superpowers and became a secret agent.[20] Delany was initially supposed to write a six-issue story arc that would culminate in a battle over an abortion clinic, but the story arc was canceled after Steinem led a lobbying effort protesting the removal of Wonder Woman's powers, a change predating Delany's involvement.[21] Scholar Ann Matsuuchi concluded that Steinem's feedback was "conveniently used as an excuse" by DC management.[22] Wonder Woman's powers and traditional costume were restored in issue #204 (January–February 1973).
Joanne Edgar wrote the cover story for the 1972 issue with Wonder Woman. She described her personal relationship with comic books and applied issues women were facing such as power dynamics and gender discrimination at the work place to the character.
Ms. featured Wonder Woman on the cover of their magazine in 1972 with the title "Wonder Woman For President". Steinem wanted to lobby DC comics to display Wonder Woman as a feminist hero because she felt that new images of Wonder Woman in the 1960s objectified her. By including Wonder Woman on the cover of Ms., Steinem was able to encourage Dick Giordano to reinstate Wonder Woman's truth lasso, bracelets, and her origin story.
The Ms. cover wanted to embrace the traits of compassion that Wonder Woman had as well as her belief in justice. Tim Hanley, a comic historian, commented on how the Ms. cover, emphasized unity and "sisterhood". While some women were in support of Wonder Woman being an icon of second-wave feminism, others critiqued Ms. for displaying a woman with "superhuman" or unachievable qualities. However, the Ms. editors were worried about featuring actual female public figures on their covers early on due to their worry of tokenizing them as the symbol of the feminist movement.
Jill Lepore reflected on Ms. magazine's cover with Wonder Woman by calling it the connection between first-wave feminism and second-wave feminism. Wonder Woman was inspired by the efforts of the women's suffrage movement and by the work of women in the Great Depression.[23]