Broken Pencil, a magazine of zine culture (is that… redundant? an oxymoron?), put up a highly intelligent review of Alison Piepmeier’s Girl Zines.
Scholastic attention to girl zines is relatively new. For many, the grrrl aesthetic is a turn-off. While researching this subject I spoke with a man who believes the term grrrl is an admission of a handicap. In the afterword to Tea’s book, Eileen Myles offers a good rebuke for this kind of sentiment: “The point of sex here is not to excite but to exert one’s power over shame.” This seems analogous to zine production, which provides a forum to those who otherwise might not have one. The riot grrrl movement would have little concrete history without zines. With books like those of Piepmeier and Tea, the grrrl mentality is accessible to future feminists who deserve a full picture of their lineage that reveals the gaps they need to fill.
Don’t forget to check out the website for the book, with lots of awesome full-color zine images.
