Book Reviews by Laura López Casado
CIEG. Estudos de Género, Feministas e sobre as Mulheres: Reflexividade, Resistência e Acção, 2023
La finalidad de esta comunicación es el estudio de fanzines feministas y queer como espacios de r... more La finalidad de esta comunicación es el estudio de fanzines feministas y queer como espacios de resistencia hechos en Portugal. Los fanzines son publicaciones que canalizan las realidades culturales del momento, construyendo identidades y narrativas que resisten al discurso hegemónico. Tal y como afirma Andrea Galaxina, las subjetividades autorepresentadas en los fanzines “activan un proceso sutil de fractura en el ámbito del poder, social y cultural de cada día” (Galaxina, 2017, p. 15). El análisis de estas publicaciones sirve para poder obtener una imagen del desarrollo de algunas estrategias del feminismo, estableciendo posibles diálogos y tensiones dentro de los movimientos feministas y queer.
Todas as artes, 2020
En 2018 fue publicado el libro A New History of Iberian Feminism en el que se hace un recorrido d... more En 2018 fue publicado el libro A New History of Iberian Feminism en el que se hace un recorrido de lo acontecido en materia de feminismo desde 1700 hasta nuestros días, dentro de la península ibérica. Ha sido editado por Silvia Bermúdez, profesora del departamento de español y portugués en la Universidad de California-Santa Bárbara, y Roberta Johnson, profesora emérita de español en la Universidad de California y profesora adjunta de español en la Universidad de Kansas. Y después de hacer las presentaciones, podemos afirmar que este volumen está llamado a ser un libro de referencia y consulta para toda investigadora o investigador que se acerque a los feminismos ibéricos.
Laura López Casado, 2018
Afirmar que el feminismo es un fenómeno de masas hubiera sido impensable solo hace unos años. El ... more Afirmar que el feminismo es un fenómeno de masas hubiera sido impensable solo hace unos años. El termino feminista ha sido denostado y vilipendiado como represalia a ser un movimien-to reaccionario contra la cultura hegemónica. Sin embargo, últimamente hemos visto como el dis-curso feminista ha empezado a incorporarse a la cultura de masas y han surgido, dentro del con-texto capitalista y neoliberal, voces públicas que validan el alegato feminista. Así, la intersección entre feminismo y cultura mainstream, ha sido encarnada con figuras como Beyoncé o Emma Watson, que han contribuido enormemente a que la palabra «feminista» deje de estar demonizada. Estos espacios de representación están siendo abordados por numerosas voces desde dentro de la academia y desde diferentes campos de estudio para definir las lógicas de poder que los rigen. En este contexto surge Celebrity and the feminist Blockbuster escrito por Anthea Taylor, profeso-ra del departamento de Género y Estudios Cul-turales en la Universidad de Sidney. La autora desentraña las relaciones entre el feminismo y las celebrities poniendo el foco en 8 autoras que escribieron libros que fueron éxitos de venta. El principal requisito para entrar en esta lista fue que su fama residiese en ser feministas, exclu-yendo así a quien llegó al movimiento después de alcanzar la fama. A pesar de que el llamado «fe-minismo mainstream» es un fenómeno reciente, Taylor se remonta a los años 60 para analizar personalidades que ya encarnaban este tipo de rol. El libro sigue una línea temporal y se divide en dos partes, coincidiendo con las llamadas segunda y tercera ola del feminismo, las cuales responden a realidades diferentes con factores propios a analizar. En la primera parte nos habla de Gurley Brown, Betty Friedan y Germaine Greer, así como los li-bros por los que son conocidas: Sex and the Single Girl (1962), The Feminine Mystique (1963) y The Female Eunuch (1970), respectivamente. Aquí, desde el prisma de los Celebrity Studies, la autora nos empieza a dar claves para el análisis de estos casos de estudio. Como repite en varias ocasiones a lo largo del texto, el papel crítico que desempeñaron fue de intermediarias culturales. Tras ser conocidas por el gran público, argumenta Taylor, poseen el capital intangible de la celebrity. Su nuevo estatus legitima automáticamente sus discursos (en este caso de carácter feminista) a ojos de una gran parte de la sociedad. Examina de cerca y por separado cada una de las perso-nalidades, que ya forman parte de la historia del movimiento, para destilar sus especificidades, pero también para encontrar el denominador co-mún en este fenómeno. Todas escriben libros de no ficción, basándose en mayor o menor medida en experiencias personales. La imagen que pro-yecta la obra es irremediablemente la misma que proyectan ellas, y la línea entre autora y libro des-aparece. Tal y como expone Anthea Taylor llegan a convertirse ellas mismas en la materialización de sus bestsellers y, en lo que respecta a publicidad, promoción y construcción de su identidad, se convierten en la marca que venden.
