Article – Feminism and self-publishing
Posted on June 20, 2012
For Same Heartbeats #3 zine:
SELF-PUBLISHING & FEMINISM
This text deals with paper media such as zines and their link with feminism. I’m going to try to mix examples from different countries and avoid focussing only on American feminism and American zines because they already get covered a lot in research and alternative press.
Feminist media such as zines didn’t come from nowhere, appearing all of the sudden from a void. Feminists have always written down their ideas and published their writings. If they couldn’t find a publishing company they did it themselves. In the second wave of feminism which took place between the 1960s and the 1980s, feminists even started their own publishing companies and edited their own books, magazines and pamphlets. Examples of Dutch-speaking publishing companies were De Bonte Was and Feministische Uitgeverij Sarah. A section of the left-feminist group Dolle Mina made their own “Red Booklet” Of The Woman/Women and cheaply self-published magazines called De Grote Kuis around 1970 (it’s remarkable how much they’re alike today’s zines!). Also feminist book shops started to flourish, but unfortunately most of them are gone today. Some examples of contemporary feminist magazines include Scum Grrrls (Belgium), Emma (Germany), Bitch (US) and Lover (Netherlands). Often, feminist organisations publish their own newsletter or magazine, such as the Belgian organisations Gynaika (magazine under the same name), De Madam (newsletter under the same name), RoSa (magazine called Uitgelezen, RoSa is a feminist archive and library with lots of feminist magazines and other publications), De Vrouwenraad (Vrouwenraad) and Vie Féminine (Axelle). A Dutch publishing company run by women that’s been active for a few decades is Atalanta. They focus on anarchist, philosophical and ecological books and booklets and have also published some feminist publications. There are others as well such as Virago Press.
In the 1960s feminists and other revolutionaries already practiced the “DIY” concept that later got linked to the punk movement. “DIY” means “do it yourself”, reclaiming autonomy, creative freedom, making your life and the world as you want it to be, getting confidence from doing/making things (happen)… Other movements in previous centuries also did things themselves and used this kind of DIY activism. For punks, since the 1970s, DIY was central to their music and life. They wrote and recorded their own music and put it out themselves. Releasing their own albums and singles was not only a necessity for them (because record companies showed no interest) but also a conscious choice. Punks didn’t want to be involved in the capitalist music industry and tried to be as independent as possible from commercial record companies, distribution channels, recording studios and mainstream press. To be able to avoid mainstream media attention, punks make their own media in which they report on their music, activities and political ideas. So this caused the birth of punk fanzines (non-profit low-budget self-made magazines or booklets). But fanzines or zines weren’t new then. Science-fiction fans had been writing zines since the 1930s. Since the rise of punk, zines only grew in size. Technological developments also made it easier and cheaper to reproduce booklets.
In those days, the majority of zines was written by men. But when the riot grrrl the movement started in the early 1990s, more and more women and girls started using pens, paper and copy machines to express themselves. Some examples of riot grrrl zines from the 1990s are Bikini Kill (also the name of a band consisting of the editors of the zine), Channel Seven and Girl Germs. Riot grrrl zines dealt with all sorts of subjects and mixed the personal with the political (and as the famous feminist slogan goes: “the personal IS political”). Zinesters – as zine writers are often called – wrote about sexual abuse, every-day sexism, racism and white supremacy within the riot grrrl movement, addiction, etc. In zines, riot grrrls criticised beauty standards by making collages of advertisements and fashion magazines. The mainstream media did not write about these subjects, so riot grrrls did it themselves. Zines gave them a voice, a way to express themselves and share their ideas, their anger and sadness. But zines didn’t only offer an alternative to mainstream media because of its different content and images; also the fact that non-professional, often marginalised people made these publications, contributes to the importance of zines.
Riot grrrl arose partly as a reaction to the sexism in the punk movement. But it also created a young new kind of feminism that was accessible to young women and girls who felt alienated by liberal bureaucratic feminism that dominated the 1980s and who were little informed about previous similar kinds of grassroots feminism. The concept of “DIY” was important because these women were making and defining their own feminism. They felt something was missing and instead of waiting or consuming passively, they creatively filled that void themselves. “DIY” meant that they could and did write down their ideas and stories and that their writings were worth being published and read. This contributed to the self-confidence of zine writers, especially when they got constructive or positive feedback from readers and other writers.
Another important aspect of zines is that its writers form a sort of supportive international network. Zines are swapped or “traded” with other zines, often between writers from different countries or regions. By swapping zines and writing letters, friendships are constructed which can develop into collaborations in other feminist projects and groups. Distros, non-commercial distribution projects for zines, crafts and DIY music, help getting zines spread in different countries and continents.
Nowadays there are still a lot of zines – including feminist zines – being made and read. Still, I think there is a slight decrease in the number of zines being produced. This is probably at least partly caused by the publication and communication possibilities that internet offers such as blogs, e-zines and online communities. On the other hand, internet and computers make zine writing, lay-outing, printing, distributing and advertising easier. And lots of people still prefer to read long texts on paper instead of on a screen.
