On “owning” your ideas, and sharing your voice.

This blog post has been languishing in my ‘drafts’ folder for 18 months or so now.  I couldn’t work out what I was trying to say.  I think it’s about time I published it though.

Over a year ago, I got an email from a distro with some critical feedback for one of my zines.  The basic gist of it was that, although I made some interesting arguments, I made no attempt to “own” my ideas; instead, I prefaced everything with “I’m not sure about this” and “I’m still working this out“, and similarly cautious statements.  This, he argued, took away any power that my words had.  I hadn’t really considered that before, though as soon as I read the critique I knew that he was completely right.  I thanked the distro owner for the feedback, but kind of forgot about it soon after.

Then, a few weeks later, I read a very critical review of the same zine, which also touched upon that critique, adding that it annoyed him how I kept referencing stuff instead of actually writing about it by making statements like “I could talk about…”, ”…I can’t write about [it] publicly…”, and “…maybe in a later issue…“.

(On reflection, I found the whole review overly-critical and nitpicky, and it upset me for the rest of the week – I’m too frightened to link to said review in case you all read it and think, “Ah yes, he’s so right, her zine is actually a load of rubbish! I’m never buying a copy again!“.  Ack, I know I’m just being overly-sensitive.  I guess I felt the review was tactless… and I’m the kind of person who knows that critical feedback is important, but when confronted with it experiences a knee-jerk negative emotional reaction. I’m working on that.)

Moan over… these comments got me thinking about how I so frequently doubt myself and make qualifying statements whenever I write/say anything that might be construed as vaguely debatable or controversial.  Yes, whenever I write, I stop short of making any bold claims, hold myself back, stay safe – especially when writing about feminism, which is sadly still seen as something debatable and controversial (there’s a lot of hostility even between feminists - but that’s an entirely separate can of worms).  I think it’s because I know so many feminists who are much more eloquent and well-informed on feminist theory than I am, and I’m so afraid of making a poor argument that will get torn apart.  I’m afraid that people will laugh at my primitive attempts at a systematic argument, and I’m afraid that they will lose respect for me if my writing or my verbal contributions in debates are poor.  At least if I preface everything I say with “I’m still working this out, I don’t really know what I believe“, then people may cut me some slack.  Otherwise, I find myself unable to speak out at all.

I hadn’t considered how refusing to own my ideas removes any impact my voice may have, makes it more moderate, gentle, and inoffensive.  How stereotypically ‘feminine’ of me!  And why should I conform to the idea of how a woman “should” speak – cautiously and always open to being swayed by others?  Why can’t I speak loudly and proudly, even if I don’t have everything worked out exactly to the last detail?  I want to be able to say: fuck it.  This is what I believe. This is what I want to do. I don’t care if you agree or not, and I don’t care if I’m wrong.

But I can’t.  Even writing that feels uncomfortable for me.

Then again… maybe I’m being too hard on myself here.  After all, I am unlearning an entire lifetime of enforced shyness and demureness (little girls shouldn’t be brash and arrogant, but dainty and sweet!  Any obnoxious behaviour was punished and I was swiftly put back in my place, whereas my shyness/cuteness was often rewarded by the adults around me, even in my late teens; I have memories of frequently being called “a little lady“).  Perhaps it’s ok to be cautious at first, as I take steps towards being stronger and more confident?

*sigh*  This blog post doesn’t have a neat conclusion, I’m afraid.  I’m just having a bit of a ramble really.

Zine fests, workshops, and feministing!

So, it’s been a busy, productive year so far! here are a few of the things I’ve been up to recently, in reverse date order:

1. Sheffield Zine Fest!

Me at the zinefest, wearing a t-shirt designed by Tukru! (photo by Chella Quint)

Organiser Bettie with her homemade bunting – photo by Chella Quint

the venue – Daf, James and I are on the far left! (photo by Laura Bainbridge)

Last Saturday I tabled and held a workshop on zines and feminism at Sheffield Zine Fest.  The day was pretty manic – I drove to Sheffield that morning with my partner Daf and my friends Caitlin and James, and it ended up taking us far longer to get there than we expected (about 5 hours, with stops).  Next time, I’ll definitely travel up the night before and stay overnight!  So we ended up getting to the venue an hour late, which was a pain in the arse.  We also had to park in the city centre, which cost us a fortune, but we were so late that we didn’t have the time to look for cheaper parking.  Thankfully the organisers Bettie and Chella were totally understanding of my lateness, and I ended up having a lovely time at the event once I’d calmed down!

