The Problem with MS
MS Magazine
The year 2005
If you look through this blog, you’ll notice that there are no articles from MS magazine listed or discussed. The reason for this is because I did not get my last copies of the magazine and, therefore, could not read them. (This blog was started after the first few had been read and passed along to other women.)
MS comes out 4 times a year (and costs far more than it should). However, if you move at anytime during your subscription and fill out the change-of-address from on their website, you will get an interesting email informing you that it takes at least one issue to complete an address change – regardless of when that address is changed in the course of year.
The Nation, Technology Review, and WIRED had no problem changing my address immediately, but MS magazine seems to be unable, or unwilling, to do the same.
I did a little digging on their website and looked over my emails from them again, and realized that MS does not consider itself to be a publication – it’s an association. It’s something that women join so that they can say they are card carrying feminist and have access to all of the inside things that associations provide. Honestly, I can’t tell you if MS provides much in this respect because I never used my membership for anything more than the magazine.
Quite frankly, I am disappointed in MS and the association connected to it. The whole thing is very elitist – never mind the fact that I hate using that word and get my dander up every time I hear someone else use it. At this point there’s a lot of prestige tied up in being published in MS, being interviewed in MS, being mentioned in MS, having your organization or work covered in MS, and otherwise being recognized by the flagship of feminist involvement. Whatever it may have been in the past, it is now a ruler by which women can judge (or value) their involvement in the feminist movement. It is proof that someone else is doing something worth supporting. It is the source of all things feminist and, therefore, read with unquestioning awe of the un-challenged expert.
So, I guess they feel perfectly justified in telling a nobody like me that I will simply have to let go of at least one forth of my annual subscription because I moved. Maybe mail forwarding is something they offer to people who purchase the more expensive membership.
The year 2005
If you look through this blog, you’ll notice that there are no articles from MS magazine listed or discussed. The reason for this is because I did not get my last copies of the magazine and, therefore, could not read them. (This blog was started after the first few had been read and passed along to other women.)
MS comes out 4 times a year (and costs far more than it should). However, if you move at anytime during your subscription and fill out the change-of-address from on their website, you will get an interesting email informing you that it takes at least one issue to complete an address change – regardless of when that address is changed in the course of year.
The Nation, Technology Review, and WIRED had no problem changing my address immediately, but MS magazine seems to be unable, or unwilling, to do the same.
I did a little digging on their website and looked over my emails from them again, and realized that MS does not consider itself to be a publication – it’s an association. It’s something that women join so that they can say they are card carrying feminist and have access to all of the inside things that associations provide. Honestly, I can’t tell you if MS provides much in this respect because I never used my membership for anything more than the magazine.
Quite frankly, I am disappointed in MS and the association connected to it. The whole thing is very elitist – never mind the fact that I hate using that word and get my dander up every time I hear someone else use it. At this point there’s a lot of prestige tied up in being published in MS, being interviewed in MS, being mentioned in MS, having your organization or work covered in MS, and otherwise being recognized by the flagship of feminist involvement. Whatever it may have been in the past, it is now a ruler by which women can judge (or value) their involvement in the feminist movement. It is proof that someone else is doing something worth supporting. It is the source of all things feminist and, therefore, read with unquestioning awe of the un-challenged expert.
So, I guess they feel perfectly justified in telling a nobody like me that I will simply have to let go of at least one forth of my annual subscription because I moved. Maybe mail forwarding is something they offer to people who purchase the more expensive membership.
posted by A at 7:33 AM
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