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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2007)
APRIL ¿0. ¿OT7 ju.St|OUtÌ4? culture Bitch Is Back Freshly transplanted feminist magazine reclaims a loaded word by Julie Sabatier A ndi Zeisler’s French bulldog, Oscar, greeted me at the top of the stairs when I visited the new digs for Bitch Magazine— a converted apartment above Bernie’s Southern Bistro on Northeast Alberta Street. Though only a few emp ty boxes were piled in the corner and little art was hanging on the walls, her colleagues seemed remarkably settled in their new space after only two weeks. Originally from New York, 34-year-old Zeisler, and rhe feminist quarterly she helped found, spent more than a decade in the Bay Area. When they decided it was time for a change, Portland, with its do-it-yourself work ethic and queer-friendly atmos phere, seemed like a logical choice. Bitch has always operated under the inclusive philosophy that gay issues and feminist issues are intrinsically entwined. (When 1 asked Zeisler about her own sexuality, she replied: “I’m married to a man. 1 don’t really call myself anything.”) As we settled into the couch across from a shelf of archived magazines, Zeisler offered me a tasty treat from a box of Voodoo Doughnuts sent to the new office by an appreciative reader. I asked her about local media and the B-word while Oscar sniffed and grunted under the coffee table, hoping to score some chocolate crumbs. Julie Sabatier: Why did you decide to move Bitch to Portland? Andi Zeisler: I had wanted to move here any way, but basically we were just kind of not making ends meet financially in Oakland. Portland has everything that we love about the Bay Area in the sense that it’s politically progressive and there’s a lot of DIY stuff going on and people have a real, EMERGENCY SERVICE creative and entrepreneurial spirit. And, just sim ply put, it was a lot cheaper. 1 realize that people like us are kind of part of the problem, in terms of Portland becoming more expensive and gentrified and all that, but we really felt like, as an organiza tion, it was either do something to lower our operating costs or not really be sustainable. JS: What do you think of the local media in Portland? AZ: Well, it’s been super responsive to us, and that’s really nice. You know, I have been aware of papers like Willamette Week and The Mercury even before I moved here because we have readers in Portland that would often send us things that they found particularly annoying or particularly good about those papers. ingly offensive things in a sarcastic tone. What’s your response to that kind of writing? AZ: It can be difficult. Like [WiUatnette Week cartoonist John] Callahan—his stuff is legendarily sexist, and you can be aware of that and you can understand that that’s his thing and Willamette Week [is] aware of that even as they publish him, but that doesn’t mean that people have to just accept it. I’m just a big fan of peo ple speaking up when they feel that something is offensive. So, my sense is if papers are going to put that stuff out there, they have to understand and be ready to engage with people who write Andi Zeisler helped found Bitch more than a decade ago in in and are insulted or offended or just the Bay Area. want to understand what the rationale behind printing that stuff is. 1 think as independent there is this stereotype out there about lesbian media producers, we all have to be aware of that. feminists who hate men? AZ: You know what’s really funny is the time JS: When people engage with and respond to in the magazine’s history when we’ve gotten the Bitch, do you find that they have more of a problem most of those letters was the time when we had with the B-word (bitch) or the F-word (feminism)? overall the straightest staff. We’ve rarely had AZ: 1 think on the surface, it usually becomes photos of ourselves or information about more of a problem with the B-word, but ultimate ourselves, so people wouldn’t necessarily know, ly, having the word “feminism” on the cover has but we’ve had content that’s really queer probably marginalized us more than having friendly... we’ve always had stuff on trans issues. “bitch” on the cover. “Bitch” is really common I think that really does make people who think parlance at this point in time. Definitely there are that there’s a difference between a feminist maga women—and many of them are from a slightly zine and a lesbian feminist magazine—I think it’s older generation—who have really taken issue really.given those people pause. with the name and have really felt personally hurt that they spent so much time in the 197^s trying JS: Do you have a policy about the gender of to raise other people’s consciousness about the people who contribute to the magazine? word, only to have it reclaimed by these snotty, AZ: No, not at all. We don’t have that many young feminists. But in terms of feminism, I think male contributors, but we do have a few. We it’s a more pernicious problem because it just has certainly have a staple of trans contributors, both such an image problem. Even women who believe FtM and MtF. I mean, really, it’s just all about the sensibility. © in equal rights and equal pay and that there should be a female president someday, those people, many of them are still really loathe to call BITCH magazine’s “super" issue hit newsstands just themselves feminists because the word carries so after it left Oakland, and the “risk” issue will be much baggage. produced this summer in P-town. JS: The Mercury is known as our most tongue- in-cheek publication, and it’s said all kinds of seem JS: If you have queer women on staff, do you find that people respond more negatively because JS: The Bay Area, and San Francisco specifi cally, has this reputation of being a gay man’s town, and Portland has in the past few years gained a reputation of being a really lesbian friendly place. I’m wondering if you’ve noticed that in your short time here. AZ: It’s funny because we were in San Francisco for a while, but for the last four years we were in Oakland, which is sort of akin to Portland in the sense that if San Francisco is a gay man’s town, Oakland is very much a lesbian mecca. It's more low-key, it’s not super clubby. I actually see definite parallels [between Oakland and Portland] like women’s bookstores and restaurants and bars that seem to specifically cater to a lesbian crowd rather than a gay man’s crowd. JULIE S abatier is a Portland freelance writer and radio producer. Meet Charlie - Happy Dog, Once Again. arly in the year, Charlie, our 18-month-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever became clumsy and unc<x>rdinatcd. We attributed this to a combination of slippery hardwtxxl floors and Charlie's spoiled nature. We had numerous visits with our vet. After examinations and x-rays our vet referred us to NWVS. 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