The Global Grrrl Zine Network:
A DIY Feminist Revolution for Social Change
A
dissertation by Elke Zobl
(written in English)
INSTITUT
FÜR WISSENSCHAFTEN UND TECHNOLOGIEN IN
DER KUNST, AKADEMIE
DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE WIEN, Austria
submitted
September 2003
Supervisors:
Prof. Ute Meta Bauer, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien
und Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer, Universität Köln
Abstract
In
self-made, unfiltered zines a growing number of young women, queer and
transgender youth from around the world find an empowering outlet to
express themselves and their criticisms against society. Through reading,
making and distributing zines with grrrl-positive and political critical
messages, they actively participate in and create a global resistant
grrrl zine community. Together with other networks of feminist cultural
and political resistance, they form the social movement of DIY feminism.
In their zines, these grrrls document in dynamic, diverse and complex
ways the process of forming a feminist consciousness and identity, and
their involvement in feminist activism and politics. Therefore, zines
are rich and significant archival primary source documents for feminist
social and political analyses.
In an ethnographic cross-cultural study of this actual and virtual community
connected via zines, I suggest that grrrl zinesters read, make and distribute
zines to resist the societal pressures of conforming to conventional
femininity and rigid gender roles, and carve out a libertory space of
their own in creating their own media and communication networks. Drawing
from my online archive Grrrl Zine Network and interviews with zinesters
from around the world, I found that grrrls turn to zines for a variety
of reasons: as an outlet for personal expression and creativity, out
of solation and in search of supportive friends and community, and as
a form of creative cultural and political resistance. Making zines and
engaging in this community of shared interest, many grrrl zinesters
not only experience personal fulfillment, empowerment, and happiness
but also a sense of politicization. I suggest that grrrl zines develop
new ideas, engage in cultural resistance and have an impact on social
change over long term as well as in the immediate moment.
Bibliography
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Do-It-Yourself:
Feministische künstlerische Praxis am Beispiel von Zines und
Magazinen
(Do-It-Yourself: Feminist Artistic Practice in Zines and Magazines)
A thesis by Elke Zobl
(written in German)
INSTITUT FÜR BILDNERISCHE ERZIEHUNG
UND KUNSTWISSENSCHAFT, AKADEMIE DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE WIEN, Austria
Submitten June 1999
A
summary (sorry for the flaky translation...)
Zines
- noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines –
have been utilized by many artists in pursuit of a venue other than
galleries or museums for presenting their works. From the 1990s onwards,
increasingly young feminist artists worked with zines to create their
own space, alternative distribution canals and to reach a audience of
their own. In my MA thesis I studied feminist artistic practice employed
in zines and magazines in the German-speaking area. Central to my analyses
is an understanding of art not as a removed object , but as a social
and cultural praxis. I analyzed two art (maga-)zines and three comic
zines from contemporary German and Austrian artists and compared them
in their conception, production and distribution. On the one hand I
have been interested in the relation of these zines to art and in the
transformation of the concept of art, and on the other hand in the discussion
and artistic expression of feminist issues in those art and comic zines.
Finally, I introduced an exhibition at the Lousiana Museum of Modern
Art at Copenhagen (curator: Ute Meta Bauer) where women artists were
asked to produce a zine for the exhibition. My study is based on
interviews with the editors of the zines
as well as on the content analysis of their cultural products.
In general, these
independent little magazines are produced, published and distributed
by people through all ages, interests, political viewpoints and social
levels privileging the ethic of Do-It-Yourself. Most zines are highly
specialized and - as Factsheet Five's editor Mike Gunderloy points out
- done for love of expression, sharing and communication as well as
out of rage in protest against culture and society. A central ethic
of all zines is the emphasis on the personal, following the motto of
"the personal is political", a notion best and most frequently
articulated by the feminist movement. Additionally, they share the emphasis
on the authentic act over the result: What counts is authenticity shown
by the highly personal act of expression in making a zine. Zine writers
construct who they are and what they do in opposition to the rest of
society experimenting with new personalities, ideas and politics. Zines
are a medium of communication, written to be shared with others underground.
The network of zines, embedded within a larger underground culture,
creates a forum through which individuals may become able to construct
their identity, formulate their ideals of an authentic life, and build
a community of support, without having to identify themselves with mainstream
society.
Zines are an important medium because people experiment in the publishing
process with ideas, articulate problems and experiences otherwise suppressed
by larger society. In learning to express these issues young people
develop a sense of political thinking and acting, ultimately. Zines
have always been carriers of new, progressive, albeit often obscure
and contradictory ideas, but zinesters expressed problems at the heart
of society. In the last decade especially young women made their experiences
public, stories not told in that way by mainstream women’s magazines.
Considering the well researched decline in self-esteem, body image,
and academic performances of adolescent girls, zines are especially
significant for young women in providing a space of identity construction,
empowerment and community building. Grrrl zines – little magazines
produced by and for young women - offer a space where girls can resist
the socializing forces of adolescence, consequently reclaiming their
voice and a feminist identity for themselves.
At the beginning of the 20th century especially artists and writers
used the medium of self-publication to make their agendas heard. This
phenomenon can be observed in Dadaist, Surrealist and Situationist (maga)-zines.
The first art movement which has been based - apart from their performances
- on independent publications has been Dadaism. Dadaist manifests, little
magazines, journals and leaflets are often cited as the first zines,
in the sense that they were published purely out of fun and provocation.
Then, Surrealist and Situationist artists explored the medium for their
purposes. In the meantime, this History of Art has been influential
in directing zine writers output and shaping their public statement.
The content of many zines shows a clear indebtedness to Dadaism and
employs sloganeering and détournement practices used by Situationists.
