Having someone you personally know read your perzines or zines in general?

[Saling Pusa Distro/closed]

HOw do you feel about it? DO you let family and close friends read them? Personally, I wish I could because I feel like most of the things I write about will help people I know understand how I think or how I am... but then again I am not too comfortable having people know what I think... reading my zines is like having a free access to my brain, heart and soul...

maybe it's cowardice on my part...

any thoughts?

[Erin H]

My dad helps me cut/fold/staple/copy my zines, so he reads them. It's difficult for me to be too personal, and I kind of hate that. For my next zine, I fully intend to employ the help of friends to help me with all of that, since I'll be writing about sex.

But yeah, I definitely censor myself a lot.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

I only give them to friends who'd be into that kind of thing, but my zines aren't really personal, so I can see why you'd feed totally differently if you wrote a really personal, confessional type zine. I often don't tell people I do zines, not because I'm secretive about it, I'm just bored of explaining what a zine is and why I bother doing one.

[Harley R. Pageot]

I'd feel uncomfortable about family reading my zines, even though there isn't anything too personal in there (though everything is personal, in some ways).

And my friends can't be bothered.

Whenever I finish a new zine, I bring a stack around and show off proudly and they'll pick them up, flip through them quickly, and toss them back down. They don't actually want to buy a copy or read it at length.

[Erica S.]

Family, no.

Friends, if they want to. Most of my local friends (i.e. not people I met through zines) would react to a personal zine (or even a personal comic like the kind I carry at my distro) exactly the way Harley described: pick it up, shrug, put it down. No lie, it sorta bugs me.

[Sarah Arr!]

Erin ... if you ever want to do stuff that you don't wanna share with the 'rents (awesome though I'm sure they are), let me know. I'll do that stuff for you and mail zines back to Joisey for you.

[Sarah Arr!]

I do share my zines with people I like, respect and trust. A lot of stuff I write deals with size issues, self mutilation, mental health, domestic abuse, queermo issues, drugs, etc. so I'm pretty cautious of who I let read my shit.

[Erin H]

Thank you, Sarah :) You're the best.

Sarah Arr! said:

Erin ... if you ever want to do stuff that you don't wanna share with the 'rents (awesome though I'm sure they are), let me know. I'll do that stuff for you and mail zines back to Joisey for you.

[Sarah Arr!]

Nope. You are.

Erin H said:

Thank you, Sarah :) You're the best.

Sarah Arr! said:

Erin ... if you ever want to do stuff that you don't wanna share with the 'rents (awesome though I'm sure they are), let me know. I'll do that stuff for you and mail zines back to Joisey for you.

[Saling Pusa Distro/closed]

isnt it weird that we're not comfortable enough to let people we're supposedly close to (i.e family) read our zines... or people who are supposedly our friends don't care enough about it?

is that really a trend with zines? where people who dont know us are more interested in what we do? and we relate and connect more in a way with people we only meet through zines or online?

[Sarah Arr!]

Yes and no. We should be able to be open and honest with the people closest to us. In a perfect world. But I love some pretty judgmental motherfuckers. I'm not willing to sacrifice my close personal relationships or this really personal, unchecked outlet. I think it's the same reason people go to therapy. To talk about their issues with people who aren't necessarily connected to them.

I Am said:

isnt it weird that we're not comfortable enough to let people we're supposedly close to (i.e family) read our zines... or people who are supposedly our friends don't care enough about it?

is that really a trend with zines? where people who dont know us are more interested in what we do? and we relate and connect more in a way with people we only meet through zines or online?

[Adrian Fynch]

I used to give them to my friends, but they never seemed too interested. Although years later they were all talking about starting their own, so who knows. I usually make my mum and sister buy them if they want to read them, which they usually do, though I don't get much feedback. I used to give my dad the first finished copy I make of each issue because he's obsessive about archiving stuff, but I don't think he reads them. He got pretty upset from reading one once. He's got two printing presses though and puts out little zines himself, so we're probably going to do a collaboration at some point.

My zines are pretty explicit and honest, so I get pretty nervous giving them to people I know, but they're also in a vague sort of context, which is my protection from just being completely raw. Now I have a couple of friends who make zines of their own, so we always trade and table zine fairs together, which is pretty awesome.

[Ericfishlegs]

My mom asked to read my zine once and my reaction was to laugh in her face. While I feel a little bad about that I do stand by the sentiment it expressed. I don't exactly keep my zine a secret amongst people I know "in real life" but I don't brag about it either and I feel like knowing people I see on a regular basis read my zine it would just keep me from feeling as free in my writing as I want to be. I don't know whether this makes sense or not, but it's how I feel so I'm not gonna argue with myself over it.