Zines

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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.[1]

Nonbinary gender in zines

In 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".[2] 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'".[2]

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.[3]

Works Cited

  1. Fife, Kirsty (2019). "Not for you? Ethical implications of archiving zines". Punk & Post Punk. 8 (2): 227–242. doi:10.1386/punk.8.2.227_1. S2CID 199233569 – via EBSCOhost.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Bazant, Micah. TimTum - A Trans Jew Zine. 1999. Accessed October 22 2024 via Queer Zine Archive Project. https://archive.qzap.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/408
  3. Bulldagger, Rocko. "The End of Genderqueer". From Bleach Blonde Bimbos, vol. 2. 2005. New York City, USA. Accessed via Queer Zine Archive Project on October 22 2024. https://archive.qzap.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/112