Background reading:

• Get the Summer issue!

Transcript:

00:00:00 Michele Goodwin:

Welcome to The Magazine, part of our MS Studios podcast platform where we give you a sneak peek, and a preview into the magazine that’s about to hit your newsstands, and your mailboxes. 

You get to see just what’s coming forward in MS magazine. And joining me in this special preview is our guest, Kathy Spiller, who’s the Executive Editor of MS Magazine and also the Executive Director of the Feminist Majority Foundation. 

So sit back and take a listen. 

00:00:47 Michele Goodwin:

Kathy, so here we are with another fabulous issue. I’m loving the cover of this issue. It’s so provocative. It is so absolutely timely, as we truly are at a time of significant inquiry, and quite frankly, crisis, when we think about what’s happened in the state of misogyny in our nation and in the world.

00:01:17 Kathy Spillar:

That’s exactly right. Exactly right, Michele. You know, we took this opportunity to revisit the October 1975 cover of MS, which featured a photo of the back of Robert Redford, but it was a special report on men. Nobody knew it was Robert Redford until it leaked out.

But we revisited it with a special report on men. But this time, our focus was very different, and it is in this moment, when it was white men, overwhelmingly, this time with young men added in, that has given Trump a second term, and we are witnessing the political violence around misogyny, with this past weekend’s attacks in Minnesota against abortion providers, and political figures, who supported abortion rights. 

We see it in the social media, and the kind of conversation going on in the bro culture around women, and feminism, and equality, and so we wanted to dive deeper into all of that. And to do that, we asked Jackson Katz, who’s been on your podcast, and I think will be again. He’s, you know, he’s a major thought leader among this developing global movement of men working for gender equality. And we asked him to edit a special section of the summer issue of MS, and he recruited some amazing writers, and analysts, who are looking at, not only how the bro culture, you know, the social media climate, and all the bro casts, influenced voting behavior. But they also look at, what is the state of men, and boys, and how the, you know, the troubles that they face, how they register the problems that they’re facing in this economy, and post COVID, post the COVID pandemic.

But he looks at how the right wing has politicized, and weaponized, really, their struggles, trying to convince them that the answer to their isolation, and you know, these high death rates among men, the higher suicide rates among men. The answer is, the right wing is telling them, wrapped up in a form of masculinity, that in truth, is very damaging. And those are some of the issues that we look at in this issue. 

00:03:52 Michele Goodwin:

Well, it’s so timely, because we see that, as you say, on the political scale, absolutely with the 2024 election. And then, also we see that in myriad other ways, baked into culture. There are so many families that I know where there are women who have said that our household is one that’s egalitarian. It’s one in which my husband has tremendous respect for me. We are both alarmed, in terms of what’s happening to our teenage son, and we don’t know where that’s coming from. 

And so, I think that this is just going to be hotcakes, if you will, on the stands, where people will want to pick up this issue to get greater insight into what is really taking place, because these are matters that are affecting people’s real lives. It’s affecting boys at home, and it’s affecting boys at school, and it’s affecting men. 

So Kathy, we know that that’s the cover, and Jackson Katz playing such an important role in this issue. But there’s more. So can you, also, unpack what else our readers can expect in this issue?

00:05:05 Kathy Spillar: 

There is more. I want to get to that, but I wanted to say one more thing about this piece. We also look at, how can the feminist movement intervene and change what’s happening, change the direction of what’s happening? And so that’s, I think, you know, your listeners, and our readers, will find that very, very interesting. 

In addition to that, of course, we have national news reports on how this debate in Congress over this tax bill is going to disproportionately impact women, and their children, with the attacks on Medicaid, food assistance programs, and Medicare. Now they’re going after Medicare, and of course, older women depend on Medicare to stay out of poverty. 

We also look at how these actions on immigration, by this administration, is once again, going to do great damage to children, because they’re going to be splitting families apart again, and taking custody of children away from their parents. 

