Feminist Ephemera in a Digital World: Theorizing Zines as Networked Feminist Practice

Abstract

Zines have made a resurgence in the United States. What functions do these humble, self‐published booklets perform in the current media landscape, where digital reigns supreme? This article explores the political salience of zines for feminists, whose social media tactics have pushed feminism into popular culture and yet who continue to make zines. While much has been written about feminist zines, little research has considered their relevance in the digital age, nor have researchers grappled with the complex relationship between digital and print activist media. Drawing on interviews with zinesters, I argue that feminist zines and online feminism are not materially polarized outlets, but practices with distinct yet symbiotic advantages working in tandem within a repertoire of feminist media tactics.

Rural Women, Creative Writing, and Resistance

“…Across studies, creative writing was used as a tool for developing critical consciousness in response to self-definition as well as the articulation of lived experiences and marginalized knowledges. Guzzetti (2022a) and Clark-Parsons (2017) documented a different kind of critical purpose: Women sought to control, shape, and disseminate knowledge in the creation of zines, which were widely disseminated out into the world (Guzzetti, 2022a;Clark-Parsons, 2017). Guzzetti (2022a) documented a Navajo woman, Tatum, who wrote zines in response to colonization and the erosion of her language.…”

“…Tatum then disseminated these zines to a wide audience as a means of cultural and linguistic preservation. Clark-Parsons (2017) found that women's critical purposes focused on dismantling dominant media practices, consumption, and knowledge. Women created zines as a way of articulating and circulating knowledge that explicitly rejects mainstream media and created an alternative political discourse.…”

“…Findings from extant literature documented the use of creative writing by women as a tool for engaging in critical literacy. Women have used creative writing as an agentive tool for the purposes of resisting oppression based on gender (Clark-Parsons, 2017;Vieira, 2019) as well as gender and race (Kelly, 2020;McArthur & Muhammad, 2022;Muhammad, 2012;Winn, 2010;Wissman, 2007Wissman, , 2011. In addition, women's creative writing has interrogated oppression based on gender, race, and sexuality (Blackburn, 2002;G uzzetti, 2022b).…”

Autonomous Movements and Their Media

“…Jeppesen et al (2017) taxonomized alternative communication by process, ideology, and content, identifying ‘autonomous and radical media.’ This category produces and distributes media that mirror end-goal values (Downing, 2001, p. 71), opposes dominant structures, and attempts to support and build connections among radical grassroots projects (p. xi). Other scholars have studied autonomous media through a sociology framework to view these texts as “social practices” that develop in response to the context, experiences, and values of the subaltern groups from which they emerge (Clark-Parsons, 2017, p. 560).…”

The anarcho-feminist zine "Bloody Mary" and the influence of the Internet: The problem with the hierarchy of the collective creative process

“…17 Thus, the movement established its own media -the history of feminism can be read in connection with the history of the development of feminist independent publications. 18 The suffragette movement produced its own press, postcards, and posters, 19 such as British feminist newspaper Votes for Women. 20 The second wave of feminism used leaflets and brochures, including the American magazine Off Our Backs or the British magazine Spare Rib.…”