Feminist issues, mag need spotlight

“We have a feminist magazine on campus?” is the
question I hear almost every time I mention that I am the editor of
FEM, UCLA’s feminist newsmagazine.

We spend six months a year producing three separate issues, and
the students are hardly aware we even exist.

As the 2006-2007 FEM editor in chief many of my concerns revolve
around circulation and getting the word out. UCLA has such a large
student body with myriad publications and ideas around campus,
it’s difficult for any group to find its niche.

We do have other feminist clubs, such as the Feminist Majority
Foundation, but no clubs that exist on campus on a large scale.
Maybe a more concerted effort is needed to include other students
on campus in the fight for gender equality.

It may be idealistic, but we hope that once the barrier of our
magazine’s distribution is overcome, the open discussion of
feminist perspectives will foster not only a deeper understanding
of feminism, but also increase membership in the fight for
equality.

Last year, our first two issues sat in the Student Media kiosks
without much interest. Our spring “FEM Knows Sex”
issue, however, was picked up widely across campus. Maybe that is a
sign that we need to cater to the prevailing thoughts and interests
of the average college student if we want to boost our
circulation.

While there is value in including interests specific to college
students, we have had success distributing issues to people in
women’s studies classes, and we hope we can garner enough
interest in women’s studies fields that we don’t have
to compromise our feminist perspective.

Something positive for fellow feminists to keep in mind is that
UCLA definitely has supporters of feminism.

Many professors throughout (at least) English and sociology
classes espouse feminist ideals and feminist criticisms of the
literature and situations and are very open to the reality that
feminism attempts to reconstruct.

Often, professors who do not approach the subject of gender on
their own are willing to engage in the discussion if introduced by
a student in the class.

And with professors willing to initiate and engage in feminist
discussions in classes that would not otherwise be expected to
involve feminism at all, UCLA is an academic community that is
willing to at least consider feminism, if not support it.

We have a detailed plan for increasing distribution in the
coming year, and perhaps the way to include people who are not
already self-proclaimed feminists will be to target students in
communities and circles other than women’s studies and those
who already call themselves feminists.

Once students such as those in math, biochemical engineering,
dance, English and political science are aware of feminist ideals
and the feminist community on campus, hopefully the question,
“We have a feminist magazine on campus?” will be
replaced with, “What can I do to help?”

Keyhan is the 2006-2007 editor in chief of FEM.