Word: woman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There are many magazine advertisements like it--the sexy woman smoking, the sexy woman buying a car, the sexy woman shaving her legs. Cosmetics, diet aids, jewelry, underwear--all commercial products geared towards a women's audience are represented in the glossy 98-page magazine. And they portray an image of women at once career-oriented and feminine, with flawless bodies and immaculate grooming to reinforce the "correct" female look upon which companies rely to sell products to women...
...lengthy "Editor's Essay" that occupies a prominent place in this September's issue, Editor-in-Chief Anne Summers explains that there is "great news" to report--"Ms. is woman-owned." Women bought the magazine, women financed the sale of the magazine, women lawyers negotiated the sale of the magazine, and of course, women wrote the magazine, she proudly notes...
Consider an ad for the publication itself, which appears in the September issue: in it a sleekly dressed Black woman strides down the steps of the Capitol. The ad says that "this year women will elect the President" and promises Ms. readers that they will receive the "inside story" on Washington power politics. The ad argues that because Ms. is now non-profit, it can take partisan political stances that it was precluded from taking during its pre-commercial days...
SEPTEMBER'S cover story, luridly billed on the front cover as "Bess Myerson: A Woman Undone By Love?," provides what may be the best insight into how the magazine now distorts the original lessons of its feminist foundation. After describing the turbulent events that led former Miss America Myerson to shoplifting, the article goes on to explain how Myerson's problems reflected larger problems with the women's movement...
...retreating from the Women's Movement, conceding to the demands of the business world and mistakenly thinking that because "we are everywhere" there is no need to press on, the new, woman-owned Ms. magazine does itself and its readers a disservice...