Mainstream

Introduction

Historically, women's media have allowed men's participation under the idea that the liberation of women meant liberation for all. But women have struggled with how or whether to restrict men's role in their movement. The most well-known papers of both the radical and more mainstream wings of the suffrage movement included men in leadership roles. But later publications barred men and excluded them even in outside interactions with mainstream media, a tactic whose effects continue to be debated.

Discussion

The Structure of Women's Media

Women seeking to overcome oppressive social structures were not about to replicate the hierarchical, profit- and power-driven organizations of male-dominated, corporate media. Their size and circulation tended to be small, but their meaning in the history of women's effort to unite women, build networks, and defend a feminist identity was large (although perhaps not as large as the women in the media themselves portrayed their influence). Their points of view showed an enormous range of interests and diversity, but they also had common elements, a call for social change and justice for women; commentary on and evidence supporting the lack of support of women's issues in the mainstream press; general issues of gender and society, concentrating on gender oppression and gender identity; and, like other alternative media, a demand for social change and social justice with an attitude of resistance. (Allen, 2002)

A bit ironically, considering the pervasive contemporary heralding of “participatory culture” and “authenticity” in media, women's alternative media also had as an important mandate helping to build women's political networks and communities and articulating and helping to achieve the communities' goals, all in words unconstrained by journalistic rules. They regularly published articles, essays, and editorials by readers, repudiating “the language of business in order to embrace the language of sisterhood”. (Farrell, 1998)

Some of that language was controversial, but women ...