I hope you are wrong about writing for Ms. Magazine. I hope that the current editorial staff sees what you are saying and realizes their mistake.

Any counter culture movement, no matter how long it has been around, needs the energy and the unfettered enthusiasm of the current generation to keep it alive and relevant. It sounds like a fair chunk of the feminist community gets that (based on your list of who is supporting younger feminists) and it seems unfathomable to me that Ms. magazine would not embrace that philosophy and keep itself energized by employing younger writers.

I also share 21stCenturyMom's sentiments on writing for Ms. Magazine. I feel making the statement that never writing for Ms. Magazine only perpetuates what you are saying you don't want: a divide between younger and older wave feminists. There needs to be a bridge created, and comments and stances like that only create a larger divide and do not do anything to provide a bridge - whereas pushing to write for Ms. could very easily create one. I am a young feminist myself, and love Ms. as much as my mother does. I do understand the frustration with a lack of recognition of the younger waves, but putting a wall against other feminist communication, or what have you, creates the same kind of divide in feminism that occurred when young feminists like Alice Paul were trying to aggressively get the vote and older feminists were determined to take a subdued approach. Hasn't everyone seen Iron Jawed Angels? We need to find the bridge, not the wall.

If you go read Courtney's article, I think you'll see that she won't be writing for Ms. not because she hasn't wanted to, but because they're not so keen on young woman writers.

Yeah, I got that, I guess I just didn't articulate my point well enough. I can't imagine that Ms. would refuse to publish a young feminists' writings, just absolutely refuse. I feel sure, but maybe I'm wrong, that there is a way to break into it, and create that bridge that is needed between the generations. I don't feel we should be writing Ms. off, or give up on building the bridge between us.

I had the happy opportunity to interview Deborah Siegel for the Center for New Words website. In our conversation, Siegel talks about her new book, her reflections on the trajectory of feminist history and future, how she fuses her own identities as a writer and a feminist, and her thoughts on the place online writing has in the movement.

Check it out...and let me know what you think!

Thanks for the thoughtful reflection on Sisterhood Interrupted, Courtney! My copy is in the mail and I can't wait to read it.

When I was an undergrad, I had the wonderful experience of doing, as my senior project, an extended oral history/inter-generational conversation with a group of feminist activists who had begun their work in the 1960s and 70s. They are all in their 40s-60s now.

There were times during the multi-year project when generational tensions did come up, and we had to work them out. But for the most part, it was an incredibly supportive environment. I remain close to the older women as well as my peer researchers, who have gone on to do their own sorts of activism.

From my experience, I would argue that the main thing to keep in mind when inter-generational tensions begin to run high is that what both older and younger women want is respect for their experience and ideas, and the sense that someone is taking them seriously. The women we interviewed and worked with from the "second wave" repeatedly asked us not to think of them as part of "history" (or herstory), as has-beens who could only inform our understanding of the past--rather than as individuals who are still fighting the good fight. They aren't feminists in the past tense, but continue to be active today!

And as students, of course, we all wanted to be treated as individuals with something to offer the world today, even as we were/are still learning.

I love, Courtney, how you point out that we younger women yearn for sustained and respectful mentoring from older wisewomen feminists. This can't be repeated enough, in my opinion! The narrative of insoluable inter-generational conflict obstructs the building of those relationships which could add such power to feminist movement(s). (Not to mention strength and healing in our personal lives!)

. . . and, as a P.S., I love Iron Jawed Angels. I watch it every few months and it always makes me cry.