Feminism Friday: Interested In A Feminism Forum?

Since this is a feminism blog, I thought I’d post it. I posted this in my _feminism Livejournal Commmunity.

What does everyone think of the idea of having a feminism forum? The forum would be about feminism, the many different types of feminism, will be for discussion of ALL types of feminism, discussion of women’s rights, discussion of women’s studies, etc. Yes, I am very aware that livejournal, myspace, last.fm, etc. have groups or coumminities as forums for feminism, however, there are more people interested in feminism out there that are not on those websites. If I get enough heads up for the idea, I will make the forum. If I don’t get many replies to this post, then I will NOT make the forum.

I am thinking of using proboards or invisionfree for the forum provider. If anyone is interested in helping me out with the forum: layout, ideas, or being a moderator on the forum, Please let me know by replying to this post. Also, The forum will be discussed by email, so if you really want to help out or be a moderator, please leave your email address in a reply to this post OR you can email me here: grrrlsvomitcandy at hotmail dot com Thanks!

Taking It Global

Taking It Global is a social networking website. It is aimed at youth, but adults are also on the website. (such as myself) Taking It Global is an international non-profit organization located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In alot of ways, It is like Care2, but it has more members than Care2.

I have a profile on there as grrrlriot. Feel free to add me on TakingItGlobal.

Here is some information about the website, taken from takingitglobal.org.

We’re an international non-profit organization headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, yet we connect youth around the world. TakingITGlobal provides a portal for young people to find inspiration, access information and get involved in improving their local and global communities.

Inspire
Young people have the energy, the desire and the skills to make a difference in the world. All that’s needed is a way of connecting with one another. TakingITGlobal’s position at the intersection of key global trends enables us to support young people in acting as a force for change today and into the future. Our Vision is of a world where young people are more engaged in their communities on local, national, and international levels. We provide the tools and the space for young people around the world to be heard. And those voices will, in turn, inspire more to speak.

Inform
Our world is increasingly global and interconnected. Many threats face our common humanity, such as global poverty, war and conflict, HIV/AIDS, and environmental degradation. TakingITGlobal provides access to the information required to understand and act on global issues. Our mission is to provide opportunities for learning, capacity-building, cross-cultural awareness and self-development through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. Because once you have the information, you can share it.

Involve
Young people are most powerful as co-owners in our own development process. That’s why TakingITGlobal is focused on encouraging involvement. By leveraging the power of social networks and digital media, we’ve created a tool for learning, collaboration, dialogue and action that is completely interactive.

Our flagship program, TakingITGlobal.org, has become the most popular online community for young people interested in connecting across cultures and making a difference. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the site each month to share their unique knowledge, perspectives and experiences.

44 Writings I Need For This Blog

I am in need of some articles and writings for this blog. I will add to this list as I see fit. The ones listed below are ideas for articles and writings and are some writings/articles I need for the blog. By writing the article (or articles), You will be emailed an invite to join this blog and will be able to post up your writing on the blog. Be sure to let others know that you wrote the article (or articles).

ARTICLES AND WRITINGS NEEDED:

