It’s Complicated

It’s Complicated

This zine is about “feminist writers’ relationships to the artists whose misogynist work we love.” 

I love this tumblr (you have to order the zine) because it boldly explores the complexities of being a feminist in a largely anti-feminist world. In one post the author welcomes the title “bad feminist” because she can’t always be aligned with feminist ideals. As she describes it, “I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well read in feminism texts as I would like to be. I have certain… interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism but I am still a feminist.” This zine and tumblr duly note that there are no clearly defined rules or boundaries for identifying as a feminist. Sometimes we (I’m assuming ALL of you are feminists and I hope I’m right…) are “bad feminists,” enjoying music, books, movies, and other media and culture that we understand to be problematic. But here’s the thing, being a feminist is a negotiated process and it can’t be perfect. Our pleasures are legitimate, even when we identify them as un-feminist. What’s important, is that we critically examine what we like and why. This zine does just that. 

2 thoughts on “It’s Complicated

  1. I love the cooptation of the word “bad feminist,” the pressure of “pure feminism” can often times be crippling for an individual, or even a movement. It is pretty cool to see someone advocating for feminism in this way, awesome.

  2. It’s interesting how this explores feminist enjoyment of problematic things, and how that doesn’t have to negate the viewer’s feminism. I like how this explores how you don’t have to be 100% feminist all the time (which would be exhausting in our culture since a lot of its media and social practices are rooted in problematic origins, and if you rejected all problematic things you would be extremely limited).

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