RARE BOOKS LIB. The University of Sydney Copyright and use of this thesis This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author's moral rights if you: • fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work • attribute this thesis to another author • subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author's reputation For further information contact the University's Director of Copyright Services Telephone: 02 9351 29911 e-mail: [email protected] FAIR GO. Cleo magazine as popular feminism in 1970s Australia M. J. Le Masurier A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Media and Communications School of Letters, Arts and Media University of Sydney December 2007 1 CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP jORIGINALITY I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signamre of candidate r \\~\~~ 2 ABSTRACT Fair Go. Cleo magazine as popular feminism in 1970s Australia This thesis investigates the emergence of, and connections between, second wave feminism and Cleo magazine in Australia in the 1970s. It argues that a popular feminism was being developed in this new magazine for younger women. The antagonism of second wave feminism towards women's magazines is explored and will be shown to provide one explanation for the invisibility of magazines such as Cleo in the history of feminism in Australia. It will be argued that the resistance of many 'ordinary' women to claiming identity as feminist has one of its origins in the tensions between second wave feminism as an outsider identity politics and the manifestations of popular feminism in the journalism of readers and writers in a mainstream women's magazine such as Cleo. Popular feminism will also be seen to develop the optimistic vision of the second wave as incorporating the sexual liberation of women, a vision that disappeared for a time within 'official' feminism. In short, this is an exploration of a 'hidden history' of feminism in Australia, found in the pages of a popular and mainstream women's magazine and especially through the voices of its reader/writers. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Emeritus Professor Ros Pesman and Professor Richard Waterhouse for easing my way back to the University of Sydney, and to Richard especially for being so generous with his time during the first year - even though I abandoned History for the Department of Media and Communications. For that move, and for everything really, my thanks to the inspirational Professor Catharine Lumby. You knew when to leave me alone and your unswerving support, even when I gave you nothing to read, was critical. To the magic MECO corridor that opened its doors and gave me a home, my never­ ending alphabetical gratitude: Marc Brennan (who stepped in as Associate Supervisor at the eleventh hour), the 'iconically' supportive Kate Crawford, the magisterial Anne Dunn, the clever and lovely Fiona Giles, the generous and ethical Steven Maras, for last minute tech support and abiding good cheer, Robin Moffat, and to Richard Stanton (thanks for the hugs - seriously!). To my friends Terry Culver, Theo Cremona, Louise Katz, Maureen Thomas, and the Tropicana Cafe in Darlinghurst. I am sorry for talking about sex and the seventies so much ... And most of all to my mother, Phyllis Cronly and my daughter Lucy. You will never understand how much your lives have inspired my understanding of the generations of popular feminism, before and after the seventies. My mother will go to her grave denying it, and Lucy would just roll her eyes. Perfect! 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 4 Prologue 6 Introduction 10 1: Coming to terms 25 2: Cleo in context 52 3: Discursive disgust: The second wave and women's magazines 84 4: Writing the popular feminism of Cleo 123 5: Readers writing the popular feminism of Cleo 153 6: Heterosexy popular feminism 192 7: Just looking? The Cleo centrefold 234 Conclusion 273 Bibliography 279 5 PROLOGUE The germ of the idea for this research project began in the mid-nineties as a rush of publications and media commentary tried to explain young women's disinterest in taking the word 'feminist' as a way to describe their identity. Popular writers gave names to the range of possible positions and rejections that second wave feminist theorising and teaching, living and mediating had bequeathed. A string of adjectival feminisms were coined. There was a veritable publishing boom around the topic in the US whose shock waves reached Australian shores. Susan Faludi's Back/aJh (1991) blamed the media for creating a ... well, a backlash against feminism. Katie Roiphe's The Morning After (1993) took issue with a feminism that saw women as victims in need of protection from the predations and violence of men, as did Rene Denfeld's The New Victorians (1995). Naomi Wolfs Fire with Fire (1993) advocated a 'power' feminism which read like a Nike 'just do it' ad campaign for young, educated middle class white women. These books sold well, garnered widespread media coverage in the West and their catchphrases - the backlash, victim feminism, power feminism - became popularised modes of understanding what had happened to feminism in the wash of the second wave. In Australia, the debate took on local inflections, stimulated by Anne Summer's new edition of Damned Whores and God's Po/ice and its appended 'Letter to the next generation' (1994[1975): 505-528). A version of this was published as 'Shockwaves at the Revolution' in The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine in March 1995. To Summers' questions about why young women found 'the movement' irrelevant to their lives, why they weren't grateful for the activist work of the women of the sixties and seventies that had irrevocably changed their expectations and opportunities, young female journalists responded. Virginia Trioli's Generation F (1996) and Kathy Bail's edited collection DIY Feminism (1996) argued that young women were doing feminism in their everyday, creative and working lives, they just weren't identifying as feminists. Second wave feminism had an image problem. As Bail put it: Young women are nervous about associating themselves with feminism, yet once they start talking about what it's like to be a woman, their views often fit a broad 6 feminist agenda .,. Young women don't want to identify with something that sounds dowdy, asexual or shows them to be at a disadvantage. (4-5) And so, two new adjectives entered the pool for a brief splash. DIY and Gen F joined the noisy debate in Australia and created a feeling that some fresh, generational cultural formation was being recognised. Adjectival feminism was a tempting solution to give a name to the problem of how an individual woman could integrate some feminist ideas into her life without taking on the baggage of feminism past. Second wave feminism was positioned as a monolith that was anti-heterosex, anti-fashion, pro-censorship and more than a little authoritarian about what could be said, worn, fucked, watched and read. It was a massive generalisation about a movement that was highly complex, but indicated how the popular image of feminism had become dominated by a small but noisy number of feminists who certainly held these views. A large umbrella of 'postfeminism' had also been held aloft to cover the younger bodies left playing on the beach as the second wave had rolled in and out. Although I didn't know it at the time, working as a senior editor in the myopic world of women's magazines with no time to read beyond the job description, writers more conversant with academic feminist debate were developing the terms 'post' and 'third wave' as more complex adjectives to explain younger women's relationship to feminism. Underlying the new adjectival feminists' diverse arguments seemed to be a move away from identity politics as it had emerged in second wave feminism. Identity had become far more fragmented and layered, as had understandings of politics, and the label 'feminist' couldn't cover the terrain for younger women. Mapping itself across an apparent generational divide between second wave mothers and rebellious daughters, the debate intrigued me, as it seemed to intrigue the media. After ten years of full-time writing and editing I moth-balled the suits and began freelancing. I proposed an interview with Catharine Lumby for Vogue to coincide with the publication of her book Bad Girls (1997a). Lumby's lively crossover style, her engagement with a debate that 'everyone' had been following, and the important fact that she would look good in the photo - and as a feminist, would enjqy looking good in the photo - persuaded Vogue to run with the story.