1-History of riot grrrl: how, why, where, when, and who started it. (about the music and the movement)
2-History of feminism: how, why, where, when, and who started it.
3-The 3 waves of feminism.
4-The many different types of feminism such as: anarcha-feminism, individual feminism, radical feminism, and all the others.
5-Write about your favorite feminism/riot grrrl website or write a review of your favorite feminism/riot grrrl website. (can be blogs, websites, forums, etc.)
6-Write your own definition of what feminism means to you.
7-What does riot grrrl mean to you? (Write as much or as little as you want.) Describe riot grrrl in your own words.
8-Write about being a riot grrrl in another country. What’s the riot grrrl scene like where you live? Is there a chapter where you live? Any riot grrrl bands where you live? How did you get into riot grrrl? How long have you been into riot grrrl?
9-Write about how you got into riot grrrl. What, how, when, who, and where made you get into riot grrrl?
10-Write about being a riot boy: how, when, who, what, and where did you get into riot grrrl?
11-Write your own riot boy manifesto. (I already have a version on my website.)
12-Write about being a male feminist: how, when, who, what, and where did you get into riot grrrl?
13-Write some feminism questions that you would like answered or start a feminism FAQ (frequently asked questions) of your own and the answers to them.
14-Write some riot grrrl/boy questions that you would like answered or start a riot grrrl FAQ (frequently asked questions) of your own and the answers to them.
15-Write about women’s issues important to you.
16-Write about feminism and what it means to you.
17-Write how you got into feminism and why.
18-Make a list of reasons on why your a feminist. Try to think of 50 or more reasons, if you can. 10-20 reasons will do too.
19-Make a list of reasons on why your a riot grrrl. Try to think of 50 or more reasons, if you can. 10-20 reasons will do too.
20-Write some DIY tips or share yours. Share your own DIY stuff.
21-Write something about being an activist/ or about activism.
22-Write something about zines or your life as a zinester.
23-Write about your ladyfest or a ladyfest you attended.
24-Write about a riot grrrl chapter or your own riot grrrl chapter.
25-Write about being pro-choice, why your pro-choice, or what it means to you.
26-Write something about how riot grrrl and queercore music are connected.
27-Write something about how riot grrrl and grunge music are connected.
28-Write something about how riot grrrl and punk music are connected.
29-Write something about feminism in other countries. What’s feminism like in your country or other countries?
30-Write something about human rights in your country or another country.
31-Write something about equal rights.
32-Write about why is feminism important today.
33-Write your own definition of what a riot boy is to you. Give your own definition of riot boy.
34-Write your own Zine DIY guide.
35-Write how to start a riot grrrl chapter DIY guide.
36-Write your own list of ways to be an activist.
37-Write a review of a zine or your favorite zine.
38-Write about your experience with the Riot Grrrl Online website.
39-Write about the Riot Grrrl Online website or do a review of the website. If you write about the website, write how you found the website, how you got active in the website and why. I’m sure there are more things you can write about the website, as long as your a reader or fan of the website, your input is appreciated.
40-A review of your riot grrrl or feminist website.
41-Write a news story. Write about an issue or topic important to you or an issue/topic you think would be important to others that is happening in the news.
42-Write your own women’s issue story. If you are a survivor (of anything from rape to cancer, etc.), I’d like to hear your story and what you went through.
43-Write how to start a ladyfest.
44-Write how to start your own record label and/or band.

If your interested in writing one of these articles, Feel free to read the “contribute” page and reply to the “contribute” page or email me. If you comment on the “contribute” page or email me, Please specify which article (or articles) you want to write about by letting me know which number or numbers (# or #’s) your interested in writing. If you have your own ideas for writings or whatever, feel free to email me some of yours.

*This is also posted on the “Ideas” page.

What Riot Grrrl Means To Me

The following was written by Greta/grrrlriot. (me) Do not copy without permission.

What Riot Grrrl Means To Me…What Does It Mean To You?

There are no right or wrong definitions of riot grrrl, in fact, everyone has their own definition of what a riot grrrl is. Here goes my definiton of what riot grrrl is and what it means to me.

Riot grrrl doesn’t ‘man-hate’.
Riot grrrl doesn’t discriminate against age, race, sex, or sexual preference.
Riot grrrl is a movement for girls that want to be equal to men and want equal rights for everyone.
Riot grrrl is being a nonconformist and not meeting society’s standards.
Riot grrrl is DIY. (doing it yourself)
Riot grrrl is about making zines, websites, blogs, and being active online.
Riot grrrl is all about not fitting into a mold.
Riot grrrl is all about rebelling against society.
Riot grrrl is about being yourself, being unique, being different, and loving yourself.
Riot grrrl is about your rights as a human being.
Riot grrrls want to be seen and heard.
Riot grrrls want to speak out against various issues in today’s society, including women’s issues.
Riot grrrls want to smash patriarchy.
Riot grrrls want to make a stand and want to make a difference.
Riot grrrls want to be globally aware of issues affecting the world.
Riot grrrls want freedom to be themselves without being judged.
Riot grrrls believe in grrrl love, respect, feminism, and equality.
Riot grrrls believe in women’s rights.
Riot grrrls believe in feminism and human rights.
Riot grrrls believe that women should have rights in ALL countries.
Riot grrrls are activists and want to change the world.

