Bluestockings is Brown University’s first feminist-minded publication. We write (about) issues from a gender-aware perspective.
WHAT IS BLUESTOCKINGS?
Blue·stock·ing n. a person with strong scholarly or literary interests; in the past this term was used derogatorily towards educated women.
Bluestockings is Brown’s first feminist-minded publication.
We write (about) issues from a gender-aware perspective.
We believe feminism is not a rigid set of guidelines or restrictive beliefs, but instead contains a fluid spectrum of definitions that can be negotiated through the creative process. It is a malleable perspective that is both personal and public.
We will not try to answer the question, “What is feminism,” but rather, “What can feminism be?”
We believe feminism can be a generative process that has relevant and productive ties to every other area of study.
We openly accept and encourage submissions from people of all gender identifications, sexual identities, and races.
We accept work from every genre, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, comedy, and academic writing focusing on culture, politics, sex, and health.
WHY CREATE BLUESTOCKINGS?
There is still much conflation and confusion surrounding feminism. Even at an institution like Brown University, the word “feminist” seems to hit a discordant chord. Some believe feminism to be “dead,” an ideology left useless and buried under the corpse of restrictive and misinformed stereotypes like “the man-hater” and “the bra burner.” Others understand “being a feminist” as a limiting identity, one that leaves little room for self-doubt.
Yet, within the personal and political realm, “being a feminist” continues to be a salient and necessary identity. When we see attacks on reproductive rights, when the language of slut-shaming
rings through the halls of our lawmaking institutions, when policy continues to
ignore class realities, when popular narratives continuously exclude the
stories of transgender people and tirelessly enforce confining gender binaries of masculinity and femininity, when the voices of people of color continue to have a limited
audience, when patriarchy negatively affects everyone, this is the time that these conversations need a space to be heard. We
feminists need to state—we are very much alive.
We hope Bluestockings provides a platform for the engaging and exciting
work being created within our community that relates to issues of gender and
sexuality. We hope to promote inclusivity of voices from writers and artists of
all identities and orientations. We hope to create a community surrounding Bluestockings where creative production can lead to generative conversations that help
develop a broader social impact.
WHERE YOU COME IN
We believe in the power of the tactile, printed word. We need your support in order to print Bluestockings. The money from this Kickstarter campaign will be solely used to pay for printing a 60+ page, bounded publication with color pages for artwork.
Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
We are very excited to publish the first issue of Bluestockings after we are funded, but we understand that there are many challenges even after we receive the necessary funds. There can always be problems with the printing press and with layout and design, which could cause a potential delay in the production of the issue, although we are shooting for early December. To combat this, we will try our very best to stick to our schedule and to work efficaciously as a team. We think that the diversity of our editors - ranging from art to literature to politics to layout to public relations - will help in putting together Bluestockings most efficiently, because we have such a broad range in what we are individually good at, and together we can accomplish timely publication. We also know that the word feminist has come to carry a negative connotation, thus causing some to abstain from reading our publication, as they do not agree with feminist beliefs. We need to make sure that we stress the inclusivity and fluidity of our project, of inviting different kinds of people to read our publication and voice their opinions about it, even if they do not necessarily self-identify as feminists. We do not want to be an insular community, reading and writing just for ourselves - we want to get the word out to as many people as possible. Secondly, we must establish ourselves as a recognizable voice on campus, so that we do not stop with just one issue. We want Bluestockings to continue on long after we have graduated, and in order to secure future development, we must reach out to the greater community at hand and create an audience for our publication.
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Oct 15, 2012 -
Nov 14, 2012
(30 days)
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Pledge $20 or more
23 backers
A copy of the founding issue.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $50 or more
8 backers
A copy of the founding issue and an orignal silk-screened Bluestockings shirt.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $100 or more
2 backers
A copy of the founding issue and an orignal silk-screened Bluestockings shirt and tote bag.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $300 or more
0 backers
A copy of the founding issue, an orignal silk-screened Bluestockings shirt and tote bag, and acknowledgement in the publication.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $500 or more
1 backer
A copy of the founding issue, an orignal silk-screened Bluestockings shirt and tote bag, acknowledgement in the publication, and a private dinner with the managing editors and supporting Brown faculty.
Estimated delivery: Jan 2013
