Activism in Zine Making
Zines help to amplify marginalised voices. Photo by Molli Vass.
It’s no secret that the society we live in is riddled with inequality towards women, race minorities and the LGBT+ community. To this day, women are fighting back at the patriarchy in their own unique ways, more specifically within ‘Zine’ making.
Zines are a small publication that’s either produced by an individual or collaboration of individuals and look like small magazines. They are self-published and low in cost, motivated by the passion and creativity of the maker. They focus on many different topics, from music and art to politics. The contents include, drawings, prints, collages, and anything else you can imagine. They’re an independent platform, and act as a form of expression for all sorts of cultures and interests, that you won't typically see in your everyday magazine. They highlight marginalised voices, spreading stories and information.
These publications have been around since the early 1930s, but it wasn’t until the 1960s where they focused on more political and social activism. Punk rock zines emerged in the 1970s which consisted of a male dominated punk scene - zines then surged in the ‘90s with the formation of punk feminism. This movement was founded in Olympia, Washington, formed by the punk music scene.
The female-dominated punk scene is called ‘Riot Grrrl’, where girls came together to try to stamp out the sexism within the punk community, wanting to start a ‘girl riot’. This movement strongly believes in actively engaging in a cultural production, in which they create their own type of zine, rather than following other zines, as well as using music to express themselves with bands such as Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and Bratmobile. Expressing themselves through music and zines, Riot Grrrl addressed issues that weren’t talked about enough such as, abuse, racism, sexuality, classism, patriarchy, anarchism, and female empowerment.
Molli Vass, 19, from Elgin, produces and distributes her own zines called ‘Brat Zine’ with collaborations from others. Her inspiration came from people she followed on Instagram and who she was mutuals with. She said: “I thought it seemed like such a fun hobby, and the more I really dug into feminism, I realised how cool it was to have a group of like-minded individuals who you can converse and share ideas, and just be totally yourselves with, it’s really fun.”
Molli aims to reach out to a wide range of people, those who are interested in the Riot Grrrl scene like herself, but also reaching out to those beyond as she incorporates other topics and art within her zines. Creating zines isn’t as easy as it may seem, Molli often suffers from writers block, as well as other difficulties.
She said: “Most people choose the traditional handmade and photocopied zine, but I chose to work and make it all digitally on the computer. But sometimes I’d hit a point where I’d feel like it wasn’t as fun because I wanted to be making them on paper instead. It’s hard when you have a lack of materials.”
The Riot Grrrl movement hasn’t always been fair in terms of equality. Molli said: “As much as I love the idea of it. I find that it has a very bad execution of it. Obviously when it was popular in the 90s it’s very well known that was a cis-het white orientated group of individuals and showed a lack of diversity. Whereas now, the people who are trying to bring it back to life are starting to learn about intersectional feminism, trying to make sure the movement includes everybody regardless of race etc.”
She believes that to this day, the movement should be relevant especially in today’s society. However, its past should not be disregarded, instead the movement can learn from that to be better.
Zines have been important to individuals for decades, when asked about why making zines are significant to her, she said: “Zines are important to me as a way of self-expression…My feelings and thoughts are brought together by not only my own words but other people’s too, and I think it’s great when you realise how many people understand you. They also signify a huge change in my life, where I changed from a very low point in my life to all of a sudden feeling full of life and happy again.
“To have people believe in you and be interested in what you create is an amazing feeling.”