Grrrl love, respect, feminism, and equality are the main aspects of what a riot grrrl is to me. You can be male or female to believe in the movement. Males can be riot grrrls, but sometimes call themselves ‘riot boys’ or ‘riot guys’, even though gender doesn’t matter.
To be a riot grrrl, You don’t have to listen to riot grrrl bands, even though it helps to understand the riot grrrl movement better. You just have to believe in the riot grrrl philosophy.
Riot grrrl doesn’t discriminate. To be a riot grrrl, You have to believe in the riot grrrl manifesto.
I know there are people that say the movement isn’t around anymore, but I think it is coming back. I want a riot grrrl revival. There are people that still believe in riot grrrl today. There are ex-riot grrrls around as well that used to be into the movement, but they no longer consider themselves a riot grrrl anymore or they think the movement died.
Can you be a riot grrrl? Sure, You just have to believe in the philosophy and what its all about. You can even start up your own riot grrrl chapter in your area/town/country/state to get the word out about riot grrrl and to meet other riot grrrls.
DIY, meetings, zines, and music are a big part of the riot grrrl movement.

Riot Grrrl Online’s Social Network: Something You Didn’t Know

This post refers to my previous post located here.

If you read that post, you know that you can create your own profile on the website. Did you know that you can create other profiles too, if you want? Feel free to create your own band, zine, riot grrrl chapter, feminist chapter, feminist organization, activist, ladyfest, etc. profiles on there as well. For your information, The profiles are the same as personal profiles. There’s no difference between them. You can also create groups on the website as well.

For more information, go to the social network website below.

The Riot Grrrl Online Community Social Network

How To Start A Zine Distro

This information was taken from here from archive.org.

How To Start A Zine Distro

The first thing you want to decide is how you are going to accept zines for your distro. There are two ways of doing this:

Flats – A flat is a single (and can be double) sided version of zines before it has been folded and stapled. If you decide to do it this way, you just go to the print shop and make a copy everytime someone orders a zine. You can go once a week and make all your copies at once and save some time and trips to the printer. If there is any profit to be made, it goes to you. The zine writer gets no compensation from you.

Wholesale – You can work out a deal with a zine writer to buy a number of copies of the zine and then sell them through your distro. This is a lot easier since you don’t ever have to go to the printers and you don’t have to worry about folding and stapling. This may require money up front, but a lot of zine writers will sell them in bulk for cheaper. You can also work out a consignment deal, where the zine writer sends you their zine and you pay them every time you sell a copy. You can also pay them at specified intervals throughout the year. If there is any profit to be made, it goes to you. You shelled out the money for the zines so you get whatever money is left over.
It’s all up to you as to which way you want to run your distro. Some people prefer flats and some prefer wholesale.

A good rule of thumb is to find out how much the zine writer charges for the zine and then sell them for the same price. That way you aren’t charging more or less for the zine and it won’t really matter where the person gets the zine from. The ideal purpose of a distro isn’t to make money, it should be about getting zines out that otherwise might not be known in your area.

Once you’ve decided how you are going to run your distro, it’s time to look for zines to carry! You have to decide what kind of zines you want to carry – whether you want personal, political, informative, riot grrrl, hardcore, punk, straight edge, ska, or whatever kind of zine. An excellent place to find zines is on the Internet. Do a search for zines through search engines, World Wide Punk, mailing lists, zine webrings, etc. Check out the content and then e-mail the editor and ask about distroing their zine. You can place ads on people’s message boards and guestbooks calling for zines. If there are other zines in your area, talk to the editors and see about distroing them as well. Making a webpage for anything, including a distro, will increase your chances of getting zines to carry.

You’ll want to make a catalog for the zines (and other items that you decide to carry) and advertise it. Most people won’t pay for smaller catalogs so it’s best to just ask for stamps. It’s also good to have on file the zine writers’ addresses and websites if they have them, in case people want to contact them or check out the zine before they buy it.

It takes a lot of hard work and time to run a zine distro, and it gets a lot more complicated when you start adding other items to your catalog such as music, clothing, pins, etc. You pretty much handle everything like you would a zine – you can buy wholesale or sell on consignment.

This obviously is only a start on how to start up a zine distro – every distro works differently and there is a ton of work involved, depending on what you stock and how many orders you get. Be patient with yourself and don’t overwork yourself. This should be a fun experience, not a headache!

Care2.com

Care2 is a social networking website for activists of all sorts. It’s sorta like myspace, but better and different. I just had to share the link to care2 and my profile on care2. The website is one of my favorites and I login there on an almost daily basis. I think it’s great that activists have their own social networking website. I figured I’d get the word out about care2 because I feel like alot of people don’t know about the website. (or how good it is!) Also, I figured that alot of people would be interested in care2. (or joining care2)

Feel free to add me as a friend on Care2. Currently, I have no friends on Care2.
My Care2 Profile: http://my.care2.com/grrrlriot

The following information was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Care2.

