So our beloved feminist magazine Bitch finds itself in dire straits as the printing industry increasingly feels the effects of our less than stellar economy. The fate of the next issue is in our hands, feminists and proponents of alternative media, to help it get $40,000 by October 15. However, I'm broke. And though I write this as a reader of Bitch and someone who wants more than anything to see it succeed, this is not simply meant as a fundraising post (though if you do have for any miraculous reason any extra moolah and you appreciate their contribution to feminist media, I do encourage you to help them out this month). Rather, this is just one great example of how gender will steadily become more relevant in the face of our economic shit storm. The politics of "having", as in who has what (money, power), does not level out when the availability of things to have decreases. People already at a disadvantage, fringe groups in society, will feel it most acutely.
Of course, this seems obvious in terms of job loss and on an individual level. Who will suffer more during economic crisis than the workers who will inevitably see their jobs flying out the window? However, it is important to also remember that the effects will be far-reaching as well. Bitch's current predicament demonstrates just that: the economy continues to suck, the print industry (already a dying source of media) begins to feel the sharp pains of increased costs of materials and distribution, and then smaller publications fold. Smaller is often synonymous with being less mainstream and representative of the ideas of those outside of that culture. What we have left is mainstream media. Ick. Though I appreciate The New York Times and other monolithic purveyors of progressive information, I like those committed to niches in society, small and specific and political as all get-out.
However, there is still the internet. There are still the blogs and the websites and the emails. But take notice if you're someone like me who browses the magazine section at Barnes & Noble or, better yet - the library, because you can't afford the price of subscriptions to your favorites (yet another rabbit hole, eh?). The politics of getting information out are going to be more relevant than ever as our nation's economy puts the last nails into the coffin of printed media. What are the implications? Is it even a bad thing necessarily? Does it mean a massive return to smaller-scale, regionally based publications? I like to think that the more subversive the ideas are, the more creative our solutions to communicating them should be and the more responsibility we have to do so. Hmmm... things to ponder.
-- Andrea
Of course, this seems obvious in terms of job loss and on an individual level. Who will suffer more during economic crisis than the workers who will inevitably see their jobs flying out the window? However, it is important to also remember that the effects will be far-reaching as well. Bitch's current predicament demonstrates just that: the economy continues to suck, the print industry (already a dying source of media) begins to feel the sharp pains of increased costs of materials and distribution, and then smaller publications fold. Smaller is often synonymous with being less mainstream and representative of the ideas of those outside of that culture. What we have left is mainstream media. Ick. Though I appreciate The New York Times and other monolithic purveyors of progressive information, I like those committed to niches in society, small and specific and political as all get-out.
However, there is still the internet. There are still the blogs and the websites and the emails. But take notice if you're someone like me who browses the magazine section at Barnes & Noble or, better yet - the library, because you can't afford the price of subscriptions to your favorites (yet another rabbit hole, eh?). The politics of getting information out are going to be more relevant than ever as our nation's economy puts the last nails into the coffin of printed media. What are the implications? Is it even a bad thing necessarily? Does it mean a massive return to smaller-scale, regionally based publications? I like to think that the more subversive the ideas are, the more creative our solutions to communicating them should be and the more responsibility we have to do so. Hmmm... things to ponder.
-- Andrea
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