8 Body-Positive, Fat-Friendly and HAES-aligned Zines
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Learn more about body acceptance, body positivity, fat acceptance, intuitive eating and health at every size (HAES) with these fat-positive zines!
You might be thinking… what exactly is a zine?! A zine (pronounced ZEEN) is a self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually produced via a photocopier. Zines are great because they can be made by literally anyone! This allows for more voices to be heard which will help more people be able to understand another’s experience to build a more understanding and equal society.
We have provided a mix of zines below from quick reads to in-depth studies to help you on your body acceptance journey.
Bikes in Space
A powerful tribute to feminist sci-fi about bicycles. It gravitates away from the unfortunately traditional macho heroes, hurtling through space with giant guns, ready to protect and/or tame their scantily clad space babe. Elly’s visions of the future are populated by strong, intelligent, empowered women with complex personalities. Heroines find meaning and freedom on two wheels in the confines of a gated space society and in the ravaged earth left behind. Racers compete in deep space and on otherworldly planets.
Unfuck Your Boundaries: Build Better Relationships through Consent, Communication, and Expressing Your Needs
Protect yourself and sustain your relationships
Boundaries are the ways we communicate our needs. They are what allow us to feel safe among strangers, in everyday interactions, and in our closest relationships. When we have healthy boundaries, we have a strong foundation in an uncertain world. And when someone crosses your boundaries, or you cross someone else’s, the results range from unsettling to catastrophic.
In this zine, bestselling author Dr. Faith Harper offers a full understanding of issues of boundaries and consent, how we can communicate and listen more effectively, and how to survive and move on from situations where our boundaries are violated.
Along the way, you’ll learn when and how to effectively say “no” (and “yes”), troubleshoot conflict, recognize abuse, and respect your own and others’ boundaries like a pro. You’ll be amazed at how much these skills improve your relationships with friends, strangers, coworkers, and loved ones.
Making Spaces Safer
Making Spaces Safer: A Pocket Guide is an excellent resource for making your community and world a better place. This DIY guide is for any establishment, house party, basement show, co-op, bar, and other spaces where people gather to help recognize what harassment looks like and the steps we can take to make these spaces are inclusive and supportive for people who experience harassment.
Author Shawna Potter, the lead singer of War On Women, has been training venues of all kinds on how to create safer spaces from accessibility to hiring and curating events without bias, techniques on taking a victim-centred approach to address harassment in your space, and how to hold yourself accountable.
Making Spaces Safer
A single-poem zine about being fat and owning it.
“Ask people what their favourite food is.
Make it for them.
Ban all talk of badness.
Tell them guilt is for saints
and we can be monsters.
Tell them monsters have the most fun.”
From the spoken word show ‘Fat Kid Running.’
Fat is Beautiful Zine
This fat-positive zine by Crystal Hartman was originally available in the January 2019 Body Love Box. It contains 44 pages of thoughts, articles, and reprints about America’s fat-phobic, sizism, and pointing us toward fat acceptance — including articles from Marilyn Wann and other major figures in the fat activism world.
Gender Stories
The Gender Stories zine explores gender and the personal stories it creates. It’s an excellent resource both for folks who’d like to explore their own gender identity and for those who’d like to see different viewpoints. The zine measures 8.5″ x 5.5″ and runs 42 pages long.
Self Care Journal
When this journal went out in a Body Love Box, it got the most exciting reactions from subscribers of any individual item ever! It’s an illustrated book jam-packed with self-care-related journal prompts and activities.
Make a Zine: Start Your Own Underground Publishing Revolution
The second edition of this incredibly useful guide on how to makes zines, especially in the Digital Age. In this new edition of Microcosm’s popular DIY guide to zine-making, Joe Biel updates the information provided in the first edition to address zine-making in today’s digital and social-media-obsessed world.
Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, ” Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you’re already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known.”
Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly ( Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs.
Let’s dig deep.
Every Monday, I send out my Body Liberation Guide, a thoughtful email jam-packed with resources for changing the way you see your own body and the bodies you see around you. And it’s free. Let’s change the world together.
Hi there! I'm Lindley. I create artwork that celebrates the unique beauty of bodies that fall outside conventional "beauty" standards at Body Liberation Photography. I'm also the creator of Body Liberation Stock and the Body Love Shop, a curated central resource for body-friendly artwork and products. Find all my work here at bodyliberationphotos.com.
