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Abstract
Most communication research concerning women's magazines addresses the negative implications these popular culture artifacts have on women's identities in terms of constructing specific notions of femininity and appropriating feminist ideals. However, there has been little research on popular culture artifacts that explicitly contradict the messages of most contemporary women's magazines. This study applies and extends radical feminist Mary Daly's philosophical and rhetorical theories to a radically unique artifact, Bust magazine, to uncover the ways this magazine contributes to today's feminine and feminist transformation. The application of Daly's theoretical principles facilitates this study's conclusion: that Bust is situated in a new space that uses humor as a means of resistance and control, and employs the power of language to combat patriarchal social control. This exploration of Bust also extends Daly's theories to generate transformative strategies to address the specific demands of particular contexts, especially for the newest generation of young women.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr. Robin P. Clair whose class was the inspiration for this project, and Dr. Patrice M. Buzzanell for reading and commenting on multiple drafts of this paper.
Notes
1. While there is disagreement among feminists that patriarchy is the source of all oppression, many agree that “it is the form we are most likely to encounter in an ongoing way in everyday life” (hooks Citation1989, p. 21). hooks (1989, p. 20) questions the assumption that sexist oppression is the root of all oppressions and that the elimination of patriarchy will lead to the elimination of other forms of domination such as racism and classism. However, she does draw attention to “paradigms of domination” in an effort to understand “that our capacity as women and men to be either dominated or dominating is a point of connection, of commonality” (hooks Citation1989, p. 20). That said, she agrees that the feminist struggle to end patriarchal domination should be of primary importance because this form of oppression determines relationships in the most intimate contexts of our private lives, social spaces, homes, and families.
2. Some find Daly's philosophical theories to be problematic, resulting in her infrequent use. Daly has been accused of over-generalizing and ignoring the uniqueness of each woman's lived experience. Much of this criticism has been focused on race. For example, in response to her reading of Gyn/Ecology (Daly Citation1978), radical lesbian feminist Lorde wrote a letter to Daly questioning Daly's choice to depict non-European women exclusively as victims. After four months of waiting for a reply, Lorde (Citation1984) published “An Open Letter to Mary Daly” in Sister Outsider. Lorde (1984, p. 67) writes, “To dismiss our Black foremothers may well be to dismiss where European women learned to love. As an African-American woman in white patriarchy, I am used to having my archetypal experience distorted and trivialized, but it is terribly painful to feel it being done by a woman whose knowledge so much touches my own.”
Because she did not reply to the letter, many quickly assumed that Daly was, in fact, racist (Katherine Citation2000). However, Katherine (Citation2000) points out the importance of historical context. Daly's radical feminism assumes that patriarchy is the root of all oppressions whereas Lorde offered a definition that was progressive at the time. Lorde's patriarchy is “a global system oppressing all women but since it intersects, or interlocks, or interacts with racism, colonialism, and imperialism in different places at different times, women do not suffer the same oppression as women” (Katherine Citation2000, p. 290; italics in original).
Daly (Citation1992) acknowledges Lorde's letter in Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage, arguing that Gyn/Ecology was meant to be part of her own voyage that still continues. In other words, the book was not meant to be a work of perfection but rather Daly (1992, p. 232) “hoped that it would soar together with the works of Other women, which were coming and would come from different Realms of the Background. I looked forward to the profusion of New Creation, which I believed could emerge from women of all races, cultures, classes—from all over this planet—speaking/Be-Speaking out of our various and vital heritages.”
3. The author tried numerous times to contact Bust via telephone and email to verify current demographic and circulation figures but was left unanswered. This information is not available in common media circulation outlets such as Mediamark Research, Inc. (MRI) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
4. One reviewer suggested an examination of advertisements in Bust. Although space precludes such analysis, the reviewer's point is well taken. A preliminary review of the advertisements reveals that some advertisements are more conventional while others, especially those of small businesses and organizations, are more creative in their use of language, humor, and contradiction. Stoller (Citation2007) also notes that the number of ads for small, independent, women-owned companies is ever-increasing.
