Monday, March 14, 2011
Are Blogs the New Zines?
In the early to mid-90's the riot grrrl movement was writing zines and music about the oppressions of women and criticizing the media. I don't feel that this has actually stopped, but in a way transformed into something else. With the age of technology that we are living in, it is more practical and wide reaching to blog instead of zine. But what is lost by this transition? There is less personal involvement and passion to blogging than when creating a zine. There was more room for expression with zines, at least on an artistic level. Drawings and sometimes writing styles are lost in the world of online blogging. That amazing passion that can be seen in some of the zines is often derogatory and provocative. These women use words that have commonly been used to oppress them to reclaim and throw back at their oppressors. Like how Kathleen Hanna will right 'SLUT' on her arm in marker or lipstick while flaunting kinderwhore styles, these zines will use the word 'CUNT' to invoke power and a voice for women. But what lines are now drawn on the internet. Am I able to be taken seriously when I swear and use 'offensive' language or is that something truly lost now that we do not print our rants, do people even listen to any critical media nowadays? How in your face can you get on the internet?
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Kerri, I think in many ways blogs are the new zines, especially when you consider many written by younger feminists, e.g., Feministe, Feministing.com, I Blame the Patriarchy, CripChick's Blog, which I don't think have lost their passion. But maybe they are lacking in the visual effects of the old zines. But I think Bust and Bitch manage to maintain some of those visual effects. Maybe feminists need to be more creative with their blogs. If they used templates with wider columns, could insert lots of drawings and other visual messages. Even artistically challenged me managed to include a cartoon with a point when writing about Why Women Don't Write for Wikipedia, etc. in my blog. Maybe we need to learn from our Arab sisters who have done an excellent job with a little animated video on sexual harassment - you don't need to understand Arabic to get the point of this video.
ReplyDeleteI think the transformation from zines to blogs may have lost some of the audience. How many people know about all the good feminist blogs? How many read them regularly? Have you considered adding a blogroll to your blog to provide links to other good feminist blogs?