The venue was amazing – a building right in the city centre, with bright green carpets, modern architecture, and a giant slide from the top floor to the bottom floor (which I was too busy to try out – gutted!).  We were only there for 4 hours in the end, and the day went by so quickly!  First I attended a workshop on street harassment hosted by Hollaback Sheffield, which was lots of fun.  Then I put on my workshop, which went really well!  I was a bit nervous and felt that I’d rushed through it a little, but everyone gave some great feedback, and we all got together for the last 30 minutes to make some feminist minizines together.  I’d definitely like to hold this workshop again sometime!  After that, I whizzed around the stalls, forgot to ask for trades and ended up buying loads of zines instead, forgot to take many photos, and didn’t get a chance to chat with anyone for as long as I wanted to.  We then left at 5pm.  I didn’t even eat, I was that rushed (and anyone who knows me will know how unusual that is!).

I sold a fair few zines, so that was good.  I also gave out a shedload of my free minizines and flyers.  Daf and James manned the stall for me while Caitlin and I went around saying hello to all our zine friends – thanks guys  It was a really good day for me socially – I felt pretty comfortable and confident there, got to catch up with my favourite zinesters, and met some new people too  

2. Million Women Rise

Me and my friend Adele at MWR – photo by Natalie Wlock

I marched through central London on the national feminist demo Million Women Rise on 9th March.  It was lots of fun, very lively and inspiring.  I’ve uploaded all my photos to the SFN Facebook page – take a look at them here.

3. International Women’s Day

On Thursday 7th March, SFN held its International Women’s Day, co-hosted by Swansea Women’s Centre and the Swansea University Students’ Union.  I helped out a lot with the organising of the event, and volunteered to hold 2 workshops – one on zines and feminism, and the other on pro-choice activism, based on the training day I’d attended the previous week.  I also volunteered to play an acoustic set in the afternoon.  Very scary, but exciting!

The event itself was a wee bit disappointing – the SU hadn’t cleaned/tidied the venue for us, so we had to rush around for an hour or so cleaning everything beforehand.  Then the turnout was a bit disappointing, and we were all pretty frustrated about this as we’d worked so hard to publicise the event.  We ended up skipping my pro-choice workshop as there weren’t enough people to warrant running 2 workshops side-by-side.  I played some music around lunchtime, then after lunch I held the zines workshop, which went really well!  Afterwards, I joined Kat’s knitting workshop, which was very friendly and relaxed, with people of differing abilities there.

Although the event was disappointing, it was a good day for me in terms of doing things outside my comfort zone, being sociable and getting shit done, and  I felt really proud of myself for getting through it all.  I wrote a short review of the day, with photos, over at the SFN blog.

4. Goodbye Mariachi EP

EP cover

I recorded piano, vocals and bass on my friend Daniel Karl Morgan’s EP, ‘Goodbye Mariachi’!  You can read the liner notes and buy a copy at Dan’s website.

I also attended a pro-choice training day in Bristol, was filmed live on BBC3 discussing casual sexism (sort of), and released Pandora Press #5, all of which you can read about here.  Life is good, and there’s more fun stuff to come!

2012: My Year In Review

Five Best Things About 2012

1. Did a zine reading, tabled, and hung out with lots of cool feminists at the club night REVOLT in Coventry.

2. Met some of my lovely zinester friends at Little Zine Party and Girls Get Busy Zinefest this summer!

3. Felt much happier and loved myself more than ever – partly thanks to taking part in positive projects including The Happiness Manifesto and 365 Ways to Change the World, and surrounding myself with good friends and lovers.

4. Played another successful solo gig (though I need to play more!)

5. Did more crafty projects and mostly managed to keep busy and productive.  I made lots of handmade gifts for Christmas this year, and will be blogging about them soon!

My friends Caitlin, Kirsty and I dressed up as each other for halloween. It was awesome.

