A magazine, feminism and Frab's March 8

We are of the opinion that Women's Day cannot be limited to being a commercial celebration made up of floral follies, chocolates, pizza with friends and trash shows, but we are also of the opinion that it is a day to continue to be celebrated in its strictest meaning and therefore for what he remembers and what it meant in so many battles fought and in all those still to be fought. We still live in a world where being a woman is difficult, a world that taxes our basic necessities as if they were a frivolous luxury, that pays us less than a man with the same skills, that relegates us to pink quotas as if not alone. we could do it, that a woman always does coffee in the office during a meeting, that paternity lasts a few days (yes, even fathers' rights fights are feminist fights!), a world where there is always someone who it says how to be a woman, a world that "you are looking for".
This is why Women's Day must be celebrated on March 8th, even with flowers and pizza, just as it must be celebrated and fought every other single day of the year.

This is one of the causes that we espouse with more conviction and in doing so we try to spread many voices of women who can be an inspiration to change this strange world. On Frab's you will always find a selection of magazines animated by feminist and gender-free ideals, because patriarchy can be defeated even one page at a time.
Among the many magazines we have and have had in our catalog, today we recommend one in particular which is the perfect summary of small struggles, passion for one's cause and editorial beauty. It comes from a small women's bookshop born in 2018, whose story has brought us a smile of trust.

The Second Shelf
The Secondo Shelf is a magazine of "rare books and words written by women", but it is also a bookstore located in the heart of Soho in London and which specializes, precisely, in rare books written by women. A.N. Devers, owner of the bookshop and publisher of the magazine, is trying to overturn a short circuit that concerns the publishing sector (and beyond): the catalogs of bookstores and libraries are mostly composed of titles written by men because the distribution channel libraria (and not only) has historically always been in the hands of men.

A.N. Devers therefore decided to focus on books written by women, creating for the first time a catalog that contained exclusively female authors: from first and rare editions of grandnames, like Jane Austen, to lesser known but equally worthy authors. The most incredible thing is that the work of A.N. Devers was truly inspirational and today there are several retailers that include catalogs with a focus on women.

Opening the pages of the magazine is like opening the red glass door of the bookcase. You are immediately greeted by a very good smell of paper, glue and ink, the porous cover to the touch recalls the canvas of old books and the thick and opaque paper of the pages introduces us to the richness of its contents. We obviously talk about books, many, many books. All written by women, all accompanied by photos of rare editions and wonderful insights and life stories. There is talk of women who write, but also women who read and women who save books by restoring them and the interviews are those that leave their mark.

In this second issue, in particular, along with many reading tips, there is an in-depth study on Angela Carter, ranging from "pornography" in her The bloody chamber to his private library, an excursion into Marjorie Hillis' guide to pleasure, a novel that already in 1936 celebrated a woman's single life. And then there are the interviews, such as the one with the illustrator Posy Simmonds, with the Irish writer Claire-Louise Bennet, with Sharmaine Lovegrove, editor of Dialogue Books that give a voice to people marginalized by society.
A magazine to devour between a mouthful of mimosa cake and acute bibliophilia attacks.

And if you don't have enough, to stay on the subject of bibliophilia and feminism try the slow thrill of the stories and poems of Mal Journal, a feminine breviary on sexuality and eroticism from the most exciting to the ugliest forms. If, on the other hand, you feel more pop and energetic, let yourself be captivated by the irreverence of Worms, a magazine created to celebrate female literary culture which, with photos, stories and many interviews, tells of writers of yesterday and today who narrate femininity online or on paper.