Zines, Community, and Placemaking in Queer and Feminist Groups in the Twentieth Century

Naomi Todd

ntodd@unca.edu

HISTORY

Unregulated media has been significant in many social movements as a way ofproviding communication without fear of censorship. For marginalized groups of people,unregulated media has also proved to be vital for not only their survival, but also forbuilding community with one another. For queer and feminist groups between 1970 and1990, the creation and distribution of zines provided a way for people to exchangeinformation within their own communities. Zines, usually a small, handmade booklet,provided a unique form of both literary and visual media that people used to shareresources with each other. Long left out of formal scholarly research due to theiranti-capitalist, informal nature, an analysis of the role of zines and community revealsthat this form of media is noteworthy in the formation of community and the spread ofresources for queer people and those in feminist groups in the late twentieth century.This thesis will examine several notable zines circulated within these communities inorder to demonstrate the power of zines as a form of placemaking.

Dec-12-2023