Five New Experiences of 2012:

1. Bought a new car for myself (pic)

2. Ran a workshop at UK Feminista Summer School – one of my proudest moments of 2012! (blog)

3. Recorded guest vocals/keys/bass on a friend’s EP (blog)

4. Tried vlogging

5. Went veggie for a week (blog)

Zinesters at Little Zine Party in Birmingham

Review of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012:

1. Finish my epic university-themed zine – completed!  I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I’d have to say that it’s my favourite zine I’ve created so far.  (If you’re interested in buying a copy, details can be found here)

2. Attend Million Women Rise – completed!  Read about my experiences of the protest march here.

3. Either do a Moonwalk or a Race for Life – failed.  I’ve wanted to do these for years, but keep forgetting to actually register. Oh well.  There’s always next year.

4. Complete at least 50 Day Zero Project tasks in total – completed!  My review of the Day Zero Project will be published before the end of the month, so keep your eyes open for that.

5. Join a band – completed!  Admittedly I’m not in any of these bands any more, but at least I had the experience of joining a few bands and playing with other musicians.  It was great for my self-esteem, and encouraged me to put more effort into my bass playing.

My friends and I at Million Women Rise in March

Five New Year’s Resolutions for 2013:

1. Play at least 3 more gigs

2. Try yoga – this was one of the uncompleted tasks from my Day Zero Project that I wish I’d made more of an effort to complete.

3. Read at least 2 books per month

4. Save money for a deposit on a flat/house

5. Get a tattoo!

I saw this quote on Twitter and thought I’d share it with you.  Happy New Year everyone – may 2013 be your best year yet!

Review: REVOLT @ Taylor John’s House, Coventry

So last Saturday I tabled and did a zine reading at feminist club night REVOLT in Coventry, and had such a cracking time!

I went with my friends Caitlin and Sarah-Beth (author of Ellipsis zine), and met Lizzy from Marching Stars distro at the venue.  Our tables were set up just next to the bar, along with Coventry City Derby Dolls, who were selling zines and merch.  It was nice to catch up with everyone, and I met a few new people, including Amy Ismay, author of Her Kind zine, and Ruth Pearce, bassist of punk band ‘Not Right’.

The bands playing were lots of fun!  The atmosphere in the live room was lovely too; everyone seemed supportive and enthusiastic.  Highlights included:

-  Ferocious riot grrrl band ‘Skinny Girl Diet’:

image via http://skinnygirldietband.tumblr.com/ (not taken at REVOLT, sadly!)

- Noisy punk band ‘Parataxis‘, whose setlist included the songs ‘Everybody Shits’ and ‘David Cameron is a Dick’.

- Queer cabaret group ‘Lashings of Ginger Beer Time‘ – I loved their performance of Adam & The Ant’s ‘Stand and Deliver’ dressed as members of the Tory party (which you can watch online here), but their song ‘Vagina Dentata’, sung to the tune of ‘Hakuna Matata’, was bloody hilarious (“It’s our phallus-free philosophy…“)!

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any pictures taken on the night, though I did take a half-decent one of ‘Not Right‘ performing a song called ‘Tory Scum’ (“when I say tory, you say scum! tory! SCUM! tory! SCUM!”):

Then came the spoken word section, where I performed alongside talented local poets Bethany Norris and Prue Chamberlain.  My reading went really well, and despite my nerves I made it through without any mistakes, and without too much shaking!  I read a piece called ‘Fuck Shyness’ from Here In My Head. #7, and I had a lot of positive feedback afterwards about the honesty and bravery of my reading.  I was so chuffed, thank you all for your lovely comments!

The evening ended with an excellent DJ set by Atta Girl, which included amazing female-fronted music such as Queenadreena, Hole, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pixies, and Bikini Kill (as an aside, I had no idea how to dance to most of it, especially the heavier stuff like ‘Pretty Like Drugs‘ – I opted for some sexy headbanging, and might have just about got away with it!).  Of course, an evening of dancing with Caitlin wouldn’t be complete without a drunken rendition of Azealia Banks’ ‘212‘, and Atta Girl thankfully agreed to play it for us.  They closed their set with ‘Ask’ by The Smiths, which they dedicated to me, “shy girl from Swansea”!

