Sugar and Spite GIRL 'ZINES: BROADENING HORIZONS OR A BUST? by Sarah Blackwood photo by Jill Nussbaum I like girls. And I'm not alone; girl-obsession isn't just for the dirty old man anymore. Girl-culture mania has become increasingly evident. Iconic obsession with the adolescent girl is evidenced by the proliferation of magazines (Teen, YM, Sassy), movies (think The Babysitter's Club, Clueless) and the fashion trends of knee-socks, baby-tees, and little plastic purses. This trend has recently found its way onto the Web. The explosion of girl webzines is impressive. These sites are for the most part independently produced and therefore not under the thumb of advertisers; they often label themselves as part of the "post-feminist" age. Whereas the traditional 70s brand of feminism rebelled against the word "girl," resenting the diminution of status and character connotated by its usage, this new self-labeled "post-feminism" reclaims a word like "girl" and makes it hip, sassy and critical. The word "girl" in this context is treated ironically by women who grew up with the practical lessons of feminism. It is an irony born of acceptance of the pleasure that can be gained from acting "girlie" coupled with the knowledge of the ways the word "girl" was once used to belittle grown women. What does it mean to be "girlie" and how do these websites tackle the issue? First and foremost, being "girlie" is being campy. It is a way of looking at oneself and others with a wry glance rather than with a soul-searching perusal. The sites have names such as Geek Girl, gURL, Bust, and Grrl ; all have psychedelic graphics and bright colors. They are slick and well-made visual confections. The sites (especially Bust) are populated with campy pin-ups, scantily clad and/or clad in leather, presumably with heaving "busts." gURL is a school project of two NYU students, and most resembles the likes of Seventeen or YM. With sections like "A Love/Hate Look at Beauty Culture" and "The Sensitive Boys Column," gURL is pretty empty of revolutionary content, espousing the hormonal, emotional rap covered by most girls' and women's magazines. It does, however, have very cute, very graphic testimonials about "boob size" and "zit popping," the kind of thing that might be considered too gross were advertising dollars involved. Geek Girl is the quintessential cyber-girl-zine. It contains a lot of underground yet journalistic theorizing about issues such as crime and public spaces, grassroots resources for practical feminist issues such as sexual assault, alongside articles about Foucault, punk, popular fiction by women, etc. This media/content assault levels topics with one another. A university professor's article appears next to a tattoo artist's -- neither is more important or "better." The perfect postmodern paradise. Regardless of problems with this type of utopian postmodern theorizing, Geek Girl is important because it equalizes categories of cultural production. Geek Girl is an example of surface theorizing; it deals with important issues superficially and, weirdly, ends up dealing with the issues more effectively than, say, a ponderous essay would. It is a perfect example of the aforementioned wry glance. For example, Geek Girl runs a comic strip in each issue called "Patriarchy High." The strip is utterly sarcastic and superficial. But beneath superficiality lies a ruthlessly feminist critique of our world's social organization. The most recent strip opens with Gloria (the heroine) blandly reciting her vocabulary list -- "monogamy, matrimony, Mr. Right." It creates a world where there are government bonuses for the purchase of a wedding dress and where you apply at an agency for a boyfriend. Gloria is wonderfully detached, yet at the same time heartbreakingly crushed by her situation. Superficiality is being redefined in girl culture. Once devalued and easily dismissed, it is now being realized as the level where most social interaction takes place. Through their use of sarcastic humor, these 'zines embrace our love of surfaces while showing the absurdity of the importance we place on them. Bust is (and always has been) my favorite. It is the funniest 'zine I have ever encountered. As their sub-title "The Voice of the New Girl Order" implies, Bust is very interested in disseminating girl culture and is rife with slogan-esque sayings in their editorial letters -- "We want the freedom to be a top, a bottom, or a middle," and "We're here, we're confused, get used to it" are two of my favorites. What is so appealing about this recognition -- no, assertion -- of confusion? I would argue that Bust's assertion of confusion is actually an assertion of practicality. The practical strain that runs through girl-culture is overwhelming. The strange logic that often characterizes French or Radical feminism (all heterosexual sex is rape, for example) for the sake of theoretical consistency has no place here. The "post-feminist" age is an extremely contingent age, but it is by no means an "anything goes" age. There is something inherently unattractive about all-or-nothing feminism because there is no room for diversity or different points of view. It is strangely religious. Girl-culture allows feminism to open its doors to women who love pornography, women who want to be dominated, women who want to be girls. Girl-culture is an active attempt to make feminism attractive to a variety of women. It broadens feminism, which can be scary to feminists who no longer have a recognizable set of "feminist" attributes to look for in a person. We have to learn how to share feminism with anybody who wants it, but not unconditionally. There certainly needs to be debate in order for feminism to be socially productive, but nobody should be kicked out of the club. The reason I find girl-culture so appealing is because it isn't utopian. There isn't anyone telling me that if only I burn my bra or stop buying cosmetics or fashion magazines that there will be feminist revolution. Girl-culture allows individuals to participate in what gives them pleasure, provided participation is critical. The condition for being a feminist in girl-culture is not abidance by a certain set of rules, but a commitment to apply a rigorous and critical eye to every social situation and cultural production you come in contact with in your everyday life. Finally, girl-culture's savvy use of the Web will, I think, prove very useful in getting the word out on the street. Let's face it, it is very, very difficult to obtain underground print 'zines, especially if you don't live in a big city. Using the Web allows a suburbanite to perform a simple keyword search under "girl," or "sex," or "feminism," and turn up these sites. Many times, a print 'zine like Bust will go online in hopes of increasing their readership, thus increasing subscription sales, T-shirt sales, etc. Websites, once up and running, are very cheap to maintain, unlike the costly world of non-corporate publishing. Web girl 'zines are intelligent grassroots efforts to get a message out using the Web, vastly cutting the cost of production, allowing articles that would never normally make it to print to be run and read, revealing girl-culture to anyone who wants a look.

back to Decweb main