Nova, October 1970

Four shillings and how much? The Hags are pre-decimalisation this week as they head back in time to October 1970 to meet the mother of British women’s magazines: Nova. 

Demonstrating that smart and sexy are not mutually exclusive, Nova has it all: premium art direction, radical reporting at the cutting edge of culture… and adverts for snakeskin shoes. 

We’ve got some intrepid reporting into the lives of young women about to graduate Sussex University into the social upheaval of 1970s Britain. And who else should we meet at this nascent point in the Women’s Liberation movement but Germaine Greer, armed with her freshly published polemic instructing women to reject marriage and taste their menstrual blood. 

But it’s not all smashing taboos and radical progress. Elsewhere, we’ve got a feature on whether bigger body types can be “pretty,” plus an advert for vaginal deodorant.

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CHAPTERS

06:51 – Introducing Nova, October 1970

15:49 – Girls in their educated bliss: Meet the Sussex University students figuring out what they want when nothing is off the table

30:19 – *An ad break from 1970*

33:52 – Plump is pretty: Six objectively slim women grapple with their body image

44:47 – Fashion and beauty tips from 1970

48:30 – “Single women must never marry”: Reviewing a radical new book, The Female Eunuch, and the Australian academic who wrote it

1:01:32 – What's hot and what's not in October 1970 

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Mag Hags is written and hosted by Lucy Douglas and Franki Cookney.

Editing and audio production by Franki Cookney.

Our theme music is Look Where That Got You, Mattie Maguire. Additional music: Leotard Haul, Dez Moran. Both courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

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