And, I drove to Coventry and back!  Thankfully the journey was incident-free, aside from having to go around the odd roundabout a few times before we found the right exit, and Caitlin’s excellent female-fronted hip hop playlist kept us going through the 4 hour journey!  Thundering down the M4 screaming the lyrics to Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’ will remain a fond memory of mine for a while.

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In other news, I will be playing piano and doing a spot of singing in a revue with New Directions Theatrical Society at the end of November!  I haven’t really done any musical theatre before (apart from a load of chorus singing when I was in my teens), so it’s fun to give it a go again.  I’ll update with more details once they become available.

I also hope to book a solo gig within before the end of November.  Watch this space.

Zine/craft grab bag giveaway!

I’ve just spent a few hours going through all the zine and craft supplies living in various drawers and boxes in my room.  I’ve decided to have a bit of a clear out and pass some of my stuff on to other people who will appreciate and be able to use it.  So, I’m giving away four grab bags filled with writing paper, stickers, stencils, envelopes, ephemera, coloured card, magazine and newspaper cuttings, notecards, and other stationery/craft bits and bobs (including lots of cute/kawaii stationery).   Each grab bag will be packed full of stuff – and if you don’t like some of what’s inside, then you can pass it on to someone else who will!

Each package is similarly sized and full of similar stuff.  The first 4 people to comment on this blog post will win a grab bag each!  You won’t have to pay for postage, but please do send me your address as soon as you can so I can post them asap (I’m going to the post office tomorrow so would prefer to can get them all sent then!).

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I went to zine event ‘Little Zine Party’ yesterday in Ort Cafe, Birmingham, and had a lovely time.  We didn’t sell a huge amount of stuff, but the few of us that were there spent the day together eating veggie/vegan food, drinking tea, and catching up.  After the event, we went in to Birmingham city centre and spent some time there.  it was a lovely day.

my table at Little Zine Party

from left: Ingrid, Bettie, Sarah-Beth, me, Jen, and Rebecca (photo by Tukru)

On August 25th I’ll have a table at the Girls Get Busy Zinefest in London (RSVP here).  I’ll also be doing a zine reading from my latest zine, and am planning to make a free Spill the Zines zine to give out!  It looks like it’ll be a lovely feministy event, with lots of cool workshops running throughout the day, and I’m really looking forward to it.

What I’ve been up to this fortnight:

Protesting with the SFN girls

 - Marched at Million Women Rise for the first time
An awesome day – read my photo report here.

 - Wrote another column for The Girls Are
This one is all about procrastination.  http://www.thegirlsare.com/2012/02/16/girl-with-a-guitar-procrastination/

 - Baked cupcakes with my mum, and got in touch with my inner child:

 - Co-organised and attended the joint Swansea Feminist Network/Swansea Women’s Centre International Women’s Day event
This was a fantastic day – you can read my review of the event at the SFN blog.  I bought a knitted womb from one of the SFN girls, and when I showed my mum and auntie they loved mine so much that they asked me to buy them one each too!

Knitted womb!

 - Finished building my new website!
Take a look, it’s awesome.  Built thanks to the technical wizardry of Waj.  www.catherineelms.co.uk

 - Took Toby for long walks on the beach, and took my favourite photo of Toby ever:

 - Went veggie for a week
A blog post documenting this experience will be posted soon!

 - Published the third issue of Pandora Press! 
I kinda rushed this issue a little bit so I could get it ready in time for the International Women’s Day, especially the artwork, but overall I’ve had lots of positive comments about it, so maybe I’m being too hard on myself.  It’ll be stocked in Marching Stars distro from next week onwards, or you can pick up a copy at any upcoming SFN event.

Eight Annoying Things you shouldn’t do in conversation.

artwork via Hyperbole and a Half

I’ve spent many years being socially awkward and anxious.  My way of dealing with being forced into social situations was to observe how “normal” people interacted, and try to emulate those traits in order to make myself seem like less of an awkward weirdo.  Sadly, I’m not great at emulating the successful social butterflies, as you will know if you’ve met me in person, but I am very observant about all the ways that people make it difficult to integrate people into conversation, because I am so often on the receiving end of this.