What Is Care2.com All About? Care2 is a social network website that was founded by Randy Paynter in 1998 to help connect activists from around the world. It has a membership of approximately 8 million people.

Care2′s stated mission is to help people make the world a better place by connecting them with the individuals, organizations and responsible businesses making an impact.

Overview
Care2 members create an online identity by filling out a profile with personal information, as in most social networking sites, but Care2 also asks for information about its members’ involvement in activism. The social interactions on Care2 revolve around groups that connect people who care about similar issues. Internet petitions and news articles posted by members are also frequently used.

Features
-Member profiles and groups to facilitate social networking
-Petitions that any citizen can create and distribute
-Petitions created and promoted by Care2 in partnership with nonprofit organizations
-”Click-to-Donate Races” to generate donations to charities (from ad sponsors), just by clicking
-Free E-Cards (which also generate free donations)
-Citizen News Network–members post news stories themselves and vote on which ones should be displayed
-Blogs
-Free Webmail Accounts
-Free photo-sharing with unlimited upload space
-Email newsletters and “e-alerts” about various issues like the environment and human rights
-”Care2 JobFinder,” which lists jobs with progressive companies
-A “Green Living” channel with tips on living healthier, more sustainable lives
-Various content channels on topics such as Global Warming, Women’s Issues and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Riot Acts: Punk Girl Groups Are Putting the Self Back in Self-Esteem

This is an OLD article from the New York Times about the riot grrrl movement.

Japenga, Ann. The New York Times
15 November 1992: Section 2, Page 30.

Riot Acts

Punk’s Girl Groups Are Putting the Self Back in Self-Esteem

The singer Kathleen Hanna sashayed onto the stage to distribute lyric sheets before a recent Seattle appearance of her band, Bikini Kill. The men in the crowd surged forward, extending their arms to receive the word from this new punk Madonna, with her flailing magenta ponytail and seductive stage manner. But she slapped the men back. “Girls only,” she scolded, putting copies of the lyrics in each upraised female hand. Ms. Hanna’s action set the tone for the performance: the band was delivering its wisdom to women, and men had better behave themselves if they wanted to hang around.

Bikini Kill is part of a growing cadre of so-called girl bands that are claiming a place in punk rock. And the rise of groups like Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Mecca Normal and Bikini Kill has inspired a larger movement of feminists in their teens and early 20′s who call themselves Riot Grrrls. That’s girl with an angry “grrrrowl.”

Riot Grrrls is a grass-roots movement that began in the summer of 1991 around Olympia, the sedate state capital 65 miles south of Seattle, in the same thriving music environment that has spawned other Northwest bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney. The term Riot Grrrls was coined by a small group of female musicians in an attempt to define a more confident, less passive attitude about being a young woman. And though no one knows how widespread the scene has become, concerts here at college auditoriums, church halls and even art galleries are packed with Riot Grrrls, and pockets of sympathizers have sprung up around the country.

To call herself a Riot Grrrl, a woman need only rally to the slogan “Revolution Girl Style Now” and appreciate bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, whose aggressive, unpolished sound has much in common with the early punk rockers Patti Smith, the Raincoats and Poly Styrene of the X-Ray Spex.

Indeed, the movement is above all a triumph of punk, a genre not normally noted for its enlightened attitude toward women. Riot Grrrls say they owe their existence to punk’s do-it-yourself ethic: if you have something to say, pick up a guitar, write a song and say it. “There’s no way any of this could have happened if it wasn’t for punk rock,” says Molly Neuman, Bratmobile’s 21-year-old drummer.

The Riot Grrrl credo is that young women should take care of one another. “This world doesn’t teach us how to be truly cool to each other, and so we have to teach each other,” says a Bikini Kill manifesto circulated in one of the movement’s scores of small newsletters. Riot Grrrls literature and lyrics speak out against the competition and jealousy that they feel society encourages among young women; the Riot Grrrls want to replace those attitudes with loyalty and support.

One of the central tenets is that talking about personal abuses and travails can make women stronger. Accordingly, Riot Grrrl bands address firsthand experiences of rape, incest, insecurity and the struggle of young women to define themselves within a patriarchy. “Don’t need you to tell me I’m cool/ Don’t need you to tell me I’m pretty,” Ms. Hanna shouts in a tune called “Male Approval, NOT.”

