Bad Attitude
| Title: Bad Attitude | Dates: 1992-1995 |
| Periodicity: bimonthly (until September 1993); biannual (from September 1993) | Price: £1 per issue. £5 for a year’s subscription (6 issues); £10 for a supporting sub; £15 for groups; £50 for organisations |
| Circulation: unknown | Place of Publication: London, UK |
A radical feminist bi-monthly magazine produced by a collective based in the anarchist squat centre at 121 Railton Rd, Brixton. Bad Attitude combined a punk, Riot Grrrl, anarchist aesthetic with a highly class-conscious, anti-state feminism. With high production values and international coverage, Bad Attitude was an ambitious, striking and combative publication produced by ‘pissed off women’. Its irreverent tone is immediately evident from the first editorial (see ‘Mission Statement’), accompanying anti-capitalist cartoon and the memorable byline: ‘You’ll be surprised at how productive a Bad Attitude can be when you read on!’ Its contents page, in that first issue, is renamed ‘(Dis)contents’ and include news articles, interviews, letters, ‘Hippy Corner’ (a regular health advice column), occasional fiction, reviews and cartoons. Despite its humourous framing, much of its content is serious, highly campaigning and informative, with a determinedly international outlook. An ‘Auntie Attitude’ (agony aunt) column appears in issue 4 after pleas from readers; ‘Prison News’ becomes a regular feature, and the ‘Scroungers’ Spread’ (the ‘pissed off single mothers’ column’) appears irregularly. Well-known names interviewed by the magazine include Andrea Dworkin, Julie Dash, Julie Bindel, Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill) and Nawal el Sadaawi. The collective take an active interest in other feminist publishing ventures, with pieces on Spare Rib (issue 5), Sheba and Off Our Backs (issue 8). Relaunches as a quarterly in 1994 after a short hiatus. Although Bad Attitude identifies itself as a ‘radical feminist’ publication, it takes a critical approach to thinkers such as Dworkin (interviewed in issue 1). Indeed, issue 4, featuring a woman biting another’s neck, was heavily criticised by anti-pornography feminists for promoting S&M (Rabinowitz, Activist Legacies roundtable, 2023). The first issue, unusually, publishes the results of a readers’ questionnaire which reveal the class, age, race, sexuality etc of their future readership, as well as preferences for the material published in Bad Attitude. News articles come first, with beauty and fashion the least popular. By issue 6, Bad Attitude contributors and readers are known as ‘Baddies’. Former collective member Rosanne Rabinowitz remembers that the magazine’s ‘editorial policy could be described as pistols at dawn’ (Activist Legacies roundtable, 2023). ‘Overthrowing civilisation as we know it’ is a repeated refrain (popular with readers in the survey) and the aim of the paper.
Rosanne Rabinowitz, former Bad Attitude collective member, talking about the making of the magazine (‘Activist Legacies’ roundtable, Northumbria University, 2023).
Bad Attitude‘s Mission Statement
”People told us we were mad to start a paper like this. After all, this is a time of ‘backlash’, poverty, and world reaction: when even the smallest gains of the last twenty years are threatened. But fuck it, there’s enough pissed off women about to make this paper. As things go from bad to worse, its even more necessary to have a voice – to bring news of women fighting back internationally, a forum for suppressed ideas and struggles.
Editorial, Bad Attitude 1
We see now that reforms have easily been taken away, and if we want to get anywhere we can’t limit ourselves to just defending them. We have to go on the offence and be offensive! In this paper we want to look at how we can go to the root of it all – to fight back, take control, and begin to create something better.
Of course, while we’re at it we’re trying to have a laugh and a fucking good time! At a time when we’re supposed to be silent and miserable, scared and competing for crumbs and the barest minimum for survival, humour and pleasure can be subversive. And perhaps we can get some ideas of what life can be like in a world without the rule of state, capital, and men.
We’ll end this introductory rant with a few words about our editorial policy. All our articles represent the views of the authors only (especially the one that mentions Kevin Costner, yuck!). We print articles if they’re informative, provactive or entertaining, but we don’t always agree with everything in them. That would be difficult anyway seeing that we’ve got five women on the collective – and 20 opinions at the last count. If you read anything that you disagree with or you think the coverage could be more complete, then write in with your ideas! We welcome further contributions.’
Key Campaigns
- Asylum and immigration legislation
- Imprisonment of Northern Irish women
- Palestinian solidarity
- International labour activism
- Burnsall strikers
- Women Against Pit Closures
- Squatting
- Child Support Act
- Claimants’ benefits (including a parody of the Lord’s Prayer on this subject in issue 2, p. 10)
- Sex work (decriminalisation)
- Abortion (pro choice)
- FGM
- Violence against women, especially in the former Yugoslavia
- Gay and lesbian rights
- Police brutality
- Disability rights
- Anti-fascism
- Feminist publishing (pieces on Spare Rib, Sisterwrite, Sheba)
Magazine Aesthetic
The covers of Bad Attitude are colourful, playful and memorable. Issue 1 shows the BA collective cutting up the Houses of Parliament against a bright pink sky (design by Pam Isherwood); issue 3 shows one woman biting the neck of another (photo by Laurence Jaugey-Paget); issue 7 depicts five Barbie dolls trampling a police car against a coral red ground, beneath the byline ‘Still Alive in ’95!’ (design by Susan Skill).