Papers by Laura López Casado
L'âge d'or. Images dans le monde ibérique et ibéroamérican , 2024
En los últimos años ha habido una explosión de publicaciones feministas de carácter autogestionad... more En los últimos años ha habido una explosión de publicaciones feministas de carácter autogestionado, principalmente fanzines, pero también boletines o revistas independientes. Sus formas de crearse y difundirse nos hablan de los feminismos ibéricos, de autogestión, de pensamiento colectivo, pero también de los usos de las nuevas tecnologías. La naturaleza de este objeto de estudio permite analizar las relaciones que establecen a nivel «translocal» y transacional, utilizando el iberismo como una nueva capa de análisis.
Confluenze, Vol. XIX, nº2, pp.223-247, 2022
As non-professional and non-commercial magazines, zines have been informal witnesses to their soc... more As non-professional and non-commercial magazines, zines have been informal witnesses to their social and cultural time. By means of these materials as an object of analysis, in this essay I aim to observe how the evolution of the movement and the queer theory has been gestated. Moreover, as this work has got an Iberian perspective as well, I also consider the flows and relations inside the peninsula. The question this article wants to answer is: does the iberocuir fanzine exist?
Confluenze. Vol. XIV, No. 2, 2022
As non-professional and non-commercial magazines, zines have been informal witnesses to their soc... more As non-professional and non-commercial magazines, zines have been informal witnesses to their social and cultural time. By means of these materials as an object of analysis, in this essay I aim to observe how the evolution of the movement and the queer theory has been gestated. Moreover, as this work has got an Iberian perspective as well, I also consider the flows and relations inside the peninsula. The question this article wants to answer is: does the iberocuir fanzine exist?
Zines Journal, 2020
My research project studies feminist and queer zines inside academia during the last decades of t... more My research project studies feminist and queer zines inside academia during the last decades of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of Twenty-first Century in Spain and Portugal. When I started the research some of the conflicts and contradictions were immediately revealed. The necessity of definition of my study object, the process of recollecting zines, the legitimacy of building-up an investigation like this inside the academia… all of these raise controversial questions that the research needs to address. Thus, it was imperative to think about the approach and how to address the methodology. One of the most urgent is to reflect on the process of institutionalization of counter-hegemonic knowledges, with all the inherent dangers, including the deactivating of political strategies that are specific to movements.
espanolResena del libro Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster, de Anthea Taylor. EnglishReview o... more espanolResena del libro Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster, de Anthea Taylor. EnglishReview of the book Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster, by Anthea Taylor.
Independent DIY publications and the Underground Urban Cultures, 2021
T T he concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. ... more T T he concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. Roland Barthes declared the author dead in 1967, but since then, new approaches, ideas, and reflections have prolonged the discussion until the present day. This chapter proposes to navigate through authorship studies in order to examine authorship practices in zines. The Do-It-Yourself movement has always moved through non-conventional authorship, but the paradigm of the zine has changed in the last decades. The popularity of self-publishing also has changed how these practices are understood. Specifically, I will focus on feminist and queer zines within the Iberian Peninsula. The selected object delimitates the study, and, furthermore, it provides the epistemology and methodology to the chapter. A feminist and queer theoretical approach will be fundamental to understand the embodied authorship that has surfaced in these zines.
