Understanding the Feminist Zine: From Riot Grrrl to Rawle

With the focus primarily on the 1990’s and the radical feminist era of feminist history, this dissertation explores the visual culture that was synonymous with this moment in feminist history, namely the feminist zine. Clearly outlining its roots within the history of women’s participatory media, the dissertation investigates the many ways in which the zine became an integral part of the radical feminist agenda.

These rich examples of feminist visual culture are discussed in relation to many diverse topics, including identifying the strength of this print medium in fostering a community of empowered women, questioning the political impetus of these publications within feminism & subsequently within society itself, looking at how the feminist zine found it’s place in postmodernism and also identifying the ways in which the radical feminists, and by extension, the zines helped shape the area of communication studies. A common theme which runs through most of the entire dissertation, is that of appropriation, whether it be the appropriation of language, image, medium or other intellectual property, the significance of which is consistently demonstrated to have been paramount to the success of these independent publications.

The dissertation deals with a distinct timeframe, positing this discussion in relation to zine production, primarily within the radical feminist ‘heyday’, roughly defined as being between 1991, (the foundation of the Riot Grrrl movement) and the end of that decade (the heralding of the postfeminist era). The majority of the examples of women’s participatory media featured within this discussion will be described as being of North American origin, however there are a few Irish examples to bring local significance to the dissertation.

To balance the discussion, it also seeks to explores the influence of these distinctive publications not only within other feminist modes of expression but also within a subsequent contemporary setting, this time focussing on the work of designer, Graham Rawle and looking at how he embraced the distinctive visual language and political and societal aspirations of these feminist zines.