This is just a guide based on my own observations and social preferences, in a situation where you’re around strangers or people you’re not well aquainted with.  Obviously pre-established social groups will have their own etiquettes.

1. Use internet speak like “lolz”, “winning”, “OMG” as part of everyday speech.
Obnoxious and annoying. No one above the age of 14 should speak in this way. Sorry.

2. Stop halfway through telling a story because it’s too embarrassing/rude/whatever. 
If you’ve started a story, you’re indebted to finish it.  Sorry, them’s the rules.  You make it ten times worse when you say “oh nooo, I couldn’t POSSIBLY tell you the rest, it’s far too embarrassing!!!!” You know that just makes me want to hear it even more; or it makes me wonder if you’re just saying that to get attention; as in, “No, I’m dying to hear your story, don’t stop now!”

3. Not introducing people to each other.
It’s so easily done, but frustrating and potentially very awkward for newcomers in a group.

4. Inside jokes.
“bark bark bark CHICKEN! Bahaha! “ Just don’t, please.  Inside jokes are awesome for the people who are a part of them, but for everyone else they’re annoying and isolating.  Save the banter for a more private gathering.

5. Make offensive/oppressive comments about groups of people.
If you make a comment like “I’m not racist, but… [racist comment]” or “there’s no such thing as bisexual, they’re just greedy“, I’m gonna do one of two things, depending on my mood: 1) Call you out on it (usually after some dutch courage). 2) Quickly leave the conversation and avoid you for the rest of the evening, telling everyone else to avoid you too.  There’s a fine line between ignorance, and asshattery.  Furthermore, never assume that you’re ‘safe’ to, for example, tell a rape joke or make an ableist comment because no one looks disabled, or because no one is a survivor as far as you’re aware.  A cheap joke or jibe on your part could cause a great deal of upset for someone – don’t be a dick.

6. Start a controversial debate.
Sometimes this is a good ice-breaker, when executed correctly (I personally don’t enjoy debating, but that’s just me).  But a debate needs to be started it in the right way, in the right kind of atmosphere.  I’d also advise a tactful approach – don’t bound into the conversation playing devil’s advocate with a wild statement like “who here disagrees with abortion?” (I heard someone doing this at a party a few months ago… awkward)

7. Cling to one person all evening.
If there are only a few of you (less than eight?) and you refuse to talk to anyone other than the person you arrived with, then that’s very frustrating, because it creates an us-and-them atmosphere that makes people uncomfortable.  This has happened to me on double dates, and it’s so awkward.  I will admit that this is something that people don’t notice they’re doing, and I’m sure I’ve done it unknowingly out of fear and discomfort – sticking to one person makes you feel safe.  But it can make things quite awkward.

8. Keep going on and on about your significant other.
I think women in particular are encouraged to see their partner as a crucial part of their lives, and perhaps are also encouraged to build their lives around their relationship – so it’s inevitable that conversation about significant others crops up frequently.  However, extended discussions that keep returning to this topic get pretty boring after a while.  I want to hear about what you do, where you’ve been, what your interests are, not what you and your spouse do on the weekend.  Unless you have a super-crazy awesome life together where you go hang-gliding and whatever every weekend.  Though if that’s the case, then what are you doing at my party?

 

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This blog post was inspired by the number of hours spent recently procrastinating at Hyperbole and a Half and The Oatmeal after a long day at work.  Both blogs are far better at expressing everyday frustrations than I am!  Go take a look at their work, they’re great.

“Why are you a feminist?” “Why aren’t you?”

Two weeks ago, I went to UK Feminista’s Summer School with a few girls from the Swansea Feminist Network, a 2-day conference on feminist activism in Birmingham. I had a really fantastic time!  The talks were mostly very inspiring, interesting, and informative, and I left with a feeling of renewed strident feminist rage, feeling more able to defend my feminist politics, and with lots of ideas for Swansea Feminist Network.