Riot Grrrls have a distinct look, combining traditional fashions like round-collared, cinched-waist dresses and incandescent red lipstick with harder touches: heavy black high-top boots and hacked-off punk hair. Also popular is a deliberately nerdy or dowdy appearance, a challenge to the cultural expectation that women should strive to be pretty. Some Riot Grrrls use felt pens to draw block letters on their arms and stomachs spelling out the words “rape,” “incest” and “shame,” another means of focusing discussion on painful personal issues.

Older feminists are heartened by the movement and see the Riot Grrrls as their descendants. “These are the individualistic daughters of the Reagan-Bush years,” says Michelle Fine, a professor of psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York who works with teen-age girls. “It’s very hard for this generation of young women to imagine organizing. In their lifetimes, they haven’t seen collective struggle that has been successful.”

In fact, Riot Grrrl bands, nearly all white and middle class, seem more interested in networking with like-minded women than in courting mainstream recognition. Ms. Neuman wants to get the word out, but many young women who follow the scene will not talk to reporters. One explained her refusal by saying that the movement “is just something that’s been really important to me, and I’m afraid of it being exploited.”

It may be no surprise that these young feminists are trying to maintain a low profile. Society has traditionally been intolerant of young women who do not conform, suggests Lyn Mikel Brown, co-author with Carol Gilligan of “Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development.” “To be openly resistant is to invite trouble. These are the girls who get sent to therapy or get kicked out of school.”

Ms. Brown is one of several researchers whose studies show that girls suffer a plunge in self-esteem as they approach adulthood, with its still-rigid cultural expectations of femininity. By rewriting the word girl, Riot Grrrls are a rare example of young women banding together to reverse that trend.

From its inception in Olympia, the Riot Grrrl phenomenon has spread to cities like Toronto, Washington, San Francisco and Columbus, Ohio — as young women with little or no musical training formed what some of them call “angry girl bands.”

Bratmobile and Bikini Kill were among the first Riot Grrrl bands. Ms. Neuman was studying women’s issues at the University of Oregon in Eugene when she and Allison Wolfe, started Bratmobile and the newsletter Girl Germs. (“Spread as many girls germs as you can,” one issue admonished.) About the same time, Ms. Hanna and Tobi Vail were putting together Bikini Kill, in Olympia.

Adhering to punk’s do-it-yourself ethic, they started recording cassettes in home studios or releasing 45′s on small labels. The band members also began corresponding with other groups in Oregon and Washington, and out of that the Riot Grrrls movement grew.

“We were all talking about similar things,” recalls Ms. Neuman. “We were frustrated with the world and with sexism, and even with the sexism we saw in alternative culture. It was an exciting time for me, feeling like I wasn’t crazy and there were people who felt the same things I did.”

Calvin Johnson, whose Olympia-based K Records has recorded Bratmobile and Mecca Normal, is amazed at how Riot Grrrls have caught on. “There’s been a spontaneous explosion of interest that I compare to punk rock in the 70′s, when people in Toronto and Paris and Olympia and Tucson were all saying at the same time: ‘Oh, yes, this is what I was looking for.’ “

In Ms. Neuman’s bedroom is a cardboard box full of letters from young women who have responded to Girl Germs. One girl wrote from “an elitist school dominated by the American dream” to say that finding others like her was “my only hope to survive this living hell.” Her letter closed: “Send me your lives.”

How To Start A Zine

Here’s something I got from the old and no longer around The X-Womyn Collective website. It tells you how to start your own zine.

Before You Start

Buy a whole bunch of zines and take note of all the different layouts, designs, graphics, content, etc. It will help you get a better feel for what you want to put in your own zine.

Content

What do you want your zine to be about? What sort of things are you going to put in it? Is it going to be a fanzine for a band (i.e. C.I.L.L. – a Lunachicks zine)? A zine about your local scene (i.e. Neus Subjex – a zine about Cincinnati punk rock)? Personal writings like rants, poetry, stories, etc. (i.e. Puzzle Pieces)? A political/informational zine about sexism, rape, violence, homophobia (i.e. Body Count/FEM-UH-NIST)? FYI, punk, ska, riot grrrl, hardcore, whatever… decide what you want to put in your zine. This is your project. Don’t worry about who will buy it and who will like it. Put what YOU would want to read about. Most zines are created because people see zines they like and want to imitate it. There is no such thing as an original zine anymore, so do whatever you want with it. If you are going to be using pre-printed material, whether it’s a poem, statistics, interviews, graphics, etc., make sure you give the original author credit. No one likes to pick up a zine they’ve never heard of and see something they wrote and the zine writer claiming it as their own (regardless if you tried to pass it off that way). If you are unsure who the author/artist is, make a note of it and offer future credit for that person.

