Letters to the Editor as “Archives of Feeling”: On Our Backs Magazine and the Sex Wars

The sex wars were a set of debates at their height during the 1980s that centered on the politics of sexual practices such as sadism/masochism and pornography. Though some argued that such practices were inherently patriarchal, others adopted anti-censorship positions, arguing that feminists ought not to stigmatize different forms of consensual sexual expression. On Our Backs (1984–2006) emerged in the midst of the sex wars as a nationally circulating lesbian magazine that foregrounded and helped to cultivate sex-positive lesbian public cultures. This essay analyzes the letters section of On Our Backs, which Groeneveld reads as an example of what Ann Cvetkovich calls an “archive of feelings” that gives us insight into the everyday ways that the sex wars permeated lesbian and feminist communities in the 1980s. Letters provide documentation of social and political moments written not from the perspective of reporters, theorists, or social movement rock stars, but from people who felt compelled enough to respond to a story or an image.