Home | News | Contact | Projects | Academic CV | Collaborative Works | Links | Teaching

Once Upon a Zinester...

Zines— personal, political, self-published creations, are one articulation of Canadian third-wave
feminism. After an extensive foray into the Canadian feminist zine scene, an overarching imp-
ression is of the many ways in which zines and zine creators bridge various chasms, inside/ out-
side, second-wave, third-wave, producer/ consumer. On this webpage, my intention is to expose
you to some of this active and engaging work.

To preface I would like to explain how zines are a medium that confuse the producer-consumer-
researcher categories. One of the appeals of zines as a medium is its characteristic of trans-
parency; the mechanisms of zine-creation are evident in the zines, which are largely hand-wri-
tten. The invitational nature of zines, welcomes the reader both into the text, and to create their
own texts. In Root, the creator states:

"We wanted to make zines more accessible, both to see and make. Halifax can feel so small and
isolated that I am happy to keep things locally focused…when people say 'oh I have always want-
ed to make a zine' I said 'so do it'. And I mean it. And I love that".

In my own experience with zines the researcher- producer boundaries were transgressed as I
couldn’t resist making my own zine.

Consciousness-Raising: In the Spirit

Zinesters are writing inside spaces (personal spaces) outside by publishing perzines: diary-style
writings in the public realm of zines. This aspect of zines can be understood as the third-wave
feminist style of consciousness-raising. This is both a tangible link to second-wave feminist prac-
tice: embrac-ng the practice of disclosing personal experiences in order to understand broader
political ramifications, and the development of a new third-wave tool: a media-based conscious-
ness raising, where the circle is the circulation of the zine.

In perzines, zinesters discuss stories about abortions, coming out, relationships, etc. One of my
favourite perzines is Some Things Are Impossible. In this zine Andrea writes about her exper-
iences in law school. Her goings-on are unremarkable, which is what makes the writing so com-
forting somehow. In Some Things Are Impossible, Andrea writes,

Some things are impossible…. These things include life without growing pains, keeping friendships,
living without nostalgia…the avoidance of love. The phone rings, and I hide the whimper in my
voice. I don’t tell you that I’ve been crying in bed, that I wish it were my old bed, that I wish I were
14 and that I want to start again.

As perzines, zinesters both use their mediums as a form of CR, and as a means of asserting their
presence in an impersonal media. Self-portraits were a common feature of the zines. In Bathtub,
the zinester creates an image by superimposing four photo booth photos of herself on top of a
map of Montreal, the text reads: “which way out…?” In the zine, Queer Zine Morphodite, the crea-
tor includes a self-portrait with the accompanying text, “gurl-FAG, gay PUNK-ASS, HOMO CHYK,
biDyke, Quuer Not a Lesbian, pagan, anarchofeminist, daughter, sister, cousin, boy? Girl? Mabey
(sic) sometimes I’m just Me Dammit!”

Taking Up Space!

Zinesters are also blurring inside/ outside divides through their active engagement in taking up
outside spaces by promoting protest stickering and discussing their activities in street marches.
Jess (2003) in Slightly More Than Soundbites writes that while all activists are constantly chal-
lenged on their stances, “women activists get this kind of bullshit even more than our fellow male
activists, since women are already not taken seriously when it comes to politics, not listened to
or given as much air space as men, not considered experts on anything”. In the zine Pussywillow,
the zinesters reprint a poster they found nailed to a tree in Toronto. The poster is an image of a
woman with wild hair, standing on her toes, arms outstretched. The text reads, “take up space:
love your natural size”. In this articulation, the zinesters are supporting a work of art that dem-
ands women both take up outside space - owning their right to the city tree, as well as own the
intimate, inside space that is their bodies.

The New Domesticity

Zines, I have discovered are at work by textually blurring the inside and outside realms, writing
and expressing feminist acts to reclaim the public sphere, and, because things traditionally def-
ined ‘female’ should not be dismissed for their femaleness, third wavers are also reclaiming in-
side spaces. Blurring the inside/outside third wavers knit radical scarves on buses and publish
their favourite recipes in the outside realm of zines, creating what is becoming known as “the
new domesticity”.

In my zine, Feminist Zine Pirate #2: Food is a Feminist Issue, which is a cookbook/ zine I have col-
lected the variety of recipes and articles about food that are published in the zines. In the zines,
the connection between women and cooking is being actively rearticulated. The recipes in the
zines are offered in a new context which recognizes the many interconnecting ways in which
food, consumption and preparation is a feminist issue. One way they are rearticulating domest-
ticity is by reprinting hand-written handed-down recipe, in this way the zinesters are embracing
what I like to call their “gynoculinary legacy”: the undervalued artistic genius women have histor-
ically invested in food.

We Need More Spaces

Finally, beyond blurring the inside/outside spaces, zinesters, in creating their own media rep-
resentations recognize their need for more spaces; media spaces, personal spaces, places to
kick up their heels and places to lay down their heads. In an image from one of the first zines I
collected, Blur, the creator, a 15 year-old girl, has superimposed text on a magazine image of a
teenage girl’s face. The text reads: “I avoid looking down at my body. Not because it is shameful
or immodest, but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that deter-
mines me so completely”. Already, the zinester understands how her world, because of her
femaleness, has been diminished. She has been shrink-wrapped into what could be an ever con-
suming female body project. We need more spaces.

New Spaces

Beyond blurring the inside/outside spaces, zinesters are creating these radically and necessary
new spaces. I will conclude with some zinester declarations:

This is my unapologetic voice, my voice that doesn’t have to worry about employment of whether
boys will like me. This is the voice of a coloured grrrl obsessed with mass media even though she
never sees herself- the voice of the margins and the twilight zone- Vagina Dentata, Ottawa, 1999.

Discharge is a collage…an assemblage of many voices…many tones…cut and paste…we paste
more than we cut… deliberate inconsistencies: content is variable in a way that suggests
plurality, inclusively, fluidity... Discharge, Sackville, 1999.

What if gender was a verb. What are you’re (sic) taboos, why are you not suppose to mention it…
what is wrong to write about? Let’s reject, disrupt, deconstruct the master narrative. “cause
damn it does not fit.” Avoid Strange Men, Victoria, 2003.

<<< back