Name

What are you going to call your zine? Choose a name that means something to you. It’s what you are going to be associated with from now on. Pick something that will go with what’s inside. Don’t pick a generic name like “Punkzine” or something like that, use some creativity and put some thought into it. One Up, Neus Subjex, Poop Corner, Cicada, Little Girl, Agitprop, Doo Wrong, Shakeface, Maximumrocknroll – all pretty good names. Don’t purposely rip off zines names though, zine writers get very angry when they see zines with almost exact titles. Your zine will become your life, and it’s sort of like identity theft if someone else is using the same name as you. (We’ve had this provlem before. You wouldn’t think it would be that big of a deal until it happens to you.)

Graphics

What sort of images, if any, are you going to use to accompany you’re writing? Find pictures, drawings, anything to fill in extra space. Empty white spaces are an eye sore. If you have access to it or can afford it, try using colored paper. It doesn’t add to the graphics, but someone may be more willing to pick up a zine if the pages are blue instead of white. Use anything to add life to your zine. But beware of copyrighted material. If you steal graphics off the internet or out of another zine, make sure you mention where you got the graphics from. It’s proper zine ettiquettte. (I never paid much attention to “zine ettiquette” before but in the world of zines, it’s a major issue.)

Layout

Arrange your zine so it’s easy to read. Don’t cram everything into 10 pages if you have 20 pages of material. If you have that much stuff, save some of it for a future issue. You don’t want to run out of material after 2 issues. Don’t reduce it all either so you need a magnifying glass to read it. Normal point size (10 or 12) is good, and with certain fonts you can go as low as 8. Handwritten zines have a certain charm to them, but only if your writing is legible and it copies dark enough. If you are going to handwrite, try using a roll-point pen or transparency marker, that way it will come out better than a ball point pen. Make sure you leave a margin on all sides for copying and stapling. If you are using a comupter, you can mess with your page layout in your writing program and modify the margins.

Printing

This is the biggest pain in the ass of the whole zine process. You can go through 50 printers before you find one that suits you. This is also the most time consuming part of it all, at least from what we’ve experienced. You need money and a lot of time to print. Call around before you venture out and see what prices are available to you. Print shops may be a bit more expensive but their copies usually turn out better. And you don’t have to stand at a xerox machine for six hours printing your zine. But, it is better to do it yourself since you know how everything should be laid out and how you want it to look. But, you can always have someone else do it for you. Plan to spend extra money on your first issue, since it’s the first time you’ve ever done this, you are going to mess up a lot and it’s going to cost money. A quick way of printing is to make what is called a flat. It’s a single-sided version of your zine. Take your final product to the xerox machine, copy each page until it looks the way you want it to. Then place the flat on the document handler on top of the copy machine and select 1 to 2 sided. This makes things go a lot faster so you aren’t screwing up 50 copies of a page at a time. It also helps if you make friends with people that work at copy shops. They can cut you deals and sneak you free copies. Or you could go all out and work in a copy shop!

Getting your zine out

This is the fun part and where all your hard work pays off. Give a copy to the bands and zines you reviewed, if you did reviews at all. Give it to other zinesters where you live and ask them to review it in their zines. Trade zines with people. Sell them at shows. Take them to local record stores and see if they’ll buy them. The internet has made zine distributing a million times easier. You can trade zines with people you’ve met online. You can get on zine mailing lists and talk about your zine there. You can make a webpage to promote your zine and have an e-mail address so people can contact you. Send your zine to bigger zines like Punk Planet, Factsheet Five, Maximumrocknroll and ask them to review it. A lot of people read their reviews and buy the ones with the good reviews. You can send zines to friends out-of-town. You can look for out-of-town distros that would want to carry your zine. Pander, Riot Grrrl Press, Basement Children, Word Is A Weapon, Bitch – all of these distros carry many zines.  Send your zine to online places like World Wide Punk. Hundreds of people visit there a day and trust Vic’s opinions.

Cost

Here’s a major dilemma. You are going to lose money on your zine. There’s no getting around it. Some zine writers have lost hundreds of dollars each time they print. It’s just a fact of zine life. You have to decide if you want to give your zine out for free (if you have good advertisers you can manage this, see below for selling ad space) or if you want to charge for it to cover some of the copying. Don’t expect to make money. You probably won’t so don’t even hope for it. If you do happen to make money, someone loves you. heheh. Keep the cost as low as you can – people are cheap. They’ll spend 4 bucks on a cup of coffee but not 2 bucks on a zine that could change their life. Don’t rip yourself off either, but keep the cost low enough that you aren’t losing tons of money every issue.

