I sincerely encourage PhD candidates to try to understand and sincerely answer this question of how using socialism fared in a predominantly capitalist society for articulating change. 

The reason the socialist message was effectively communicated through a periodical such as Quest, a feminist periodical, was due to the reader base of the periodical. What does that mean, a reader base? Well when I consider what a typical Playboy reader looks like I imagine a white man who works some white collar job.  The advertisements in Playboy would make sense for this type of reader base: golf clubs, liquor, cigarettes, naked women scattered through all of the pages- that seems reasonable for white men. When I consider what a Quest reader looks like I imagine a woman (not necessarily white!, and it could be a man who identifies as an ally!) who is trying to further their role for social change and consciousness. Once again, these advertisements in Quest and Conditions make sense: the advertisements they used were on poetry about women, writings on black women in the south, writings on women in prison, writings on socialism, etc. 

 

The fundamental difference in these advertisements is based in their materialistic value. For a Playboy reader a golf club that is being advertised might be worth every penny and some poetry might be worth nothing to them. For a Conditions reader a book of poems may be worth every penny to them and the golf clubs nothing. While both of these objects may be bought for their advertised price, I argue that because the feminist base is supporting a movement bigger than themselves, they are willing to buy goods and services even if they can’t maximize their utility as consumers. Simply put, if a man didn’t think they would enjoy a round of golf, they probably wouldn’t buy the golf clubs. However, I believe that the feminist base is more likely to buy publications that they aren’t necessarily excited about because they know that their financial contribution makes a lasting impact for a movement they want to see succeed. 

More simply, this means that if golf clubs are being sold for $50 and you are willing to pay $50 because you value them at that price- you buy them. If they cost more than your willingness to pay then you forgo buying them. However, if you’re a feminist and you see that a book of poems that are being sold for $3.50, your willingness to pay may be higher than normal because you are investing into something that has social impact and is aligned with your values.

So how did socialist advertisement effectively communicate their message and not go bankrupt in a capitalist environment? They had readers like Jan Clausen who wanted to make a social impact and pay more than what might be considered normal when compared to Playboy consumers. ?

 

In the 1975 winter edition of Quest, there is an advertisement for Working Papers, a radical left wing publication that advocates for fighting injustices and representing underrepresented voices. It just so happens that in 1976, Working Papers released the following image that is on this post. With the summer 1976 release of Working Papers, the cover reads, “Socialism in One City.” It is clear that while Quest did not advertise exclusively for socialism, they are advertising a publication that is willing to fight and advertise for it.

Just to try and digest the timeline: first comes the Cosmopolitan cigarette advertisement, second comes Jan Clausen with Nellie Wong’s socialist poetry, and thirdly another example of socialist advertisements with Working Papers. At the moment, it’s just a list. What I hope to show with this evolving timeline is that so far, there is an immense difference in substance and theme between mainstream publications and feminist publications. The inclusion of Working Papers works in the same dynamic in which Jan Clausen’s kind words do for Nellie Wong; both instances of inclusion foster support for how a non-capitalistic structured publication can viably function without going bankrupt- the support from dedicated readers!

Jan Clausen is a dedicated reader and supporter of Quest and the second wave of feminism respectively. Her analysis of Wong’s work serves as an advertisement for Quest readers to buy like minded work from a like minded individual. When you consider big alcohol and cigarette companies that advertise in Cosmopolitan and Playboy, as seen from their actions, they are going to advertise what can make them the most money from the biggest spending companies. We don’t know what they stand for. Do they stand for nice golf clubs and extravagant alcohols? Can you even stand for that?  Feminist publishers are making an extremely clear and conscious effort to advertise products that only reflect the message they are trying to share with the world. The readers can see that Quest cares about underrepresented voices in the community. And when you look at what is being advertised by Quest their advertisements deal with underrepresented voices such as black women in prison, women with mental illness, women in high education, etc- the advertisements are perfectly aligned with the greater message of Quest. The same cannot be said for Playboy or Cosmopolitan, when the reader sees advertisements that are from the biggest companies trying to sell products that are detrimental to the health of the user: cigarettes, alcohol, etc, the greater message of the mainstream publications become confusing. What seems clear is that the mainstream publications are advertising whatever will make them the most amount of money and feminist periodicals are not willing to stoop that low to make ends meet. 

 So if this assumption is fair to stand by that big name companies gave more money than small feminist poetry books, how did feminist publications stay in business if they decided to stay away from capitalist money and rely on other feminist writers to finance their periodicals? 

Strangely enough my project does not start with feminist work, it starts with Playboy and Cosmopolitan. When reading and looking through dozens of feminist works for our class, I found advertisements in these magazines that seemed pretty standard such as alcohol, cigarettes, life insurance, clothing, etc.  When I open a magazine these are the types of advertisements I expect to see, advertisements that are driven by capitalism and materialism.

When I opened up feminist periodicals such as Quest, Heresies, and Conditions, the advertisements were so non-capitalistic it was concerning.  The advertisements were concerning in the sense that everything that was mainstream and normal (cigarettes, alcohol, etc) could not be found. All of the advertisements I saw in feminist periodicals were exclusively in support of feminist work; these advertisements furthered the message that was being articulated within the periodical. There were no cigarettes, alcohol, or images of big breasted women with golf clubs. Through this post I want to compare mainstream advertisements (Playboy and Cosmopolitan) and feminist advertisements (Quest, Heresies, and Conditions) and try to understand why they might be different.