Harpies & Quines has a distinct aesthetic which draws on Celtic iconography and mythology. The cover of the first issue (designed by Alan Mason) depicts a pattern of Celtic knots over which a heavily tattooed, Pictish figure is superimposed. The logo contains two contrasting fonts: ‘”Harpies” appears in a jagged, slanting font while “Quines” follows in a rounded and neat one’ (Alexander, 2020, p. 309), in a visual rendering of the two extremes of femininity each word represents. Inside, the collective lampoon the concept of the magazine cover ‘model’: ‘To achieve this look use: Flawless Finish Matte Fondation by Blue Circle. Big Lavvy Brush High Fibre Gentle Thickening Mascara’. Content is presented in a two-column format with italicised headings.

Celtic patterns are repeated in headings and borders throughout the early issues. Printed with a single colour on the cover, otherwise in black and white. The cover of issue 2 features a woodcut, ‘The Fall of Eve’ by Fiona Sandison; the cover of issue 3 depicts a harpy silhouetted against a Celtic pattern (design by Alan Mason). Issue 4’s cover is based on a painting by Maria Marletta, a self-taught artist who ‘began to paint at 45… after many years confined to the home as wife, mother and housekeeper’ (issue 4, p. 1). Issue 5’s stark black ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign cover marks a dramatic change of aesthetic. The groundbreaking Zero Tolerance campaign, instigated by Edinburgh District Council Women’s Committee, sought to prevent and raise awareness around violence against women. From issue 7, Harpies publishes multi-coloured covers for the first time, and showcases the work of Scottish artists including print maker Ashley Cook (issue 7), artist Heather Wilson (issue 8) and photographer Anne Elliot (issue 9). The magazine is illustrated with black and white photographs, illustrations and cartoons. From issue 8, Harpies publishes a regular ‘Riot Grrl page’ cartoon. In later issues, the aesthetic shifts away from Celtic themes.

First published in the same year as the 1992 General Election, issue 1 of Harpies includes analysis of the election campaign from a feminist perspective. Despite having not voted Conservative for over a century, Scotland once again found itself under a Conservative government in 1992, contributing to a growing sense of popular dissatisfaction and an emergent Nationalist movement. By the 1990s, many Women’s Liberation Movement publications had folded, with the exception of titles such as Bad Attitude. However, as Lesley Riddoch discusses in episode 4 of the Liberating Histories podcast, the women’s movement in Scotland was still very active (also see Alexander, 2021 p. 308). This was also the era of Riot Grrl zine activism, which spread to the UK from the US. This influence surfaces in Harpies’ ‘Riot Grrl Page’ feature. The Bosnian War of 1992-95 also shapes the content of the magazine, with articles focussing on the use of rape as a weapon of war in the former Yugoslavia.

The original Glasgow-based Harpies collective included:

• Lynne Bryan
• Stella Coombe
• Jackie Erdman
• Fiona McGregor
• Fiona Montgomery
• Lesley Riddoch
• Cas Stewart

They were later joined by:

• Libby Brooks
• Sandra Grieve
• Heather Forrest
• Charlotte Ross
• Jackie Erdman
• Pauline Kelly
• Yvette Laviola
• Caroline McLoy
• Joelle Marlow
• Adrienne Murphy

Typeset by EM-DEE Productions.

Printed by Scottish County Press.

Distributed by the collective to newsagents, bookshops, student unions, shops and arts centres, as well as through subscriptions.

Harpies regularly issues calls for new ‘HARPY vendors’. The editorials of issues 1, 2 and 3 discuss the magazine’s distribution strategy in some detail. From issue 11, the magazine was distributed by Fleetwood Distribution.