Promotion

Stickers, word of mouth, shirts, reviews, anything so people know what your zine is and so they get interested in it. Although it’s lame, have people talk about it so other kids will overhear and want to see your zine. Don’t be shy. This is your baby and you busted your ass on it. Talk to bands at shows and ask for interviews and stuff for review. Getting a big band like Screeching Weasel to do an interview is going to get a lot of people to buy it, although getting Ben Weasel to do anything like that can be a struggle with futility. Just kidding.

Feedback

Make sure and ask for feedback. What does everyone else think? Don’t be hurt or crushed by negative feedback or bad reviews. Not everyone is going to die over your zine. And not everyone will use it as toilet paper either. Find out what’s good and what’s not. What you need to improve on, what rocks already and you don’t need to change. No one is just going to flame your zine out of spite, they are giving you an honest opinion, whether it’s good or bad, and you should be willing to accept suggestions and criticism and try and improve on it. Some zine reviewers at bigger zines like MRR can be real snotty and picky so don’t give up on writing your zine if they give you an awful review.

Advertising

Send letters, e-mails, zines to bands and labels and other places. Call them a few weeks later and ask if they are interested in advertising. Make them pay for it. Not only are you making money to print your next issue, but the labels are reaching a bunch of kids with their products, which is really good for small labels that don’t get much press. The bigger labels are a lot wearier about advertising in small zines with limited circulation and print count. Try and stick with the smaller labels, they will probably send you some stuff to review as well if you ask, since they need all the press they can get, and so can you! Visit local places like record stores and coffee shops and skate parks and ask if they are interested in advertising as well. It’s a good way of lowering your printing cost and in turn lowering the price at which you sell your zine.

Sit back, relax, and repeat as necessary

Don’t start your next zine as soon as you are done printing an issue. Give yourself a break. After a few weeks, begin thinking about the next issue. Draw a layout of what you want to be in it, make a list of articles, gather submissions, get everything in order and then go into the next issue. Don’t burn yourself out. Don’t set deadlines, you’ll bever make them.

Split zines

Split zines take a lot more work on both editors’ parts. You have to coordinate page numbers, material (so you don’t print the same thing), graphics, etc. It’s always a good idea to let the other editor read what you have before you go to print. I got into a short spat with the other editor of my split zine over something I wrote. That could have easily been avoided had we talked about it beforehand. There’s a lot of give and take in a split zine, you have to be willing to compromise, like in any relationship.

E-Zines

E-zines are just as fun as paper zines to make. You can do it one of two ways (that I know of). You can make each zine a website (like we do here at the X-Womyn) or you can send it out as an e-mail. Making a website zine is just like making a webpage for anything else, you need a basic understanding of html and material to publish! Just make your zine as a webpage, publish it on the internet and you’re done! You still need to go through the steps of deciding content, name, etc. but the whole copying business is history. =) I’ve personally never done an e-mail zine before, but you can either send all the contents in an e-mail or attach a text file to an e-mail containing your zine. AOL members have more benefits with adding pictures, colors, fonts, etc. that you can’t do in a text file. Just organize your zine in an e-mail and send it off!

Newsprint

I admit, I’m a newsprint virgin. The next issue of my zine is going to be on newsprint, but I have never done it this way before. We contacted Small Publisher’s Co-op and asked for a pricing list and information. You can also call around and find printers that use newspaper and talk to them about how to print your zine that way.

Feminism Friday: How To Start A Riot Grrrl Chapter In Your Area

I got this from an OLD riot grrrl website that’s no longer up anymore. I used archive.org to find the old website. It’s taken from here: The X-Womyn Collective and it’s from their DIY guide. Some of the information below might not be something you want to try, but the main point of a riot grrrl chapter is to hold meetings and connect with other riot grrrls.

Put up flyers announcing the formation of a riot grrrl chapter in your area. Include contact information like phone numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses if you have them, and a website URL if available. Leave them in coffeeshops, record stores, hand them out at shows, and if you have the nerves, get up and announce that you are starting a chapter at shows and public events. You may also want to decide if you will allow men in your meetings. Some chapters do, some don’t.

