December 1, 1971: Ms. Magazine Debuts

December 1, 1971: The 1st issue of Ms. magazine hits newsstands. Although it was probably a coincidence, it was with some appropriateness that it debuted on the anniversary of the 1st issue of Playboy doing so.

Ms. was launched as a “one-shot” sample insert in New York magazine, founded by co-editors Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Margaret Sloane-Hunter, Patrician Derian and Mary Peacock. Steinem is the only one of these whose name will be familiar to most Americans, as she came to be seen as the leader of the so-called Second Wave of American Feminism.

The magazine's title referred to women not wanting to be defined by being married (with the prefix "Mrs.") or not (with the prefix "Miss"). The premiere cover showed a woman with 8 arms, like the Hindu goddess Kali. And in her 8 hands, she holds a telephone receiver, a mirror, a car's steering wheel, an iron, a clock, a broom, a pan in which an egg is frying, and with the other hand, she's typing. She's crying, she's pregnant, and she's wearing high heels.

According to the magazine's website:

Ms. was a brazen act of independence in the 1970s. At the time, the fledgling feminist movement was either denigrated or dismissed in the so-called mainstream media. Most magazines marketed to women were limited to advice about finding a husband, saving marriages, raising babies or using the right cosmetics.

When the Ms. preview issue debuted -- carrying articles on the housewife’s moment of truth, “de-sexing” the English language and abortion -- the syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick jeered that it was a “C-sharp on an un-tuned piano,” a note “of petulance, of bitchiness, or nervous fingernails screeching across a blackboard.” And after the first regular issue hit the newsstands in July 1972, the network news anchor Harry Reasoner challenged, “I’ll give it six months before they run out of things to say.” (To his credit, Reasoner ended up apologizing years later.)

But Ms. struck a chord with women. Its 300,000 “one-shot” test copies sold out nationwide in eight days. It generated an astonishing 26,000 subscription orders and over 20,000 reader letters within weeks. By the time Ms. celebrated its 15th anniversary in 1987, media soothsayers had all been pressed to change their tune.

Ms. was the first U.S. magazine to feature prominent American women demanding the repeal of laws that criminalized abortion, the first to explain and advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, to rate presidential candidates on women’s issues, to put domestic violence and sexual harassment on its cover, to commission and feature a national study on date rape and to blow the whistle on the undue influence of advertising on magazine journalism.

In short, Ms. was the first national magazine to make feminist voices audible, feminist journalism tenable and a feminist worldview available to the public.

Of the 10 founders: Margaret Sloan-Hunter passed away in 2004, Mary Thom in 2013, and Patricia Derian in 2016; while, as of December 1, 2022, Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Pat Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Mary Peacock are still alive. (UPDATE: Unbeknownst to me when I posted this, Dorothy Pitman Hughes died on December 1, 2022.)

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December 1, 1971 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 124-111 at the Boston Garden. Jerry West scored 45 points. Gail Goodrich scored 33. Wilt Chamberlain scored only 8 points, but had 20 rebounds.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 102-98 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Spencer Haywood scored 36 points in defeat.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Houston Rockets, 116-106 at the Cleveland Arena.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cincinnati Royals, 109-101 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Nate "Tiny" Archibald scored 42 points.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Detroit Red Wings, 117-103 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 139-103 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The Carolina Cougars beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 118-117 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. John Brisker scored 42 points. And the Miami Floridians beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 107-106 in overtime at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-2 at Madison Square Garden. The "GAG Line," meaning Goal-A-Game, scored as follows: Rod Gilbert, 2 goals; Jean Ratelle and Vic Hadfield, 1 goal each; and each of them had 2 assists.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the California Golden Seals, 4-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Boston Bruins, the Chicago Black Hawks, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.