OA

Write it yourself?

Zines are self-published booklets, magazines, or comics which can cover any subject. A large proportion of the zines produced today are feminist personal zines, or ‘perzines’, which discuss issues such as sexual violence, mental health, menstruation, and lesbophobia. Despite blogs and other digital media being popular among feminist zine makers, they choose to publish life-writing on paper. Through analysing zines and interviewing contemporary feminist zine makers from different countries and age groups, I argue that the accessibility, creative freedom, and community of feminist perzines build a ‘participatory playground’ in which amateur writers can share life-writing on feminist issues and which therefore creates a safe space for transforming personal experiences into political awareness.