The highlight of the first day was the workshop on race, gender, and the beauty industry.  The facilitators Sandhya Sharma and Chitra Nagarajan divided the room into groups, gave each group one or two mainstream beauty magazines, and asked us to tear out every image of a person of colour, and tack it to the wall on our left.  The resulting wall of images took us by surprise – the people of colour found in the pages were usually either celebrities whose lives were being picked apart by the likes of Heat magazine (e.g. Oprah Winfrey’s daughter’s drug habit), or they were fashion models featured in ads where their race was stereotyped (in adverts such as this).

Sunday’s highlight for me was the talk on reproductive rights, run by former MP Dr. Evan Harris (what a dude!), and Darinka Aleksic from Abortion Rights.  It was frightening to learn how the government has increased its efforts to restrict women’s access to abortions, handing reproductive health advisory services over to religious, anti-choice organisations.  Aleksic informed us of the lies that such organisations spread to pregnant women seeking abortions when they seek counselling, e.g. that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, and that they would birth the aborted “child” at home a few days after the procedure.  Another shocking discovery was learning of the arrival of American Christian pro-life groups in the UK, and their extreme tactics used to restrict abortion access.

I’ve written a more extensive review of Summer School on the Swansea Feminist Network blog if you’re interested in reading it, with info on each workshop I attended, and some criticisms of the event.

When I came home from the event (earlier than expected, because I got food poisoning, but that’s by the by), I got to thinking about feminism in everyday life.  Being a shy person, I find it very difficult to stand up for my feminist beliefs when questioned.  Something about feminism really gets under people’s skin, and brings out the asshole in them, and when you’re attacked it can be so difficult to defend your corner… especially when it’s clear that certain people are only interested in having an argument rather than actually learning anything from the conversation.  During my time at university, I met a few male students who attempted to undermine my feminist beliefs in this way, as if they were being so original and “critical”.  They would say, as though it were a self-evident truth, that feminists want dominance, not equality, there’s no need for feminism in the UK anymore, that we’re all complaining about nothing, that women naturally ARE better at cooking/cleaning/childcare so why go against nature blah blah blah listen to meee!  UGH. It’s as if the patriarchy hands out flashcards with asinine talking-points.  One man even had the audacity to tell me, in all seriousness, that the most oppressed in today’s society are white men.  Seriously. What the fucking fuck.

And then there are the people I meet who, upon finding out that I am a feminist (usually through my involvement with the Swansea Feminist Network), will persistently ask provocative (read: offensive) questions, constantly trying to catch me out.  Some real-life examples:

• “Why don’t feminists shave their underarms? Do they WANT to repel men?”
• “But privileging women over men is reverse sexism!” (as a feminist musician, I’ve heard this so many times that it’s almost laughable. I’ll be dealing with it in a future issue of my zine)
• “Why do so many women lie about being raped?”
• “Why should I care about feminism? I’m a woman and I’ve never been oppressed.”
• “…patriarchy? That’s very conspiratorial/paranoid, dontcha think?”
• “But I ENJOY making sexist jokes! Who are you to stop me!? Free speech blah blah censorship pooh pooh!”

(for more examples, I refer you to anti-feminist bingo, something I wrote about in my previous zine)

For people who prided themselves on being enlightened, intelligent, critically-thinking individuals, they were pretty fucking blinkered when it came to feminism.

As mentioned in my review over at the SFN blog, many workshops at Summer School were derailed by discussions of whether the word “feminism” needs to be changed to something less exclusive, like “equalism” or “gender equality-ism”.  Perhaps I’m getting old and grouchy, but my patience has recently been wearing very thin with these kinds of pointless debates.  Summer School reminded me of how much we have left to fight for here in the UK – the assault on our reproductive rights, how the cuts are hitting women the hardest, the glass ceiling and gender pay gap, rape culture, oppressive beauty standards, etc.  These are the things we need to be focusing our energies on, not changing the name we fight for these things under.  The whole “the f-word isn’t inclusive enough” argument implies a fear of being seen as too radical, of trying to stave off criticisms of the kinds mentioned above, having an easy life.  The thing is, we can’t forget that feminism is a radical idea for some, even in its most basic form (i.e. that women even are oppressed, or that they deserve equal treatment).  Besides, as someone correctly pointed out in a Summer School workshop, the Daily Mail et al will hate us whatever we call ourselves.