We have a major piece in the feature…

00:06:14 Michele Goodwin: 

Well, just on that, and not to interrupt you, Kathy, but just on that piece, as you’ve talked about health care, immigration, what these issues mean for children, at the backdrop of all of this is the question about the sincerity of what we’ve heard through Project 2025, and this administration, that claims to care about children and families, but we’re not seeing that.

00:06:36 Kathy Spillar:

No. We’re seeing huge damage done to women and their families, and to families at large. You know, working class families, especially, and poor families, are going to take the biggest hits, in terms of all of these policies. And of course, project 2025, is we’re living it every day. They’re rolling out, yet, more policies that dramatically impact the health and wellbeing of women and children.

Also, not only here, but all over the globe. And so, we have a major piece that looks at how the cut off of, and destruction really, of USAID, is going to impact women and people around the world. It’s going to mean more deaths. Increase in dying among women of unsafe abortions, women and infants dying in childbirth at higher rates. And individuals who’ve been infected by HIV, are going to be dying. 

Are dying. I shouldn’t say, are going to be dying. What this administration has done to international aid support is already resulting in deaths among the most vulnerable, among the least able to defend themselves. 

International aid groups, all over the world, are saying, they’re having to lay off staff. They have no more supplies, medical supplies. It’s a crime, really. A crime against humanity, that is playing out. 

And then, we also have a feature that is introducing a whole new resource for MS readers, for researchers, for scholars, for historians. The entire collection of 53 years of the magazine, will soon be available through public libraries, and university libraries, a digitized library, of every issue, presented in full color, beautiful layouts. It’s all being…you can go on and search by authors, you can search by subject matter, you can search by year, and you see exactly how this movement has evolved since 1972, until right now. And the full range of issues and all the different authors. I mean, it’s a very, very exciting resource that is soon to become available.

00:08:54 Michele Goodwin: 

That is absolutely exciting. And one piece of that, that’s always important to remind our listeners, and also our readers, is that the people who are providing content in MS Magazine are a special group of folks, because they are researchers, they are academics, they are civil society leaders. They are people who’ve devoted their careers to the topics that they’re writing about. So, it’s not one and done. It’s not, I just got this across my desk, so I was sent out to ask a couple of questions, and it really makes the magazine very unique.

00:09:37 Kathy Spillar: 

It does because, as you said, it’s not just looking at what’s happened, but it is going deeper to say what the impact is going to be. What are the implications? And it’s not one and done. We revisit many of these issues time and time again, because they’re so fundamental to equality, and women’s full autonomy, as human beings, and very much at play, right now, with this administration, with what the Republicans are doing in Congress. 

People need to understand how these impacts are going to play out, but also what feminists are doing to fight back. That’s a key part of our message, always. And you use that same kind of theme on your podcast. You want to know about the bright lights ahead. We want to know, you know, what is the good news? What are feminists doing to fight back? And how can people get involved? Because it’s all-hands-on-deck right now. You can’t afford to sit this one out. The damage is too significant, and too immediate to ignore it. 

00:10:43 Michele Goodwin:

Well, Kathy, I thank you, so very much, for joining me for this episode of The Magazine, and I want to circle back on two things as we wrap up. 

One, paying homage, as you did, as we opened up, to the tragedy that has unfolded in Minnesota, because it is right in the wheelhouse of The Magazine, itself, both what we do all the time, but also this issue, itself, in looking at the crisis that is unfolding with masculinities, and masculinities directed at women, and their bodily autonomy. 

You couldn’t tie it together more forcefully. But at the same time, that messaging that we always do, which is to look forward. What can we do, and how do we make this world a better place? 

So, Kathy, thank you, for the incredible work that you do. Thank you, for this issue. It is fabulous.

00:11:44 Kathy Spillar: 

Thank you, Michele. I do think people are going to love it. It’s long, not explored in other ways. So, this is an important time for people to be reading this, and and thank you, for everything you do to bring these issues to life on on the podcast.

00:12:02 Michele Goodwin:

So friends, be sure to check out this issue when it hits the newsstands. And in the meantime, you can always take a look at what we have online, in our digital space, and be sure to tune into the myriad of our podcast from On the Issues, to 15 Minutes of Feminism, and so much more.