her-self:community women’s newspaper
Special Collections has no lack of feminist newspapers published during the 1970′s. We have featured a number of these titles throughout March in celebration of Women’s History Month. Today we take a closer look at her-self, published in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1972-1977.
The newspaper included local and national news, issues, resources, and advertisements, as well as letters, artwork, poetry, and opinion pieces.
A number of issues focused upon particular topics. In November 1973, the newspaper focused on lesbian oppression:
The January 1974 issue was devoted to women and the law:
In April 1974, her-self focused on woman and medicine, including women’s agency over medical decisions, the self-help movement, sex positive education, and abortion and birth control rights. As stated on the bottom of the first page, this particular issue was sent to gynecologists, obstetricians, internists, and psychiatrists listed in the Ann Arbor Yellow Pages.
As is the experience with most underground press publications, her-self eventually felt the effects of inflation. The February 1974 issue cites postage costs, rent, newsprint shortages, advertising costs, and supply costs, among others, as the reason the newspaper was forced to raise the price of each issue from 25 cents to 35 cents:
A number of issues of her-self are available digitally via Independent Voices, a digital collection of alternative press papers:
http://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=CBGJBDI&ai=1
For more information about our underground press holdings, visit:
http://pitt.libguides.com/undergroundpress