We shouldn’t let ourselves get preoccupied with non-issues like the word “feminism”, or airy-fairy fauxminism dressed up as empowerment, as seen in such events as pole dancing classes and coffee mornings.  Call it fun, call it healthy, call it friendship-building (all of which are valuable, I’m not denying), but don’t call it feminism.  We have our own fight.  And, despite my shyness, I’m making an effort to fight the good fight; to stand up for my feminist beliefs when questioned, to call people out when they’re being offensive, and to outright tell people that if they’re just arguing for the sake of arguing then the conversation is over.  Fuck having an easy life. People are going to bitch about me whatever I do, so I may as well feel like I’m doing the right thing while they’re bitching!

The ideal response to the question “Why are you a feminist?” should not be to reel off a series of memorized statistics to “prove” that we have good reason to believe that feminism is still needed, to gently reassure that we actually love men, to illustrate all the ways that we are still friendly and fun, or to allow the odd sexist/racist/ableist joke pass by in conversation from fear of being labelled “humourless”.  As writer Rosalind Miles argued at the opening talk at Summer School, the response should be: “Why aren’t you?”.

I’m tabling at Birmingham Zine Festival next week!

Over 30 individual zine-makers and distributors are coming from all over the country to display and sell their work. Members of the public are invited to browse the work on show and take part in our workshops.

I have my very own little table, where I will be selling my zines and EPs and giving away free minizines and flyers.  I’m also hoping to have Here. In My Head. #9 published by then!

There will be plenty of lovely-looking workshops on throughout the day, including T-shirt printing, badgemaking, and drawing.  There’s also a BBQ and Aftershow Party in the evening!

Please come down and say hello; it’s the first zine fest I’ve tabled at and I’m rather nervous, so I could do with seeing some friendly faces!  RSVP on Facebook here.

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Also, just wanted to draw your attention to this devastating news: the Swansea Women’s Centre is being forced to close down after having its funding cut by the Welsh Assembly Government.  For more info, and some ways to help the centre, check out this blog post I wrote for the Swansea Feminist Network blog.

Here. In My Head. #8 out now!

HERE. IN MY HEAD #8: THE PLANNED PARENTHOOD ISSUE!
38 pages, 4.25″ x 4.25″ – £1.00

This issue was written for the zine anthology being published by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.  Inside, I write about blood, sex, abortion, religion, choice, shame, and growth.  It’s mostly a positive zine, and typically very honest and revealing.  I hope you like it! Black and white, with a hand-coloured front cover.  Want to buy a copy from me?  Just Paypal £1.00 to blatant_blitheAThotmail.co.uk, and I’ll send the zine out to you the next day, with no delivery charge.  If you would like me to include one of my free minizines, Twt, just leave me a note when you send me the money and I’ll put it in for you.  Don’t forget, you can read more about my zines on my zinewiki page - http://zinewiki.com/Catherine_Elms.

(note: I will not be able to send out orders until Wednesday, due to family stuff)

I had considered calling this issue #8.5, but I’m not sure how I feel about “half” zines. I mean, it’s still a completed issue of my zine, right? Just a different one. I suppose that my zines have all been very different, and of differing lengths and content, so I’m happy to give them all their own number.

I’m glad that I managed to get another zine out so quickly, and hope to continue this level of productivity for many weeks to come!  Despite finishing my degree, I haven’t been bored at all in the past fortnight.  I’ve tried to keep very busy with my music, zines, writing, and the Day Zero project.

1. 037. Make and send a secret to PostSecret - completed!

I've edited out the text I wrote on the back, just to be safe!

I’m really proud of it, but I can’t show anyone due to the highly personal nature of the secret!  I will let you guys know if it goes up on the international PostSecret page, so you can all have fun guessing which one is mine.

2. 078. Watch 20 films from IMDBs’ top 250 films that I haven’t seen yet - completed!  My favourites were:

     

3. 081. Identify 100 things that make me happy - completed!

4. 082. Make a list of 50 things I like about myself - completed!  This one is too personal and silly to share, I think. Sorry folks.

5. Spent last Friday causing feminist mayhem in Swansea city centre with the Swansea Feminist Network by taking part in Feminist Friday!  We covered a load of lads mags in newsagents with bags and feminist slogans – it was awesome.