Zines

Zines are self-published works, generally produced for a small audience and non-commercial purposes. They are often used as forms of personal and political expression by marginalized people and communities, including queer people and feminists.

Nonbinary gender in zines

Since at least the 1990s, some zinesters have endorsed non-binary understandings of gender in various forms. These include expressing disapproval for binary notions of gender, using or advocating for gender neutral pronouns, or giving accounts of their own non-binary gender identities and/or expressions.

In the 1996 transgender zine Girly (issue 5), Mona X asserts that gender is "more like a spectrum" than a binary.

in a 1998 zine titled Lucky Star, Witch Baby/Jessica Max Stein asserts that-- despite Stein's use of he/him pronouns for God-- God "doesn't fit into that narrow binary conception of things". Stein also includes a "completely true genderqueer Brooklyn Hannukkah story", about meeting a stranger with a pleasing and androgynous voice.

1999, a zinester named Micah Bazant created TimTum: A Trans Jew Zine, taking for their title a word used in early rabbinic literature for people of unclear/hidden sex. Noting that "timtum" accumulated pejorative uses over time, including "stupid" and "ineffectual" in Yiddish, Micah intervenes with their own definition, "a sexy, smart, creative, productive Jewish genderqueer". Micah also addresses the binary gender expectations of the reader, imploring them to "Please see me beyond gender. Please know that I don't fit into this stupid fucking system. Please remind me that there have always been people like me. Creatures who are not 'men' or 'women'".

In another zine from 1999, Mutate (issue 2), creator Milo Miller uses ze/hir pronouns for a person they dated and bemoans the lack of recent, high-quality zines for "kweer kids of all genders". In an interview from the fifth issue of the series, Angelique (a member of the band Venus Bleeding), mentions dating a "crossdresser" who was "the sweetest man but a difficult girl". She using they/them pronouns to refer to her ex, noting that the relationship had problems because "they were still learning about themselves".

In 2005, a short piece called "The End of Genderqueer" appeared in issue 2 of Rocko Bulldagger's zine Bleached Blonde Bimbos, lamenting what the author saw as an exclusionary move away from an expansive and solidaristic definition of "genderqueer" to a narrower definition (not identifying as male or female). She observed that this newer, identity-based scene was only friendly to a small range of gendered embodiments and expressions, generally young, white, masculine female-assigned people who had not "fully" transitioned, conformed to specific fashion trends, and did not use she/her pronouns.

In their 2007 zine Queer & Trans Sexual Assault: A Youth Issue, writer Erin Johnson expressed their distaste for the gender binary, commenting "It has only been recently that I have been redefining my gender identity and recognizing that the binary-gender system is ridiculously constricting and truly a whole load of crap". Johnson includes "genderqueer" and gender neutral pronouns "hir/ze" [sic] as glossary items, mentions that some people describe themselves as "gender neutral" or "genderless", and observes that personal identity is not necessarily static over time.

Masculine Femininities series

In 2007, Misster Raju Rage started a series of anthology zines called Masculine Femininities. Rage, who self-identified as an "undefined" and "masculine feminine" trans person of color, offered this description of their sense of gender in issue oneː

So, as a masculine Trans person who feels feminine; who am I? Male or female? (This is what I get asked a lot directly or indirectly) or, which pronoun do I use? I get ‘she-d’ a lot and very often get confused as a female masculine person, the kind Judith Halberstam has made famous. But I am NOT. I use capitals not because I dislike the above or want to be disassociated from this but more because I want to be recognised for whom I really am; essentially masculine and yet feminine.

The issue also includes writing and art from other gender variant people, including an interview with Rage's collaborator Jin Haritaworn, who described a fluid sense of gender and presentationː

  I identify as a switch, or a pendulum, and my masculinity and femininity are very related. When I present masculine for a while, my femininity comes back with a vengeance (laughs). I get depressed when I feel stuck in one mode. If I present just masculine for too long, I end up feeling grey, lifeless, like all the colour has been drained from my life. You know how boys grunt and move their bodies very sparsely, their shoulders and hips. This is the most, and the longest I have stayed in predominantly masculine mode. There are times I have to remind myself that I am entitled to express myself, express femininity, to switch and change.

Contributor Sabri Clay Sky also expressed a fluid sense of gender, and explained his reasons for accepting both he/him and she/her pronounsː

I consider myself genderqueer and can have kind of a feminine masculinity. I’m most comfortable with switching gender pronoun usage, since communities I’m around don’t use gender neutral or all-inclusive genderpronouns. For instance, performing as a drag king, members of the troupe refer to each other as he *or* she. This honours, to me: On one hand, referring to “she” who plays on the women’s (American) football team highlights positively, incorporates, and celebrates the usually ignored/monsterized masculine female into our and the larger culture, such as, but referring to the same person as “he” who brought the flyers for the drag show gives credit to his/her masculinity, and the masculine gender of this person in drag and activities leading up to it. A performer before realizing my gender flux gender identity, I’ve found gender performativity to be very real–very corporeal.

Collections and Archives

The following collections include zines about non-binary experiences of genderː

• Anchor Archive Zine Library
• The Pratt Institute's LGBTQ̘ Zine Collection
• The Queer Zine Archive Project
• Queer Zine Library