Especially interesting are the parallels one can draw from punk and
Riot grrrl zines to Dadaist, Surrealist and Situationist (maga-)zines
employing artistic techniques such as taking texts from mass culture
and endowing them with new and subversive meaning or using collages
of cut-up word and images.
Two types of zines can be assigned to visual art, namely art- and comic-zines.
Art zines containing print media, collages, photographs, drawings and
mail art create a network of artists and a floating virtual gallery.
Characteristic features of art zines are the emphasis on international
artists and circulation as well as the specific style of artistic presentation.
Jens Neumann describes them as a play area for a multicultural youth
culture as they affect feelings and the cultural mind of people from
different cultures. Often they claim a political demand. Comic zines
show a wide range of expression. They offer the possibility to experiment
with form and content. In the 1970s young comic-drawers published their
work independently in protest against the established comic-stars. With
their experimental and unusual comics the comic-scene livened up. Nowadays,
the comic-publications are dominated by former drawers from the zine-community.
Since several years increasingly young women artists employ zines to
create their own space independently from the traditional art market.
Zines provide an outlet for women artists in which they can combine
their artistic work with their feminist commitment. This becomes clear
in the art zines “Neid” by Ina Wudtke and “Regina”
by Regina Moeller as well as in the comic zines by Linda Bilda, Ilse
Kilic and Heike Anacker, young, contemporary female artists from Austria
and Germany. In their works, one can draw a direct connection from their
agendas to the issues of the women's movement. However, zines have always
played an important role in the feminist movement.
In the artists hybrid biographies and different fields of activities
a new understanding of art and being an artist can be seen. The artists
work in multiple professions, for example Ina Wudtke as a DJ, artist
and editor of “Neid”, Regina Moeller as a producer, model,
layout designer, artist and Ilse Kilic as a writer, filmmaker, band
member and much more. This means, that there is no longer the autonomic
artist working on her own in her singular profession, but that she is
committed to cultural production in different fields. This becomes also
clear in the artists dedication to team work. Furthermore, what counts,
is not any more a certain context to be identified immediately, but
the cultural field one belongs to. This can be seen in the art zine
“Neid” where, on the first glance, one cannot classify right
away the context. One asks confused: Is it a fashion magazine? A subcultural
magazine?
Interestingly, many mass media magazines – especially fashion
photography -have been incorporating the subcultural aesthetic of these
independent art zines. The adoption of their subcultural style occurred
fast, partly through people from the art context who moved into the
fashion world. Whereas fashion photos by Claudia Reinhardt in the early
1990s in “Neid” could be clearly seen as part of a subculture,
this aesthetic found nowadays its entrance into the mainstream fashion
world.
Above all, the emancipatory aspect from passive consumption to active
production holds a great potential for social change. In the editorial
and artistic work an active thinking process involves where cognitive
tools and an independent opinion are developed. This aspect of “active
thinking” becomes increasingly important in our flourishing consumer
culture, especially for the youth. The step from consumption to independent
activity – Do-It-Yourself – is one towards autonomy and
self-determination. In that sense, zines are a call for getting active.
The immense growth of young feminist women and artists publishing zines
- on the Internet and in print - in the last decade holds a promising
future for feminist cultural production and creates an independent space
where anger, critique and fun can be freely expressed. To listen to
young women and artists voices is crucial for an understanding of female
struggle, empowerment and resistance.
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Other stuff I have written:
"Let’s Smash Patriarchy!
Zine Grrrls and Ladies at Work." Off our backs. The feminist newsjournal.
Washington, DC. XXXIII (3-4) March/April 2003. 60-61.
"Sparking
Revolutions in Minds and Hearts.In Conversation
with Grrrl Zine Editors from around the World.” Women
in Action: “Young Women.” Isis International-Manila, Phillippines
(2) 2003.
“To do a magazine
is one of our ways - to get what we want! Feministische Comic- und Artcore-(Maga-)Zines.”
Fanzines 2: Noch wissenschaftlichere Betrachtungen zum Medium der Subkulturen.
Jens Neumann, ed. Mainz: Ventil-Verlag, 1999b. 29-64.
“Grrrl Zines:
No Beauty Tips and Guilt Trips.” Short Guide for FIRST STORY -
WOMEN BUILDING/NEW NARRATIVES FOR THE 21st CENTURY. Cologne: Walter
Koenig, 2001.
“Grrrl Zines:
No Beauty Tips and Guilt Trips.” Mil Folhas/Público. Porto,
Portugal. November 3, 2001.
“Eine Reise
um den Globus mit Grrrl und Lady Zines.” Regina: Stillleben. Regina
Moeller, ed. Essen: Kokerei Zollverein, Zeitgenössische Kunst und
Kritik. (6) September 2002. 94-99.
“Grrrl Zines:
No Beauty Tips and Guilt Trips.” case 2:
FIRST STORY - WOMEN BUILDING/NEW NARRATIVES FOR THE 21st CENTURY. Catalog
to the exhibit. Cologne: Walter Koenig, 2002.
Grrrl Zine Serie.
“Sprachrohre des Untergrunds” (8.8.2002); “Aus reiner
Liebe zur Sache” (22.8.2002); “Girls Need Modems!”
(5.9.2002); “Zines im Protest” (19.9.2002); “Zines
auf Reisen” (3.10.2002). dieStandard, Vienna. Online Web site.
Available: http://www.diestandard.at
(Accessed July 5, 2003).
“Do It Yourself.
Lebendig, subversiv und vielfaeltig sind sie, die Anti Musen, Grrrl
Rebels und Pink Punkies. Durch den Blaetterwald der Grrrl Zines rauscht
Elke Zobl.” an.schlaege. Das feministische Magazin. Vienna, Austria.
5 (3) May 2003: 22-23.
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