Keep it simple, Make it fast! An approach to underground music scenes (vol.5), 2022
This paper aims to confront the idea of space around feminist and queer zines in Spain and Portug... more This paper aims to confront the idea of space around feminist and queer zines in Spain and Portugal. Beginning with the gender studies framework, these kinds of zines break boundaries between the private and public spheres. Circumscribing Allison Piepmeier's words, "most studies of zines identify them as a resistant media originating in male-dominated spaces". Looking at our context, we can point out an alternative genealogy from feminist and queer writing. Which spaces have been transgressed in these kinds of zines? The Iberian prims allow me to compare and analyze the importance of the local space in the production of zines. What is the influence of the idiosyncrasies of feminists and queer movements in the peninsula? Is there an articulated dialogue between them? And how works the space in zines when has been transgressed with cyberspace? Could we start to consider an Iberian community around feminist and queer zines? Or maybe we are part of a global community?
Independent DIY Publications and the Urban Cultures, 2021
The concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. Rol... more The concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. Roland Barthes declared the author dead in 1967, but since then, new approaches, ideas, and reflections have prolonged the discussion until the present day. This chapter proposes to navigate through authorship studies in order to examine authorship practices in zines. The Do-It-Yourself movement has always moved through non-conventional authorship, but the paradigm of the zine has changed in the last decades. The popularity of self-publishing also has changed how these practices are understood. Specifically, I will focus on feminist and queer zines within the Iberian Peninsula. The selected object delimitates the study, and, furthermore, it provides the epistemology and methodology to the chapter. A feminist and queer theoretical approach will be fundamental to understand the embodied authorship that has surfaced in these zines.
Independent DIY Publications and the Underground Urban Cultures, 2021
The concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. Rol... more The concept of authorship has been profusely contended and addressed during the last decades. Roland Barthes declared the author dead in 1967, but since then, new approaches, ideas, and reflections have prolonged the discussion until the present day. This chapter proposes to navigate through authorship studies in order to examine authorship practices in zines. The Do-It-Yourself movement has always moved through non-conventional authorship, but the paradigm of the zine has changed in the last decades. The popularity of self-publishing also has changed how these practices are understood. Specifically, I will focus on feminist and queer zines within the Iberian Peninsula. The selected object delimitates the study, and, furthermore, it provides the epistemology and methodology to the chapter. A feminist and queer theoretical approach will be fundamental to understand the embodied authorship that has surfaced in these zines.
Todas as Artes Revista Luso-Brasileira de Artes e Cultura
Nava. v. 6 n. 1 e 2. Artes, Mulheres e Migrações , 2021
No presente artigo refletirei sobre fanzines e migração, considerando os fanzines como objetos ar... more No presente artigo refletirei sobre fanzines e migração, considerando os fanzines como objetos artísticos e espaços onde desenvolvem-se discursos e representações que encontram-se no borde, na fronteira, no margem, tal e como a materialidade do objeto se apresenta. As ferramentas epistemológicas desenvolvidas ao redor da fronteira
Zines Journal. Embodied Do It Yourself : Feminist and Queer Zines in a Transglobal World, 2021
Queer is a concept that has manifested itself with greater intensity in recent academic studies. ... more Queer is a concept that has manifested itself with greater intensity in recent academic studies. In fact, not only in academic studies, but also in the media, artistic and performative fields.
ZINES JOURNAL. Embodied DIY: Feminist and Queer Zines in a Transglobal World, 2021
Writing about fanzines nowadays, at this very moment, makes us feel as if we were inside an episo... more Writing about fanzines nowadays, at this very moment, makes us feel as if we were inside an episode of Twin Peaks. A universe involves and captures us,
even after we know its story and its ending. In this same universe, we found a series of figures, characters, eccentric stories that inhabit the cities and imaginary spaces, just like in fanzines. As in the series, in fanzines we have the possibility to unveil mysteries.
Keep it Simple, Make it Fast! An approach to underground music scenes (vol. 4), 2019
The aim of this paper is the study of queer zines produced in Madrid in the 1990’s. There were tw... more The aim of this paper is the study of queer zines produced in Madrid in the 1990’s. There were two pioneer groups in queer activism in Spain, La Radical Gai formed by gay men and LSD, formed by lesbians. La radical Gai published six numbers of their zine De un plumazo, plus two dossiers (one about HIV and the other one about a homophobic attack). LSD was created one year later than La Radical Gai; they published four numbers of Non-Grata. Both groups share ideology, but had different aims and agenda because of their specific gender experience: the main theme for gay men was HIV, whereas lesbians mainly focused on visibility. Albeit the groups did not denominate themselves as queer when they were formed (1991 La Radical Gai, 1993 LSD), they were the first to coin this term in the Spanish context (Solá, 2012, p. 267). La Radical Gai named their zine Queerzine in 1993 and LSD use this term in their first zine published in 1994, where they already defined themselves as queer lesbians. This paper will analyze these zines as historical documents, which help us to understand the characteristics and history of the zine production in Spain; as well as, the introduction of Queer Theory in the context of Madrid in the 1990›s. The zines were not only important for the academic group of Queer Theory but also for the activism movement of that period. Produced by university students, some of which continued their careers in academia, these zines promoted and boasted the introduction of Queer Theory in the University.
