Last month saw the rebirth of the for-profit Vermont Woman, the "printchild" of lesbian publisher Sue Gillis. Featuring a pair of open lipsticked lips replacing the "O" of Woman in the monthly's logo (designed by Creative Director Jan Doerler), the publication appears aimed at a young, mainstream female audience.
      At the October 9 launch party, Gillis said she wanted to revive Vermont Woman because she wondered, "Where is my niece — she was one when the first Vermont Woman folded, and now she's 14 — going to find our collective women's history?" And because of her concern "at how we're treated around the world."
      Gillis characterized the first issue as the result of a "production period from hell," and said the newsprint monthly is "a work in progress," inviting criticism and other feedback from the invitation-only, warmly receptive crowd at Burlington's Boathouse.
      The ebullient publisher thanked the audience and singled out for special notice the paper's financial backers, who included, among others, Billi Gosh, Robin Lloyd, Ray Pecor, Sallie Soule, and Dr. Ethan Sims. Politicians, including Burlington mayor and cross-over gubernatorial candidate Peter Clavelle and former Republican state Senator Barbara Snelling, made an appearance. Snelling is also listed on the editorial advisory board.
      The first incarnation of Vermont Woman appeared in 1985 and was published monthly until it folded under financial stress in 1990. Gillis went on to co-publish the weekly Vermont Times (which was later sold), and founded and published a newspaper in Provincetown, MA.
      The reborn publication's new editor is Deb Alden, whose column "Home Front" in the inaugural issue inveighs against verbal "husband-bashing" and encourages women to thank their spouses for any household chores they do.
      Also on staff is former OITM editor Barb Dozetos as assistant editor, weighing in with a background piece on women in the Vermont Statehouse. Original founding editor and now contributing editor Rickey Gard Diamond added a piece on hunger in Vermont.
      Other pieces in the first issue covered domestic violence, Bantu women in Vermont, Joan Baez, and Vermont women artists at the National Museum for Women in the Arts.
      The perspective, declared Gillis, is feminist, cross-generational, and cross-gender, adding, "We know men and women are different. We want men to read this."
      Vermont Woman's next public event features Washington press corps dean Helen Thomas on November 16.