The magazine was always set up on a commercial footing (Breitenbach, 1996). In its first issue, Harpies & Quines explains that the magazine will not be distributed by John Menzies (the UK’s biggest distributor of print media in the early 1990s) because ‘they take more than half the cover price of magazines and have some very firm ideas of which titles should be sold where’ (H&Q, issue 1). Instead Harpies relied on a subscription model that cut the costs of distribution and hand-delivered copies to bookshops, newsagents, student unions and arts centres. In issue 3, the editorial challenges the distributor John Menzies’ refusal to distribute Harpies and discusses the ‘unofficial monopoly of newspaper and magazine distribution’ across the UK. There is also an accouncement that Harpies is now available in Oxfam shops across Scotland. The magazine received the support of various public bodies (e.g. Glasgow District Council and Edinburgh District Council Women’s Committee) as well as feminist groups (including Women In Publishing and the Scottish Abortion Campaign). In issue 4, the collective announce a successful funding bid (for £15,000) from Community Investment Strathclyde which will allow them to hire a development worker to increase the magazine’s reach. The same issue proposes the creation of a ‘Harpies and Quines Community Business’ in an indication of the magazine’s understanding of itself as an activist business. Harpies published listings for free. In issue 4, it ran a readership survey and began publishing the magazine monthly in response to reader feedback. The magazine generated additional income from the sale of Harpies & Quines t-shirts. In 1994, the collective ran a controversial but successful billboard campaign with the slogan ‘Harpies & Quines: Not Just For Dungaree-Clad Dykes’. In 1994, the magazine signed a deal with Fleetwood Distribution, a move seen by some as a compromise (see Alexander, 2021 p. 312).

From its first issue, Harpies acknowledged the important legacy of feminist magazines of the 1970s and 80s, from Spare Rib to Trouble and Strife. It ran adverts for Women’s News (Irish feminist magazine); Trouble and Strife; Bad Attitude; Gay Scotland; Violet: a Riot Grrl fan zine; and in issue 6, a note on the demise of Spare Rib. Collective member Lesley Riddoch also worked on the Oxford-based feminist magazine Lilith (1982-1988). Also c.f. Fiona Montgomery, ‘New Mags and Old’, Harpies & Quines, issue 5 p. 20.

Rachael Alexander (2020) ‘”Alive, practical and different”: Harpies & Quines and Scottish Feminist Print in the 1990s’, Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1940s-2000s: The Postwar and Contemporary Period (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp. 307-322 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474469999-021

Rachael Alexander (2020) ‘HARPIES AND QUINES AND FEMINIST MAGAZINES IN SCOTLAND’, Equal Media and Culture Centre Scotland, https://emcc.engender.org.uk/news/blog/harpies-and-quines-and-feminist-magazines-in-scotland/

Rachael Alexander and Charlotte Lauder, ‘Situating Scottish feminist magazines: the 1990s’ (2022) Scottish Magazines Network https://campuspress.stir.ac.uk/scotmagsnet/tag/harpies-quines/

Esther Breitenbach, Alice Brown, & Fiona Myers (1998) ‘Understanding Women in Scotland’, Feminist Review, 58, 44–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1395679

Breitenbach, E. 1996. ‘The Women’s Movement in Scotland in the 1990s’. New Waverley Papers. Department of Politics, University of Edinburgh. Charlotte Osdalen (2017) ‘Harpies & Quines: 25 yers on and relevant as ever’, Glasgow Women’s Library https://womenslibrary.org.uk/2017/02/13/harpies-quines-25-years-on-and-relevant-as-ever/

Lesley Riddoch (1994) ‘Bit of bare-breasted cheek hits the billboards’, The Herald https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12698914.bit-of-bare-breasted-cheek-hits-the-billboards/

Riddoch, L. 2003. Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish. Viewpoints. Extract from an interview with Helen Chambers, founding collective member (2010) grassroots feminism https://www.grassrootsfeminism.net/cms/node/694

The Harpies & Quines ‘not just for dungaree clad dykes’ poster can be viewed at Franki Raffles Photography Collection, University of St Andrews Special Collections https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/series/harpies–quines-graphic-design/763142