The Book 2.0

I finished my first zine, only 12 years after I first planned to do one! (I was going through some old journals the other day and found the plans for it!) I'm going to send it out next week to various friends and new contacts I've made... oh and I've already started on my next one too!

I've loved having a little creative project to work on, and I like seeing my writing in something more tangible (I really don't enjoy reading on the computer screen and find I tend to only scan over things that arn't in physical form.)

But I'm already feeling all insecure about it! I'll probably get criticised for calling another woman that I don't even know a Bitch. Forgive me for that... I should have said Bitchy Attitude!

I also wonder if it's going to be seen as too light and fluffy (Isn't that the whole point... that it can be whatever you want it to be?) I think I've just been reading too much theoretical, academic stuff about zines that makes me think that to produce a zine you have to be a Vegan/Queer/Trans/Radical/Political activist.

So who would want to read a zine made by someone with 2.5 kids, a respectable job and a house in the suburbs? I guess we'll find out!!

My first memory

This is actually a picture of what I think is my first memory. So who knows if I really remember it or if it’s because of the picture that I remember it. But what I do remember of this chairlift ride is that I was scared I was going to drop my dolly so I asked my mum to hold her for me. This was on a trip that my family took to Surfers Paridise (I think) when I was about 4 (I think). Other memories from this trip include; the pool at the hotel had a seahorse mosaic thing at the bottom of it, We had a Mini-Moke hire car, and sliding down sand dunes in my undies with plastic charms on strings around mine and my brother’s necks (we also have photographs of all these things too so I’m pretty sure I’m just remembering the photo’s with those ones) But I defiantly remember the bit about not wanting to drop my dolly! (I think!!)

Magazines I can stand!

Sometimes I feel like magazines are the enemy of the thinking woman, filling our lives with trash (not that that's always a bad thing!) and basically cheapening our lives in general. I used to be a bit of a magazine junkie, then all your who's and your NW's came out and I kind of swung the other way and wouldn't enter a newsagent if my life depended on it! But I am pleased to report in the last few years I have come across some magazines that I can stand... and a few recent articles that have tickled my fancy... I'm a regular subscriber to BUST: the magazine for women with something to get off their chest. Though I think they may be getting a little too slick and mainstream for their own good. They LOVE the DIY (as do I, in fact they may be responsible for my taking up knitting... just so you know who to blame!) and their latest 'food' issue contained this fab little project. Bitch Magazine has kind of stuck more to its feminist roots than BUST and I'm only a recent subscriber (though I used to always read it when I worked You-Know-Where!) LOVED this take on those ridiculous baby-nappy basket things... It kind of reminds me of one of my favourite episodes of Sex & the City called 'A woman's right to shoes' where Carrie is forced to remove her Manolo's at a friends party coz said friend doesn't want dirt coming into her house with her kids and blah blah, Carrie's shoes get nicked, friend refuses to pay for them, Carrie realises that she has bought that friend an Engagement present, Wedding present, Presents when each of the 3 kids were born, but what do singles get... a big fat nothin' Bring me a PMT cake over a baby thing anyday!! My newest favourite mag is Femme Fatal: Kustom Kulture for Dames. (when are you guys going to bring out another issue???) Being so out of the loop on stuff, I only came across it a couple of months ago, and immediately sent off for a copy and low and behold; The first issue contained an article on my lovely tattooist Jane! Issue #2 Had an article on Sharpies which is also definitely worth checking out too! For other magazines worth checking out I would say; Frankie, Milkshake and the Derby mag Hit and Miss. P.S. while were sort of on the subject... I just put the glue stick down from creating my first Zine (hey I did warn you a while back!) Now just got to sneakily use mum's photocopier over Easter (hope she's not reading!) Its doing that thing again where it wont let me put in line breaks... AAARRRGGGHHH

Zine serindipity...

You know how I got that parcel of zines from Sticky Institute the other day, well there were two absolute stand out gems amongst it;

&

Which is kind of funny because I didn't even order these two, there was one they couldn't provide so they sent me these as a 'sorry' gift... serindipity hey!

Some other ones that were pretty heavy going but really got me thinking were;




My other two favourites just coz they were a bit cute;

Femi-nazi? Femi-nuffy more like it... AKA my history in feminism

I identify as a feminist, but it’s such a loaded word, as I soon came to understand as a Naive first year student at a country university taking Women’s Studies because it sounded interesting.

I always heard that feminists were crazy women and they might get somewhere if they just figured out what they want as the media pitted one feminist against another with very different ideals and priorities. Of course I heard this from my bigoted, narrow minded father whose other such rants took on topics such as Aboriginal land rights, Greeks, left wing politicians, Homosexuals, Immigrants etc. Etc. You get the idea! Whose answer to any kind of further explanation was always “one day you’ll understand” which I only came to realise later meant he had no further debate and his whole perspective of the situation came from A Current affair/60 minutes. (But then again he also assumed that nobody likes Pumpkin soup and everyone likes country music and could never understand if he was ever challenged on these beliefs.)

Anyways I was going somewhere with this rant!

Ive always thought that chicks were great but thought you had to have some academic kind of qualification or have had some sort of radical initiation to be able call yourself a feminist. I remember enrolling in the Women’s studies subject and making some offhand comment to my then boyfriend along the lines of “Ha, wont my dad love it if I come home and tell him I’m a feminist... how would he cope with that first a gay son then a feminist daughter...” and then-boyfriend said “why don’t you already call yourself a feminist” which got me to thinking (turns out this boyfriend might have been useful for something after all now I think about it!).

