- On Our Backs
-
On Our Backs 
First issue 1984 Country United States Website onourbacksmag.com ISSN 0890-2224 On Our Backs was the first women-run erotica magazine and the first magazine to feature lesbian erotica for a lesbian audience in the United States. ("On Our Backs" is also a book written by Rosita Sweetman being a look at sexual attitudes in 1980s Ireland)[1]
The magazine was first published in 1984 by Debi Sundahl and Myrna Elana, with the contributions of Susie Bright, Nan Kinney, Honey Lee Cottrell, Dawn Lewis, Happy Hyder, Tee Corinne, Jewelle Gomez, Judith Stein, Joan Nestle, Patrick Califia,[2] Morgan Gwenwald, Katie Niles, Noreen Scully, Sarita Johnson, and many others. Susie Bright became editor-in-chief for the next six years. Later editors included Shar Rednour, Tristan Taormino, and Diana Cage. "On Our Backs" defined the look and politics of lesbian culture for the 80s, as well as playing a definitive role in the feminist sex wars of the period, taking the side of sex-positive feminism.
The title of the magazine was a satirical reference to off our backs, a long-running feminist newspaper that published the work of many anti-pornography feminists during the 1980s, and which the founders of On Our Backs considered prudish about sexuality.[3] Off our backs regarded the new magazine as "pseudo-feminist" and threatened legal action over the logo OOB.[4]
In 1985, Sundahl and Kinney spun off the first in a series of precedent-making lesbian erotic videos, called Fatale Video. Distribution of the magazine in Australia began in 1986.[5] By the late 1980s, Fatale Media was the largest producer of lesbian pornography in the world.[4]
In 1994, the magazine experienced financial problems, and, after being bought out by a new publisher, Melissa Murphy (who released only one issue), disappeared from the market until 1998. H.A.F. Publishing then owned the magazine. The original creators moved on to other projects.
In 1997, a photography book based on the pioneering work of On Our Back's artists called Nothing but the Girl was published by Cassell Press, edited by Susie Bright and Jill Posener.
H.A.F.'s publication of On Our Backs, and its sister publication, Girlfriends, both ceased publication in March 2006[6] after being bought out by the publishers of Velvetpark Magazine.
See also
- Lesbian feminism
- Lesbian literature
- List of Lesbian Periodicals, Journals and Magazines, Past and Present
References
- ^ http://www.drb.ie/contribute.aspx?id=d8fc984b-9c0f-4243-a1da-776ae82f7dee
- ^ Patrick Califia, "Raising Cane", Out, August 1999, Vol. 8, No. 2, p.32
- ^ Martha Cornog, Timothy Perper, "For sex education, see librarian: a guide to issues and resources", Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0313290229, p.97
- ^ a b Josh Sides, "Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco", Oxford University Press US, 2009, ISBN 0195377818, p.219
- ^ Jill Julius Matthews, "Sex in public: Australian sexual cultures", Allen & Unwin, 1997, ISBN 1864480491, pp.121-122
- ^ Marketplace finds lesbians an attractive, but elusive, niche, SF Chronicle, September 7, 2006
Further reading
- Rebecca Whisnant, Christine Stark, "Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography", Spinifex Press, 2004, ISBN 1876756497, pp. 287–288
- Bonnie Zimmerman, "Lesbian histories and cultures: an encyclopedia", Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures, vol.1, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0815319207, p. 582
Categories:- American LGBT-related magazines
- American women's magazines
- Erotica magazines
- Lesbian-related magazines
- Lesbian erotica
- Lesbian pornographic magazines
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