Larger format than most feminist magazines, Bad Attitude is full of bold, clashing fonts and handdrawn illustrations in black and white. Printed in columns, it fuses high production values (there are even barcodes on the front covers) with a more DIY aesthetic. A ‘Pulp horror’ style font, visible on the front of issue 4 (‘Bad Attitude… the Paper with Bite!’), recurs throughout. From issue 3, distinctive star-shaped bullet points and a curvy, futuristic font are used for lead articles on the front cover. The busy pages are broken up by dividers, tiny cartoons, photographs and ads for other feminist organisations.
A boyfriend isn’t just for Christmas cartoon by Angie Brew
Historical Contexts
In the 1990s, many feminist publications of the 1970-80s were folding (or had already folded) – from Outwrite to Spare Rib to Shocking Pink, FOWAAD and Women’s Report. In issue 5, Bad Attitude devote an article to the closures of SisterWrite feminist bookshop and Spare Rib, chalking their demise up to the economic recession, mainstream co-option and years of Thatcherite economic policy (p. 9). With its roots in the 1980s, Bad Attitude saw itself as taking up the mantle at a time of feminist co-option and backlash. When Bad Attitude was first published, the UK’s repressive Clause 28 (which prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by Local Authorities including schools) had been in force for 4 years, and was not repealed until 2003. In the UK, the death rate from HIV/AIDs peaked in 1995 with around 1,800 people dying from AIDS-related illnesses. As issue 4 notes, fascist attacks in London in 1993 targeted radical bookshops and the squat at 121 Railton Road where Bad Attitude was based, delaying the magazine’s publication. Another fascist attack against Mushroom Books, Nottingham is reported in issue 6. The Bosnian War of 1992-5 shapes much of the magazine’s news content, as does the First Palestinian Intifada of 1987-93 and the aftermath of the UK’s miner’s strikes of the 1980s. The 1990s was also the era of Riot Grrl zine activism, which spread to the UK from the US, and this influence is visible everywhere in the magazine’s look, ‘attitude’ and contents. When Bad Attitude closes, finally, in 1997 (two years after issue 8 comes out!), its farewell letter ascribes its closure to members moving on (and out of London), cuts to benefits, and the difficulty of recruiting new collective members. Its final sign off is defiant: ‘Still for the overthrow of civilisation as we know it… Bad Attitude xxx’.
Editors
Produced by a group of women based at the anarchist squat centre at 121 Railton Rd, Brixton. The second issue contains a call out for ‘new women collective members’, specifically ‘Black/women of colour’. Subs cut outs invite readers to indicate if they can contribute material or help with distributing, sales, translation etc.
Collective members included:
- Rosanne Rabinowitz
- Katy Watson
- Vanida
- Sam
- Marianne Haste
Printers, typesetters, publishers and distributors
Distributed by Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN.
Issues 1-5 printed by Goodhead Press, Chaucer International Estate, Launton Road, Bicester, Oxon OX6 7QF.
From issue 5, distributed by Central Books and Thames News, 27-31 Webber St, London SE1 8QW.
Issue 6 printed by Wiltshire Ltd, Philip St, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4DS; issues 7-8 by East End Offset, Unit 7, Empson Street, Bow London E3.
In issue 8, the collective state that printing costs c. £65 per page.
Business model
Subscription. As BA put it: ‘Well, did you like it? Then you must have an attitude problem!’ Other sources of funding included benefits (one featuring the West coast queer scene band Tribe8) and selling copies by hand, at the anarchist bookfair and at Pride.
As Katy Watson remembers:
We went through quite an arduous process of fundraising for it, galvanizing a collective, sending out loads of letters appealing for people to take out advance subscriptions and we managed to buy ourselves this tiny apple mac to lay it out on.
Connections to other feminist magazines
Bad Attitude set out explicitly to ‘inherit and expand the success of Shocking Pink and Feminaxe’. Members of the BA collective had also worked on these earlier feminist publications, as well as for Outwrite (which brought an international focus) and Troops Out (an Irish solidarity publication). Advertised titles such as Harpies & Quines, Trouble & Strife, Lesbian London, Rouge, Women’s News (an Irish feminist magazine), and Everywoman. Issue 3’s editorial briefly assesses Spare Rib (which ‘had faults, some serious, some superficial. But it was worth fighting for because it was an affirmation that feminism was there, on the newsagent shelves and communicating ideas across the country’ p1). Issue 3 also notifies its readers of two new magazines for disabled women – Boadicea and DPP International.
Further Reading
‘Shocking Pink and other feminist zines: an interview with Katy Watson’ [4 April 2024] <https://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.com/2024/04/shocking-pink-and-other-feminist-zines.html>
‘How to produce a feminist magazine’: Bad Attitude – Radical Women’s newspaper (1992-7)’ [22 December 2023) <https://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.com/2023/12/bad-attitude-radical-womens-newspaper.html#:~:text=Bad%20Attitude%20was%20a%20London,at%20121%20Railton%20Road%2C%20Brixton>
‘Bad Attitude – music reviews from radical women’s newspaper (1995)’ [3 February 2009] <https://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.com/2009/02/bad-attitude.html>
Fiona Montgomery, ‘New Mags and Old’, Harpies & Quines April/May 1993, p. 3.
HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE:
‘Bad Attitude’, Liberating Histories Periodicals Guide, Liberating Histories <https://liberatinghistories.org/periodicals-guide/Bad-Attitude > [accessed dd/mm/yyy]
| Where to find Bad Attitude: British Library; The Women’s Library; Feminist Archive South (FAS) | Digitised copies: No |
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