RADICAL Scottish feminist magazine Harpies & Quines could make a comeback, after it emerged that one of its founders has made tentative moves about a relaunch.
Broadcaster and journalist Lesley Riddoch, one of seven directors of the publication before it ceased trading in 1994, has raised the idea following the announcement of the planned relaunch of defunct feminist magazine Spare Rib 20 years after it closed.
The title of Harpies & Quines spoofed the upmarket style magazine Harpers & Queens. "Quine" is a Doric word for a girl, and Harpie a mythological Greek creature, half-woman and half-bird.
Riddoch said the relaunch would need younger, enthusiastic people to take any plans forward, while she took more of a back seat.
She said: "I would like to float the idea but by God it needs some 20-year-olds. It would need a serious amount of energy from somebody who is not 53.
"This has got to represent a movement. It has got to represent where at least some young women are at, otherwise what is the point?"
During its two years in print, Harpies & Quines revelled in deliberately provocative articles and included columns such as "W****r Watch" and "Clitoris Awareness".
But cash-flow problems arose because of production difficulties. At the time, Cas Stewart, secretary of the company, said all efforts would be made to secure new funding and relaunch the magazine "as soon as we can".
Before it closed, Stewart said the magazine had the "very loyal" support of between 3500 and 4000 readers, including subscribers.
Soon after Harpies & Quines launched in 1992, it came under fire from the fashion and society magazine Harpers & Queen for an alleged infringement of its trademark and causing confusion between the titles. But executives later received a letter from Harpers & Queens' lawyers saying there would be no action if the content, style and presentation of the magazine remained in the same spirit and its circulation was confined to Scotland.
Riddoch said: "When I saw Spare Rib was intending to relaunch, I just floated the idea on whether anyone would be up for Harpies & Quines. It just needs the energy younger women have got and it needs to stay relevant to the experience of young women today."
Riddoch, a former contributing editor to the Sunday Herald, has no illusions that any relaunch will be straightforward.
"Having been through it once, I know precisely what it involves. It just takes your life up. I know once you get going, you do attract a bit of momentum."
Riddoch, who also co-founded the think-tank Nordic Horizons in early 2010, said there were also questions about the format of any relaunched magazine.
"It would be interesting to consider whether a [print] magazine these days is even the right thing to do," she said. "When we had Harpies, it was before the internet kicked in – even using computers was a big deal. I don't know which way we would work."
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