Living archives for the future: Ein Plädoyer für das Sammeln und Archivieren von feministischen Zines

Elke Zobl

doi:10.31263/voebm.v75i1.6993

Authors

Elke Zobl University of Salzburg, Institute for Communication Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31263/voebm.v75i1.6993

Keywords:

feminism, alternative media, archives, activism, social movements

Abstract

From the historic women’s movement until the current queer-feminist movement feminists have published their issues and concerns in self-published, often hand-made magazines, pamphlets, and flyers. Feminist zines (self-published and -distributed magazines) show vividly that many girls, young women, LGBTQI, and marginalized people do not feel heard or misrepresented by society and mainstream media. Therefore, they produce their own, alternative media in which they create self-defined and empowering images, content, and networks and express social critique. Especially in the “riot grrrl movement” a wide variety of zines arose. Part of this zine production found its way into the “Grrrl Zine Collection” at the University of Salzburg. In this article, I show what so-called “Grrrl Zines” are, why we should collect them and which archives and libraries do so already. Although they face some challenges, I argue that archives and libraries should collect zines as important, even though unconventional, chaotic, and difficult to archive, artifacts and as “living archives”.

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