Words: Francine Gonzalez (she/her)
‘Zinemaking encourages us to open a dialogue with ourselves, as much as with our community’
Why are you waiting for someone to give you permission? Create! Write! Draw! Make a zine! Zines (from ‘magazines’) are self-published publications that communicate an author’s singular perspective. A vague definition, but necessary for the inclusive nature of zines; there’s no right or wrong way to make a zine and there’s no right or wrong topic to make it on.
Community has always been central to zinemaking, even when the grungy, anti-elitist spirit we now associate with zines hadn’t yet manifested. The first ever zine, The Comet, was created by the Science Correspondents Club in the 1930s in Chicago, Illinois, starting a fashion for sci-fi zines and laying the groundwork for the 1940s fanzine. In the 1970s, zine culture underwent a dramatic transformation. With copy shops becoming more widely available, people were able to make zines en masse for cheap. With the arrival of the punk scene, many embraced the DIY aesthetic, with popular publications like Sniffin’ Glue and Slash documenting the scene in a collaged, scrapbook style.
Naturally, each decade serves as an inspiration for the next, as the male dominated scenes of the 70s and early 80s did for the Riot Grrrl movement which emerged in the 90s as a reaction to the sexism of the punk style. Zines gave Riot Grrrl women an outlet to express their rage creatively and communally, producing numerous feminist and politically active publications. Titles like Bitch Magazine, Shocking Pink, and Bust all demonstrated the potential of zines as a practical means of resistance, with agency and creative expression at the centre.
It’s undeniable that feminism has been critical to the formation of zine culture today, but feminism and zinemaking share 1 principle which is often culturally overlooked: hope. In Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism! Alison Piepmeier asserts that feminism is inherently hopeful – the belief that there can and should be equality and peace is a radically positive idea that insists on community and trust. The current political climate and the rise of far right ideologies promotes a culture of cynicism and apathy, in which hope is a valid and radical form of political resistance. In this vein, zinemaking also imagines a countercultural world of possibility and opportunity: possibility that change isn’t an elusive concept, and opportunity for anyone, no matter who they are, to have a stake in change. Zines answer the ever-relevant question of ‘why even bother?’ because they mobilize thought, action, and community.
Chris Yeoh from Glasgow Zine Library, a community space and zine library in the Southside, elaborated on the zine’s unique potential for resistance, particularly within a capitalist society prioritising productivity and profit: ‘In making something that is just for you or for your friends or community, and not with any intent of profit or audience in mind, you’re engaging in something that exists outside of that framework,’ said Chris, ‘That is inherently a political act.’
In this sense, even if your zine is not apparently radically changing the world, it’s making an impact – it helps us divorce ourselves from the idea that the only things worthy of note completely reinvent the wheel.
Zinemaking encourages us to open a dialogue with ourselves, as much as with our community. What are your ideas and opinions? What do you think is important? What message do you think needs broadcasting? Zinemaking forces us to both spiritually and physically connect us with our bodies; using our hands to fold, glue, cut, write, and print can be a grounding process. It can also be interpersonal in this sense; the fact that you might need to ask someone how to fold the paper to make a book and form friendship through sharing knowledge is especially important in our digital age. Lastly, the tangibility of zines naturally fosters a more embodied connection – you can hold, touch, flip through, fold, and interact with your own work, literally holding an idea in your hands. The physicality of zine culture is of course strengthened by the gift economy – the swapping and sharing which is so essential to zinemaking. Capitalism wants you to think that art is a delight that only the people who can afford it can indulge in. Zinesters have rebelled against this idea with their history of trading zines through the post, including their address and how to contact them in their creations. At other times, zines have been flyered, given out at gigs, or traded in person.
It’s important to remember that subversive existence and political action isn’t an otherworldly task, and it’s not something that is reserved for a select group of people. You are a part of the political community. Your opinions about the government and its legislation, or your experience of interacting with the world are worth communicating. Zines offer an outlet for this and by nature fight back against our economic system (under capitalism, producing outside corporate and commercial production is a political act). Carol Hanisch’s essay “The Personal is Political” posits personal problems as being equally political as topics of war, immigration, the environment, and climate change. Zinemaking embodies this attitude – rebellion and revolution can be as silly as making a collage about how much you hate Margaret Thatcher. In this spirit, I hope I’ve convinced you to make a zine, and in doing so reject apathy and embrace resistance.
