off our backs

OFF OUR BACKS. Of all the feminist newspapers that began publishing in the early years of the women’s liberation movement, off our backs (oob) likely had the biggest circulation. Considered by some “the New York Times of the women’s movement,” oob was an indispensable guide to anyone interested in understanding the evolution of the women’s liberation movement. Oob was founded in early 1970 by veteran New Leftist and Guardian correspondent Marilyn Webb and Marlene Wickes, after Webb, weary of what she described as the Guardian’s “consistent blackout on feminist news,” broached the idea of publishing a women’s news journal.

When oob began publishing, women’s liberationists were typically divided into two camps—Left feminists who believed that women’s oppression was largely a function of capitalism and should be fought within the larger radical movement, and radical feminists who believed that it resulted from male supremacy and that its eradication required a separate and autonomous women’s movement. Initially, oob articulated the former position. Thus, the editorial in its inaugural issue called on women to “oppose and destroy the system that fortifies the supremacy of men while exploiting the mass for the profit of the few.” And in an effort to distinguish itself from radical feminism, the staff emphasized that “our position is not antimen but prowomen.”

Eager to distinguish itself from liberal feminism as well, the staff made it clear that it took its inspiration from Third World revolutionary women, not Betty Friedan. The paper was filled with glowing reports about the situation of women in Vietnam, Cuba, and China, where, if oob was to be believed, sexism was rapidly becoming a thing of the past. But the paper was not dogmatically attached to the politico position; within its first year of publication it printed several articles excoriating the male-dominated movement for continued sexism. It is worth noting that throughout oob remained more globally oriented than many other feminist newspapers.

As the Left disintegrated and as the women’s movement flourished, oobers, like some other Left feminists, began to move toward radical feminism. Between 1973 and 1978 oob printed some of the most incisive radical feminist writing to be found anywhere. Nor did oob repudiate the Left in this period, for, like many radical feminists, its writers believed that radical feminism entailed an expansion rather than a rejection of the Left. Over the years this perspective receded, as oob, reflecting changes within radical feminism, grew more skeptical of the Left.

A grassroots effort that relied heavily on volunteer labor, oob struggled financially from the 1990s onward as younger feminists were drawn to more irreverent publications such as Bitch. In 2008, six years after having switched to a magazine format and a bimonthly publishing schedule, the editors of oob, ended its nearly forty-year run in feminist publishing.

Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad: A History of the Radical Feminist Movement in America, 1967–75. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.

Enke, Finn. Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.

Willis, Ellen. “Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism.” In The Sixties without Apology, edited by Sohnya Sayres, Anders Stephanson, Stanley Aronowitz, and Fredric Jameson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.