''Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture'' was a feminist publication produced from 1977 to 1980. The self-published magazine was founded by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie at the Woman's Building in downtown Los Angeles. ''Chrysalis'' grew from Grimstad and Rennie's editorial work on the self-help resource books, The New Woman's Survival Catalog and The New Woman's Survival Sourcebook. ''Chrysalis'' distinguished itself from other feminist publications through an organic integration of politics, literature, cultural studies, and art. The magazine was produced through a collective process that grew out of the feminist practice of consciousness-raising. Unusually broad in scope, ''Chrysalis'' did not substitute breadth for quality. The authors, poets, essayists, and researchers contributing to the magazine reveal a veritable who's who of towering intellects of the feminist movement: black lesbian activist Audre Lorde; the magazine's poetry editor,

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key Radical feminism, radical feminist member of the American Feminist movement, Wom ...

, who later served as editor of ''Ms.'' from 1990-1993: award winning poet

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

; novelist Marge Piercy; artist Judy Chicago; science fiction writer

Joanna Russ Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as '' How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as ...

; art critic

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. ...

, plus Mary Daly, Dolores Hayden,

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen sol ...

, Marilyn Hacker, Arlene Raven, and Elizabeth Janeway. Over a three-year span, the all volunteer staff produced ten issues before they were forced to disband in 1981 due to financial difficulties.

Topics

Like the east coast publication '' Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics'', which was founded the same year, ''Chrysalis'' served the burgeoning second-wave feminist movement. Art historian Jenni Sorkin compares the legacy of the two, writing "While ''Heresies'' remains the better-known publication, it is ''Chrysalis'' that engaged a broader public, covering progressive issues that affected the women’s community at large without taking an insular view of art world-only politics, or the thematic issues for which ''Heresies'' became widely known." The editors of Chrysalis called the magazine "a vehicle for exploring the radical changes which women are initiating in the realms of theory and praxis." The magazine explored a wide range of topics, including:

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

; Freud and sexual abuse of children;

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

;

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...

;

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

;

lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...

; feminist art and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

; and women’s domestic life. Volume 7 featured

's important essay "'Disloyal to Civilization': Feminism, Racism, and Gynephobia."

References

{{Reflist 1977 establishments in California 1980 disestablishments in California Defunct feminist magazines published in the United States Feminism in California Independent magazines Magazines established in 1977 Magazines disestablished in 1980 Defunct magazines published in Los Angeles