Riding the Third Wave: Women-Produced Zines and Feminisms. (Discussion Papers/Documents De Travail)

This paper aims to provide insight into the role women play as cultural producers by examining women-produced zines. Zines (independently-produced magazines) provide an opportunity to explore cultural production by women which is unconstrained by corporate or institutional interests. The form and content of a selection of women-produced zines are analyzed with reference to third wave feminism. A movement within feminism generally associated with young women, third wave feminism provides a framework in which to examine cultural production by women to determine the possibilities and limitations zines may provide for feminist action. Cet article a comme but de developper une connaissance approfondie du role que jouent les femmes en tant que productrices culturelles, en se penchant plus specifiquement sur les zines produits par des femmes. Les zines (magazines independants) offrent la possibilite de sonder la production culturele des femmes en dehors des contraintes des interets corporatistes ou institutionnels. La forme et le contenu d'un echantillon de zines produits par des femmes sont analyses en fonction de la troisieme vague du feminisme. Un mouvement qui existe a l'interieur du feminisme le plus souvent associe aux jeunes femmes, la troisieme vague du feminisme fournit une structure par rapport a laquelle examiner la production culturelle des femmes afin de determiner les possibilites et les limites qu'offrent les zines en vue d'actions feministes. Introduction Research pertaining to North American women's popular culture has typically focussed on the role women play as consumers of cultural products. There is inadequate research concerning women as producers of popular culture and more work needs to be done in this area to better understand the role women play as producers of cultural products. Women's magazines have long been considered important in women's lives and have grown into a large cultural industry around the world. However, like studies of other forms of popular culture, those pertaining to women's magazines have traditionally neglected to consider the role of women as producers. Zines, however, are independently produced magazines that provide an opportunity to explore women's cultural production in a format unconstrained by commercial or organizational restrictions. Zines are an example of how women can create cultural products and they provide insight into the possibilities and limitations for feminist activism in the current North American cultural environment. There has been very little scholarly work that has focussed on the cultural phenomenon of zines. Stephen Duncombe has produced the most comprehensive scholarly look at zines in his book, Notes From Underground. Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture. He covers various issues related to the production of zines, its history, and the culture that has grown up around it. And while he briefly touches on women as zine producers, he offers a very limited analysis, focussing solely on zines coming out of the Riot Grrrl movement. He does address the possible implications of zines for feminism and opens a gateway to this study by acknowledging the importance of cultural production by women: By producing zines and networking with each other, Riot Grrrls become producers instead of merely consumers, creating their own spaces rather than living within the confines of those made for them (Duncombe, 1997, p. 70). Very few studies have emerged that examine the relationship of women to zine production. Electronic zines (or ezines) have more often been the focus for feminist scholars. (1) For the most part, the study of print zines by women has been neglected by feminist scholars, leaving an important part of women's culture unexamined. Zines and Zine History Defining zines has been a difficult and highly problematic task. Both scholars and zine creators have struggled in their attempts to define what a zine is, often failing to arrive at a consensus on the issue. …

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