Some interesting (recent) web projects that I think contributed and contribute to the spreading and supporting of paper feminist zines and zines made by women/girls/queers/trans-people are: Grrrl Zines Network: grrrlzines.net, Grassroots Feminism: grassrootsfeminism.net, Queer Zine Archive Project: qzap.org, Zine Library: zinelibrary.info and Zine Wiki: zinewiki.com. Here are some examples of recent feminist/female/queer/trans zines: Fight Together (Italian queer-feminist zine), Hausfrau (hand-written autobiographical zine with lots of drawings about motherhood), the Rag (by an anarcha-feminist group from Dublin), Erinyen (anarcha-feminist zine from Germany with space for world-wide activism) and Race Revolt (questions whiteness, privileges and racism in DIY/queer/feminist communities). Subjects that are written about in contemporary zines include: menstruation, creative direct action, sexism in activist groups, transgender identities, femicide, music by women and queers, feminist herstory, violence and self-defence, sexuality, illness, abortion, etc.
I think that paper zines are still relevant today for the feminist movement. Writing and publishing our own media is important to counter-balance sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and capitalist media and advertisements that can be seen – and bought – everywhere. Zines can also help to construct feminist networks which are urgently needed. Even though one can probably reach more people by using internet tools, zines can reach other people who would otherwise never get to a feminist website. On top of that, zines offer a means which can be used by everyone to write and publish, without having to depend on professional publishing companies, a large budget, a computer with graphic skills or a degree in journalism. Pen, paper, some ideas, opinions and creativity and a copy centre nearby are all you need. In my opinion, feminists should make use of it!
(A part of this text will be used for a zine called “Self-Publishing and Empowerment: A Guide for Community Groups” and the original slightly different version of this text – written in Dutch – has appeared on De Tweede Sekse blog: http://tweedesekse.wordpress.com)
Some links to Belgian zines:
queerilla.be (Queer Gazet)
scumgrrrls.org (Scum Grrrls)
echoriot.cjb.net (Same Heartbeats, Coma To Action, Radix)
rgcollectief.110mb.com/publicaties.html (Riot Not Diet, Ladies’ Room, Be All You Can Be)
siscalocca.org/blog/ (Minette)
myspace.com/jacqueline_fanzine (Jacqueline)
Bibliography:
Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture.
Spencer, Amy. DIY: The Rise of Lo-fi Culture.
Green, Karen, Taormino, Tristan (ed). A Girl’s Guide to Taking over the World: Writings from the Girl Zine Revolution
Sonja Eismann (ed). Hot Topic: Popfeminismus Heute.
Nadine Monem (ed). Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now.
McQuiston, Liz. Suffragettes to She-devils: Women’s Liberation and Beyond.
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é certo falar que os zines feministas SOMENTE começaram depois do riot grrrl e que antes os zines eram apenas escritos por homens? isso não apaga a herstória do punk antes dos 90? as mulheres já estavam ativas escrevendo e cantando suas idéias em bandas nos 70 e 80 em bandas como poison girls, crass, x ray spex, the slits… sobre zines eu não sei direito. |
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Hmm! dá uma boa pesquisa hein? Mas eu penso que o “boom” riot grrrls no Brasil chega com dominatrix, já em 1994/95. Antes disso já havia grupos feministas fazendo publicações independentes e no formato fanzine havia grupas anarcafeministas bem articuladas… |
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não li o texto inteiro, só umas partes e os comentários, então se eu falar bobeira me avisem, por favor! |
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el muzi, a mim também me gera incômodo! eu sei que podem me tacar pedra, acho que todas essas movimentações tem sua importância e não posso negar que elas me influenciaram, mas elas também apresentam problemas. O riot grrrl é bastante classe média, branco, gringo, emfim restrito a um acesso algo elitista, gente com acesso a inglês também, e o punk também tem bastantes problemas, e ambos ainda mais se estão afetados pela colonização comercial. Também prefiro manter uma certa independência entre essas coisas… não vou dizer que todas elas não me ensinaram coisas bem importantes… são subculturas riquíssimas. eu que sou fã do feminismo dos 70 posso dizer que essa época as mulheres estavam contagiadas por uma sensação revolucionária, e elas editavam não zines, mas jornais próprios, e houveram muitas. Alguns textos que traduzi são de periódicos como o Feminist Revolution e o The Furies, de lésbicas separatistas. Haviam periódicos de anarchafeministas também, tem um texto que postei que foi retirado de um. As mulheres estavam muito contagiadas pela idéia de criar uma cultura própria, e criaram as próprias editoras. Algumas podemos nomear que existem. até hj: Sinifex Press, e revistas como Sinister Wisdow, Off our Backs. mas não pensemos que todas essas coisas não podem ser apropriadas pelo sistema. vejo uma onda de assimilação do feminismo pelo sistema ultimamente que me vem chamando atenção. Acho que o anarquismo foi assimilado pelo sistema algo com o punk por exemplo comercial, sem dúvidas. temos que pensar até onde algumas expressões atuais não são apenas possíveis num contexto capitalista e individualista. seja a imediatez, mas também não fazermos mais ativismo em espaços coletivos concretos, nao conseguirmos também lograr mais consenso, com a ‘diversidade’, já que não há processos de grupo genuínos, virou o ‘cada um na sua’ cada um com seu pensamento, cada um com sua crítica… o sistema aceita tudo. emfim né. abraças |
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encontrei aqui um texto que critica o punk rock, é tipo uma carta ‘querido ativismo punk rock’, faz distinção entre organizar e fazer ativismo (em inglês…), etc. we.riseup.net/assets/45273/dear%20punk%... |
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