We asked our regular contributors to write about the feminist books that they love—books that struck a chord, for one reason or another, books they couldn’t put down, that they’ll never donate, that are underlined and dog-eared and bookmarked eternally, that you can maybe borrow, but you most definitely have to give back. Here’s Cathy on A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World:
A feminist book that really affected me is A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World edited by Karen Green and Tristan Taormino, which came out in 1997, when I was 16. I lucked out by stumbling upon the book—an almost encyclopedia of riot grrrl zines—in my local Half Price Books in San Antonio, Texas. (The same bookstore also had a surplus of Kathy Acker books I would later find and then have my feminist literary world forever altered in the best possible way.) In 1997, riot grrrl zines were not new to me, but this book made zines and their authors the most accessible they had ever been, and made them seem legitimized in this funny way—here they were in a book I could buy at the store and check out from the library: “See mom and dad, the stuff that my pen-pals write IS getting taken seriously.” At the time, I was defending zine culture to my parents, who were worried I was getting brainwashed by queer punk feminist liberals (little did they know I was basically born a queer punk feminist liberal). I did not flaunt the book to my parents, who actually would have been scandalized by some of its confessionally honest contents, but I knew if they confiscated it like they did some of my zines, I could just go check it out from the library and start reading all over again.
Riot grrrl zines changed my life, and I am still so glad this book collects many of the zines I was already reading and many that I had never heard of. A Girl’s Guide is organized by themes (e.g., Chapter 1: “friends secrets sex,” and Chapter 2: “body image health”) and features excerpts from zines such as Tammy Rae Carland’s I <3 Amy Carter, Witknee’s Alien, Lisa Crystal Carver‘s Rollerderby and many more. It begins with an introduction by Ann Magnuson and ends with addresses and prices for all the zines featured inside. If only all of those zines were still being made and I could send $1 and a few stamps to those addresses. If only.
To this day, my own writing and performance are greatly influenced by the raw and confessional voices that epitomized so many of the zines I used to read. I have always been fairly shy, and they encouraged me to just finally say what I needed to say. I appreciate both the urgency and permanence of so many zines in A Girl’s Guide. They were not Facebook statuses you could go back and delete, but at the same time they were often limited edition. Riot grrrl zines didn’t just teach me about feminism; they taught me about friendship and keeping in touch. I am forever grateful that being a feminist and being a good friend are rooted in the same place.
