A very brief history of the zine by Berenice

Before Twitter, Discord and Deviant Art there was the Zine. It was a rough and ready way of protesting against politics and opinions. Made by artists during the 1960s and 70s, zines—short for magazines—are low-budget publications. The zine movement enable creative expression across all genders and used rough, unedited art and words in response to political ideas and as a rejection of society views. Zines fall within the tradition, dating back to the French revolution, of political pamphlets: inexpensive publications about current issues and events.

Zines were picked up by sci-fi enthusiasts of the early twentieth century who used the medium as a forum for dialogue, free from corporate editors or publishers. That same do-it-yourself ethos is what drew punks of the late twentieth century to embrace Zines as a complement to their music, and as a means to challenge mainstream ideologies. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, zines became a centrepiece of movements like Queercore and Riot Grrrl. While the latter of these was critiqued for being primarily white and heteronormative, overall, these movements used zines to subvert dominant and patriarchal ideologies through the sharing of lived experiences.

At the core of the zine-making ethos are subversion, freedom of thought, and a DIY attitude. Zine-making remains a cornerstone for marginalised voices disseminating information and publishing creative work about things they love.