Dear Readers,
We planned for this issue to be published in the winter, but now it’s spring…so, welcome to our spring (sprinter?) issue!
It’s been a while, and we are sorry life took us away from publishing longer than intended. Since our Fall issue came out, we’ve sustained this publication we love so dearly in the midst of a year filled with huge changes, lots of grief and a mounting tower of uncertainty about our best path forward.
When we conceived Dismantle over five years ago, the publishing world was in a very different place. One might even say we entered the arena at a peak era for internet magazines. Since then, almost all of our role models have folded, including Bitch Magazine, The Establishment, The Outline, and just recently, our beloved Catapult. 😭
Most of these outlets were funded either by a traditional advertising-and-subscriber model, or by a single wealthy benefactor. Apparently not even a billionaire heiress can create a sustainable place for critical and creative writing. Or they can, until they get bored and turn it into a human potential MLM.
While—being totally honest—we probably wouldn’t slam the door on an heiress, the fate of our favorite publications has confirmed our founding commitment. That vision was an ad-free, grass roots, completely independent publication. We publish work that delights us and offers under-seen perspectives on cultural issues that matter. The algorithm hates it, but we think it’s great (and a great reason to join our Patreon!).
In the spirit of focusing on what delights and moves us, we’ve curated an issue that highlights two of our favorite series. We’re bringing you a very special edition of our After Party, in which past contributors share stories around a common theme. This time, we focused on our relationships to diet culture. We honestly hoped this subject would be old news by now, but the discussion seems more urgent than ever.
We broke the Diet Culture Edition into four parts: An introduction on the power of stories, Part 1: Struggling with Old Stories, Part 2: Learning and Unlearning, and Part 3: Dropping Out and Fighting Back.
There are also two entries in our popular Dress Code series, in which readers share their burning questions about fashion and culture and we respond the best way we know: with tools from history and critical cultural studies. One reader asks about impractical fashion trends. Another wants to know if ethical tourism is possible.
We hope you enjoy this labor of love. If you do, why not join the party on Patreon? Support our little island of art in a sea of shipwrecked publications. You can become part of our loving community of supporters for as little as $3/month, or $15/year! That’s less than the cost of a book.
And please tell your friends! One share of this issue with your networks would help us more than you could ever know.
Xoxoxoxo,
Sara and Elise
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