Kudos & Awards

ON THE ISSUES MAGAZINE ONLINE is a successor to the print publication, On The Issues Magazine, a progressive, feminist quarterly print publication from 1983 to 1999, both published by Choices Women’s Medical Center, Merle Hoffman, President and CEO, located in Long Island City, New York. For inquiries about On The Issues Magazine, contact managingeditor@ontheissuesmagazine.com

The Boston Globe

By Jeanne Cooper (Literary Life Section)

With very few advertisements to clutter its pages (and nudge its editorial direction), ON THE ISSUES...is denser and more politically diverse than it first looks.

On the opening pages, Merle Hoffman explores the ethical issues -- or rather, the ignoring of those issues -- around xenotransplantation, the use of animals for organ transplants to humans, and related death-defying efforts. Phyllis Chesler brings a 19th-century crusader into long-deserved limelight: Elizabeth, who fought for the rights of women and mental patients after being imprisoned in an asylum for disagreeing with her husband's religious views. Andrea Dworkin attacks the Bill of Rights as a guarantee of inequality, examining Thomas Jefferson's relationship with slave Sally Hemings in that context and, inevitably, condemning freedom of speech as buttressing pornography. But Andrea Peyser, responding to the Oklahoma bombings, repudiates limits on free speech, even that of hate groups and paranoid militias, and notes, "The best way to defeat the enemy is to know his mind."
Lighter entries include a feminist reading of Stephen King (answer: he is one), a celebration of artist Florine Stettheimer, a sexagenarian's ode to her Harley ("Bike Lust") and Mariah Burton Nelson's account of being an "out" author.

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Utne Reader

By Elizabeth Larson

ON THE ISSUES delivers solid articles that are original and engaging without becoming esoteric. Every issue is carefully balanced to represent a wide range of interests and experiences: Volume XIV features two opposing pieces on Margaret Sanger, the controversial turn-of-the-century birth control advocate/activist; an interview with Renee David about French feminism and Jewish identity; photographs of African-American women from Brian Lanker's book I Dream a World: Portraits of 75 Women Who Changed America; inspiring quotations from teenage women who organized to oppose the parental consent notification proposal; and a humorous academic piece (yes, there is such a thing) on the female jester in the court of Queen Mary I. One of the most thought-provoking features was an essay by John Stoltenberg about how, as a feminst male, he has had to reevaluate and even discontinue relationships with some of his male friends.

Despite a commitment to diversity, ON THE ISSUES -- which is published by CHOICES Women's Medical Center Inc. -- does have one bias: Every issue devotes at least half a page to reproductive rights and the state of the abortion debate. In these times, the strong pro-choice slant is most welcome.

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WLW Journal

ON THE ISSUES really is--on the issues, that is. It kind of reminds me of Ms. When it was a lot younger and a lot more feisty, when it really had something to say about topics of concern to women no matter how revolutionary or radical they seemed. A look at some topics covered in recent issues will give you some ideas: "outing" of gays; the role of women in Nazi Germany; animal rights; abortion providers (or almost total lack of them in rural areas); speciesist language; death of a victim of parental-consent laws; invisible women in the media; a convicted rapist -- was he framed?; women's "great life" in Sweden; the massacre of women students in Montreal -- lethal misogyny?; abortion: another version of the Holocaust?; and so on. ON THE ISSUES has it all, and has become one of the most outspoken feminst journals in the U.S. My only regret after reading every page of the issues that were sent to me for this article is that this excellent magazine isn't a monthly instead of a quarterly.

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Inside Media

ON THE ISSUES is a magazine for "readers who prefer to be known as women." . . . ON THE ISSUES started as a newsletter back in 1983 and is still supported by Choices Women's Medical Center. Founder, editor-in-chief and publisher Merle Hoffman says that her original goal was to communicate with activists and feminists. Today, with 20,000 readers, Hoffman strives to increase the influence and visibility of ON THE ISSUES. The quarterly...is not affiliated with any political party. Recent issues have included pieces by Shere Hite and Andrea Dworkin. Hoffman hopes to increase advertiser support for the title.

"We are seeking like-minded advertisers," she explains. "I believe it is possible to combine capitalism and entrepreneurial spirit with activism." Hoffman says that she has been approaching book publishers, manufacturers of natural health foods, non-animal tested products and companies like Working Assets, a telecommunications company that donates a percentage of profits to charitable causes. "Advertising affects other women's magazines quite dramatically," posits Hoffman. She thinks that the editorial supports the cosmetics advertising by reinforcing society's pressure to be beautiful. . . . They are selling what can become if you read the magazine. Cosmo is selling better orgasms and I'm selling social consciousness; that's a tough sell. But obviously, our readers are consumers too.

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USA Today

Women More Than Sex Machines
By Barbara Reynolds

Most women's magazines have long used romance, love and family- and, inevitably, sex -- as mainstays, but some now are pushing the limits of decency. They're becoming more tawdry and displaying women . . . as bodies, without souls or minds. If women accept these images of themselves, they are losing the battle against rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

Even pristine Ms. magazine, normally a standard-bearer of of sexual equality, has fallen into the Big Orgasm craze, notes Sheila Jeffries in the current ON THE ISSUES, a magazine for progressive women. Ms. recently ran such racy articles as "I was a teenage slut" and "Eroticizing equality." "An unreflective politics of orgasm seems to be winning out," Jeffreys says. "Unfortunately, freedom is being defined as the achievement of bigger and better orgasms, by any means possible."