Cirihn Malpocher
I am from the U.S. and am currently finishing my thesis entitled, ‘Sexuality, Race and Zionism: Conflict and Debates in Spare Rib, 1972-1987.’ Spare Rib was the longest and most-important British Women’s Liberation Magazine (WLM), collectively published from 1972-1992. Feminist in content, it maintained a close connection to the WLM and centred on women’s issues of the period. Following the progression of feminism and the Movement into the 1980s, and set against the backdrop of the British political context, the collective became increasingly fraught in facing the challenge identity-based political differences. During the course of its lifetime, SR endured many internal conflicts, made public on the pages of the magazine, as they struggled with the prioritization of interests in various feminist political debates that were present within the movement and the larger British society. My thesis is a literary analysis of the three major debates – indicated in my title – occurring in SR, as presented on the pages of the magazine.