Menses Magazines

January 21, 2020 8:54 AM

Rag mags and monthly issues: Five period zines to stop you seeing red

The zines:
Free period: go with the flow
Not a bloody luxury: a monthly periodical
Bloody Hell: a zine about menstruation
Bits: a zine for vagina havers
Damn Bloody Rite: A Periodic Rag Mag

See also: Six personal health zines that might change your life

All of the aforementioned zines are available at the Wellcome Collection, a free museum and library in London that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health while expanding physical and digital access to a wide variety of materials related to medical history, contemporary medicine, and biomedical science. Previously: 1 2 3 4 and more

posted by youarenothere (4 comments total)

If you have a [mental or physical] health-related zine, submit it to the collection! From the website:

Wellcome Library has a growing graphic medicine collection and is now collecting zines focussed broadly around themes of health (both physical and mental), medicine and the human condition. If you’ve made a zine that you think would complement our collection and would like to recommend or donate a copy, please contact Nicola Cook or Loesja Vigour ([e-mail]).

Lastly, I slightly amended one of the zine titles to avoid cis-normative language in the post. As mentioned in the article, other included zines are actively trans-inclusive.
posted by youarenothere at 8:55 AM on January 21, 2020

While it seems very well-intentioned, I'm not sure how much sense it makes to alter the name of a zine you are recommending. Better to have truth in advertising, no? If someone clicks through, it will still say "Lady Bits", not "Bits".
posted by Belostomatidae at 4:49 AM on January 22, 2020

Good point; I considered several approaches and wasn't sure of the best option. Mods should feel free to edit if your suggestion is better for the community.
posted by youarenothere at 8:28 AM on January 22, 2020

I appreciate the work put into the collection, especially the diversity. So glad I don't have to deal with periods anymore, and the less shame and disgust about menses, the better!
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 4:36 PM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]