Whore! A Magazine For Women

There’s little to hope for these days when it comes to magazines. Shrink, shrink, shrink, they go, articles withering to blurbs to make room for all the ads needed to keep the publications buoyant. We know you miss the glossy feel of the pages at your fingertips as you sit poolside enjoying the warm schizophrenic autumns of Los Angeles and we’ve got your back.

Introducing Whore! magazine, a publication about culture, history, art, literature, design, fashion, and music, centered on creating dialogue about what women are as opposed to what traditional society has dictated they should be.

The magazine is not about sex work, though on occasion the topic does grace its pages (“The Style of Venetian Courtesans,” anyone?). Why the name? It was inspired by a quote from suffragette Tennessee Claflin: “We have tried to make ‘rake’ as disgraceful as ‘whore.’ We cannot do it. And now we are determined to take the disgrace out of whore.”

While studying feminism theory, the editor-in-chief, Ginger Murray, picked up Soiled Doves by Linda Daly, a history of Wild West prostitutes. Murray says, “I was struck by how similar their lives, loves, struggles, and interests were to mine and most of the women I knew — much more so than the journals of pioneer women, with their bibles, copious children, and battles against the elements.”

This, combined with the conviction that women’s magazines have the potential to create culture, was the genesis of the present publication. She gathered together a team and set out to create a platform for edgy dialogue about both contemporary and historical women’s issues. After almost five years of development, the first issue launched in late June of this year.

Finally a publication that delves into issues largely untouched by mass media, while reclaiming a derogatory word that has long been used to censure those who would desire, express, resist, or simply take a different path.

Get a copy to try the waters, or dive right in to a subscription!