Anyways back on the track... So in undertaking this course I discover that its not that simple... there’s your radical feminist, your Marxist feminists, your separatist, queer, eco, black, liberal, not to mention your second-wave, third-wave and post feminists and it goes on and on and on... I JUST THINK CHICKS ARE GREAT! I love it when women beat men at their own game, I believe that women can do everything and anything that men can (and more) and want the opportunity to be available to all. and I have no issue with pornography or women using their bodies if THEY ARE THE ONES IN CONTROL and doing it because they want to.

But it’s choice that I think it comes down to, and I respect if that choice includes things traditionally under the feminine gender stereotype like being a stay at home mum, a nurse, knitting, baking cupcakes or whatever floats your boat. I love that these things are being reclaimed, and I love it even more when men do them too. I think the world these days is hard for men too, and I respect anyone who can loudly and proudly JUST BE THEMSELVES! (P.S.I love knitting and baking cupcakes so there!)

Feminism still gets a bad rap, a friend of mine the other day said something along the lines of “yeah they did a lot of great stuff for women but now we are expected to do it all, work, babies, all of it.” There is a lot of truth in that, and it’s defiantly something I struggle with everyday. Life would be a lot easier for me if I were happy to be a stay at home mum/subservient housewife but I’m afraid it ain't gonna happen! It was never going to be like that. And it would be nice if the boy would come along for that ride and meet me half way but he seems to delight in making life hard for me! Things were fine before the kiddlies came along, we would each cook every second night and whoever didn’t cook did the dishes blah blah. But for some reason when the kiddiewinks came along 50’s housewife style gender divides came into play. And I’d just like to add here in my defence that pretty much the year after you have a baby is the most vulnerable time in a woman’s life and if there is someone willing to take advantage of that then you’re in big trouble lady (trust me I know!)

So how does one fix this mess, without becoming a ‘bitch’ or a ‘nag’ (my current tag). The only way out I can currently see for the boy to once again take me seriously again is to return to full-time work, it’s the only way I can see he might meet me half way, but I think I’m kidding myself there too. I want him to become a stay at home or at least part time working dad, Then I get to just lie on the couch when I get home from work until called to the table for tea (but only once it’s served up and on the table for me!) Actually I don’t think that’s how it will really be but whatever happens, I can’t wait to see how he handles it all. “This is easy” will no doubt be all I will here “I don’t know what you were winging about”, all that! But I’ll know...

How does one juggle all these identities ‘wife’(I use this term loosley!), mother, lover, career-gal, feminist without dropping any of the (metaphorical) balls? Will he ever meet me ½ way? Will those feminists on the telly ever agree on what it is they are fighting for? Join me in the next life for the answers to these questions and more...

Zinies...

I love getting real mail... And today I received this tasty little package full of zines I ordered from Sticky Institute in a bit of a drunken online shopping splurge on my weekend off! Ima gonna be busy for the next couple of days! Oh and I will probably find them VERY inspiring... Don't say you haven't been warned!

A roller skating jam called sunday morning...

I just went for my first Roller Skate is probably 7 years (well apart from that one spin around the kitchen after I saw Whip it last year!) and hey guess what... didn't fall over or nothin'!!! Yup I've still got my skates much to the boys chargrin, they are cool, red and white, old skool (though unfortunately not hightop but you cant have it all and eat it too). In fact how I came to own these skates is kind of a funny story, one my mum will be most upset about me telling. It must have been, oh god at least 20 year ago as I was still a teenager and still going to rod runs with the fam... this one was at the Natex complex in Canberra which happened to also contain a Roller Skating rink back when there were still Roller Skating rinks around... (does anyone else remember the Zoo Roller Disco in Bendigo? I think its a paint shop now!) Anyways my dad had this hilarious idea that he wanted to please the crowd by roller skating in his undies behind the Yellow truck (out Chevy pickup) water skiing style. He went to the rink to borrow a pair and they were not amused and wouldn't lend them... so he bought them... as you do. I don't think anyone else found this caper as hilarious as my dad thought it was, especially my mum whom to which we pointed out that dad had holes in those particular undies... Anyways as luck would have it I'm about the same size shoe as my dad, well a tiny bit bigger but the stitches, breathing and lower back pain tend to kick in before the feet start to hurt so it's all good!

Fast cars and Slow magazines...

Latest issue of Slow magazine...

Ex Libris Detrium...

Check out the Ex Libris Detrium exhibition at Castlemaine library...

"an accumulation of objects found in books returned to the library"

DIY feminism...

That book on Riot Grrrl, Girls to the front got me thinking about another book in my collection which I dragged out today; DIY Feminism which came out around '95-96. Actually I remember when I bought it, I was sort of friends with this girl, I say sort of friends because I thought we were friends but it was one of those circumstantial friendships where once circumstances have changed and I wasn't needed anymore, well, you know, scrap heap etc. Anyways she had told me about this "naff book about trying to be all new feminist with, you know, annoying chicks like that one in Spiderbait and that young spunky politician and stuff". She was totally bagging it out but I just kept my mouth shut and thought I'd go buy it at the next opportunity. I think it was my first real introduction to things like zines. Growing up in the country in the pre-internet age really was such a sheltered lifestyle. Anyways, it was a good book, and I'm gonna have another read so hopefully it hasn't dated too much!