Wait for people to contact you. Make sure you get all their contact information, like name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc. Once you feel you have enough people, get in touch with everyone and plan a meeting.

Meetings can take place almost anywhere. You can do it in a public place like a coffeehouse or a park, but there may be a lot of outside distractions and people will find it hard to stay focused. You can also have meetings in people’s houses, if everyone is comfortable with the idea. Have people bring snacks to munch on and drinks. Tell them to bring a friend who might be interested.

The first meeting is always a little slow and you don’t do many activities. It’s good to go around and introduce yourselves, like name, where you’re from, how you got involved with riot grrrl and what you hope to get out of the group. You may also want to explain why you are starting a chapter in the first place. You may then want to discuss what you’d like to do, whether you want it to be just a discussion group, or if you’d like to do other outside activities. If you are in a public place you might want to collect donations and give them to the people who run the place as a thank you for letting you meet there. Some places might even require that you do it. You also might want to ask people to donate money to the chapter so you have spending money if you need it. But be sure to put it in a safe place and don’t spend it on anything except what’s agreed on as a chapter.

Some ideas for things to do as a chapter are to hold a convention featuring girl/queer-positive bands, workshops and speakers. This takes a lot of planning though. You should hold off on this until you get things really organized. You can also have slumber parties and dance parties, as a way of bonding and getting to know each other. You can hold workshops in meetings about topics like self-defense, abortion, sexism, the media, equality, rape/sexual assault, girl love/sisterhood, racism, classism, gay/lesbian/bisexual rights, eating disorders and the internet. These can also be topics for workshops in your convention if you decide to hold one. You can put out a chapter zine and distribute it through your area and let people know what your chapter is all about. You can print up pamphlets on rape statistics, eating disorders, etc. and give them out. You can volunteer in women’s shelters (providing that you are the proper age, it all depends on the shelter). Some other ideas would be to write in bathroom walls (if you’ve seen Girls Town, this is just like that), girl-positive messages and lists of rapists in your area. You can place flyers in fashion magazines and diet products like “Is this how you measure your self-esteem?” See below for a list of things you can put in them. You can have spoken word nights where people just get up and read stuff they have written, and you can even record it and sell it. If you notice some people are more talkative than others, you may want to hand out cards (5 per person?) and everytime someone speaks they have to give up a card. That way everyone has a chance to talk. Consider helping out other local organizations like the Anti-Racist Action and Food Not Bombs. It will help bring all the groups together.

There are endless things for chapters to do, all of which can help promote the idea of riot grrrl and do something good for the community.

Here are some things you can put inside fashion magazines and diet products:

“This product contains unrealistic images”
“This product is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on your fantasies”
“Diets deprive our bodies of healthy food and our minds of healthy thinking”
“FACT: Every year, the U.S. spends more money on trying to lose weight than we do preventing child abuse, where are YOUR priorities?”
“If diet pills really work, why are there so many overweight people?”
“Diets starve the body of healthy food and the mind of healthy thinking”
“The Diet Industry: Sex, Thighs, and Measuring Tape”
“Intelligence never goes out of fashion: BOYCOTT STARVATION IMAGERY”

You can put these in dressing rooms:

“these clothes are made to fit you, not the other way around”
“don’t weigh your self-esteem”
“don’t judge your personal worth on your dress size”

Feminism Friday: A Brief History Of Riot Grrrl

Here is a brief history of riot grrrl. Later, I might write my own more detailed version. Here is the version from the Riot Grrrl Online website.

Riot Grrrl began in 1991 at Olympia Washington, when a few girls (mostly from Bikini Kill and Bratmobile) decided to get together and talk about their main interests..feminism and punk rock. The first time they met it was all fun, they put up posters to get attention of other open minded girls. Then they found out they had other things in common: they were all vegetarians; against drugs; and had been molested as children. At one meeting a very smart girl took notes, photocopied them and turned them into a cool fanzine. That’s how it all began. Some people think that Bikini Kill started it all, in my eyes they did. Bikini Kill, however does not think of themselves as starting the riot grrrl movement. In Bikini Kill’s songs, they sing about different women issues such as: rape, incest, and other issues that some women face. Some people think that bikini kill, riot grrrls, and feminists are ‘man-haters’. They’re not. They just want to be equal to men, not better to them. Zines are a BIG part of the riot grrrl scene. Most riot grrrls believe in DIY. (do it yourself) That means that they start riot grrrl chapters, zines, etc. of their own around the riot grrrl movement.