My Story |
Every few weeks, someone would ask me what I mean by feminist publishing. Sometimes the question is timid with a lot of curiosity. Other times, it’s presumptuous and challenging my intentions to advocate misandry and sexism. Is my content based on anger towards men and the patriarchal culture that we live in? Do I always talk about gender issues?
Abstractly, the answer is that this publication can include any of these things - but it doesn’t have to be about any of them. By publishing “Grrrl Germs” this is about a broader paradigm shift: building a movement, reshaping the gender status quo, and changing the culture. Then, there is a practical answer, in terms of my work and day-to-day decisions as a feminist. It entails mainly things I try not to do. I don’t publish work that unreflectively reproduces gender stereotypes. (i.e men are active, and assertive in making decisions while women are passive, defined by their relationships and appearance). I learn to speak and act with confidence, and strive to empower writers and artists I work with to do the same. I was 15 when I learned about making zines. I made them as a pastime. That meant making collages and handwritten works, cutting, aligning texts and magazine clip art painstakingly by hand, and running over to the store copying on recycled paper. Two years later, I returned with a laptop equipped with layout software. With each issue I’ve distributed, I went through a year of different themes in my work and a lot of self-discovery. I’d been been reading and thinking a lot about gender equality in society for the past year and a half and wanted to work out some seemingly contradictory ideas and theories. It received a bit of a backlash from receiving anonymous hate messages to being seen as a “men hater” in the real world. I could’ve stopped if I wanted to. |
My Vision |
With “Grrrl Germs”, I want to create a collective of voices and ideas, as diverse and contradictory as I can manage. Each issue will have a theme, and when things go as planned, each theme will bring out and galvanize different segments.
Because all of zines are self-published, we will have complete control over its content, compilation and distribution. As such, the content can be made available to a wide audience while simultaneously remaining “underground”, avoiding the intervention and censure of authority or opposition. It works by creating a space free of the heavy burden that typical gendered stereotypes put on all of us. Sometimes that means publishing things overtly about gender, raising consciousness around sexism, debating feminism, kicking down the doors of all sorts of other kinds of privilege, taking space. But mostly, it means creating a small world without the casual sexism, derogatory comments, and blatant discrimination that stills stands as the norm out there in the larger world. Here, there is room to relax, to grow, to be yourself, to develop a culture of creativity, confidence, and respect. It’s something we can all learn and then export, taking it with you into the rest of the world in the form of a good publication. |