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Debbie Stoller & Laurie Henzel
By Molly SimmsPhoto By Michael Lavine
For decades, young feminists were offered two distinct perspectives in the magazine aisle: In one camp stood the pink fluff of women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle, which tackled such hard-hitting issues as inner-thigh exercises; on the other side, there were Sahara-dry tomes like Ms. and Mother Jones, which were as academic as graduate studies, and frequently as tiring. In 1993, Debbie Stoller, Marcelle Karp, and Laurie Henzel, then wage slaves at Nickelodeon, wondered where they fit into this divisive model as magazine readers. The trio saw no representation of their version of womanhood: being a passionately political girl who is interested in equal-pay-for-equal-work as much as in lipstick and getting laid. This discontented rumbling begat BUST magazine, the “Voice of the New Girl Order” and a trailblazer in feminism’s third wave.
BUST started as a black-and-white zine, which the founders illicitly copied on their office’s Xerox machines. Stoller acted as the editorin- chief, Karp the resident ad and marketing schmoozer, and Henzel the design genius. These early issues featured anything and everything in the brains of BUST’s creators, from mini backpacks to momma’s boys to sex toys. Henzel modeled BUST’s bold look after vintage Playboy magazines and band zines, inserting quirky advertisements stolen from now-defunct ‘60s nudie rags (and crossing her fingers against copyright-infringement lawsuits). Most importantly, BUST entertained. The magazine’s frank and funny discussions of everyday issues in women’s lives captured the interest of zine freaks, and subscription requests began streaming in. BUST’s sardonic take on girl culture was a revelation.
“I just wanted a magazine that could make women feel good,” Stoller recalls. “Something that would validate our true experiences and give us something to rap about.” She also wanted to banish the stigma of feminism as a dour campaign focused on recrimination. “I wanted to promote the fact that feminists can also have pride in their own embraceable, fun culture. We don’t just have to assimilate and become.” Henzel laughs, adding, “We wanted to express that you don’t have to be super hairy to be a feminist. And that it’s okay to care about sex, crafts, or fashion. The whole point is that it’s okay to like these things that the ‘60s feminists were rebelling against.”
Stoller (above right) sees BUST as a participant in reshaping the culture’s view of the female experience. “Women’s magazines have been the creators of women’s culture ever since they started, so I think that’s a really important place to try to make a difference. I think that pop culture has a profound influence on how we think about ourselves and our roles in the world, as much as politics do. You can change how people live through pop culture.”
Judging by the scores of letters BUST’s founders have received from dedicated fans over the past 13 years, the publication has had a profound impact. Says Stoller, “People have written things like, ‘This magazine inspires me,’ or ‘I don’t feel so alone when I read this.’” The magazine’s take on third-wave feminism is echoed in the “Girl Power” t-shirts and sex-positive attitudes of today’s modern women. Asked about the ways she thinks BUST has influenced feminism, Stoller explains, “I just hope it helped our readers to see that feminism had to expand beyond being a culture of complaint; that it isn’t just about pointing out what’s wrong about the culture, but trying to create something that we can feel good about.”