My other, my self: Cleo magazine and feminism in 1970s Australia

Le Masurier, M 2007, ‘My other, my self: Cleo magazine and feminism in 1970s Australia’, Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 22, no. 53, pp. 191-211.

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This article discusses attitudes and ideas about feminism in 1970s Australia, and specifically in women’s magazine Cleo. Le Masurier explores the communication of feminism through popular culture mediums. This started in the 1970s and is termed ‘popular feminism’. Analysation of popular feminism is precedented by authors Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley. The tensions between different generations of feminists are also examined. The article is fairly analytical, drawing ideas about how Cleo’s communication of popular feminism was received by selecting and discussing letters to the editor that were sent in during the 1970s. The issues of class and ethnicity in reference to feminism are also briefly analysed. The article is written for a knowledgeable audience with some prior understanding of feminism, however the language is easy to understand. This article provides a basic understanding of the different strands of feminism that co-existed during the 1970s and the tensions between them. Related resources are Le Masurier’s ‘Reading the Flesh’, and Fawcett’s ‘Fashioning the second wave: issues across generations’. This article is also useful from a popular culture perspective to provide an insight into how media and magazines were being consumed and the impact they had on their readers.