Events Organization by Laura López Casado
Zines Journal, 2021
This special issue of ZINES proposes to gather works of several researchers and zine-makers that ... more This special issue of ZINES proposes to gather works of several researchers and zine-makers that analyse and produce zines that focus on gender and sexual dissidence around the world. In the last decades, we have witnessed the increase of the number of zines with the representation of the feminist and queer issues in a range of different countries, just like studies that have been aware of that (Harris, 2004; Kearney, 2006; Licona, 2012; Piepmeier, 2009; Poletti, 2008). Focus on these zines and publications in a special issue of this journal, will give us a better understanding of this phenomenon and the different state of the art among the five continents. We want to pay special attention to emerging scenes and populations oppressed by the colonial, patriarchal, and capitalist system. The importance of looking at not hegemonic spaces and bodies bring to the zines their original spirit as holders of counter-narratives. Although the production of fanzines precedes the emergence of punk, the truth is that it was with it that fanzines became relevant as spaces for freedom of thought and creation, as well as an alternative to conventional media. Since the 1970s, the universe of fanzines has expanded not only thematically and stylistically, but also has extended its territorial coverage and the communication media used in its production and dissemination have expanded. In this special issue, we propose an approach that aims to look at fanzines as 'communities' founded around a cultural object, in the production of texts, photos and other materials about feminist and queer scenes around the world-linked or not linked to punk. Fanzines are understood here as an alternative medium of late modernity, capable of revealing the DIY ethos associated with it. Fanzines are material forms of symbolic representation. They are objects constructed voluntarily that allow individuals who participate in the process (of editing and distribution) to affirm their social existence, to integrate (sub)cultures, musical/artistic scenes or tribes, social movements, and to culturally participate in them; simultaneously, fanzines materialized in a local movement markedly youthful, stimulating an underground scene, and facilitating the dissemination of an anti-hegemonic culture of usually hidden stories. They are a fundamental element in the realization of tastes, affinities, social, political, ideological, and cultural memberships, lifestyles and musical styles. Feminist and queer fanzines have contributed to 'oppositional technologies', that is, the use of DIY techniques, which the riot grrrl movement used plenty, from music production, zines, jewelry, clothes, etc. They have allowed the contestation of the dominant representations of women, which, in turn, has allowed them, in addition to the construction of new concepts of femininity, to also explore issues of sexuality, gender, identity, race, sexual orientation and class, especially through manifestos, visual representations, drawings and photographs. The importance of using fanzines as intervention tools, and their consequent relevance for young generations, does not primarily reside in their impact for potential social change, but in the ability to construct these narratives in subcultural spaces, which might not only be important for the participants in terms of providing a means of self-representation, but more importantly, as a means to pedagogically work on their ability to teach and learn about differences. In this sense, we can assert that today's feminist and queer zines not only are a collective media, in which their authors construct identities, communities, and narratives that shape their cultural moments, but are also instruments of feminist and gender education, transnational networking and pillars of the political and underground movement. A review of the escalation of the distribution of these zines in recent times, and the fundamental role that the internet has played, over and above the analogical zines and e-zine dichotomy, will provide us a closer view of the state of the art. We welcome proposals by academics, students and independent researchers from any discipline or scholarly field, as well as by zine librarians, and non-academic zinesters who want to share their personal
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Book Reviews by Laura López Casado
Papers by Laura López Casado
even after we know its story and its ending. In this same universe, we found a series of figures, characters, eccentric stories that inhabit the cities and imaginary spaces, just like in fanzines. As in the series, in fanzines we have the possibility to unveil mysteries.
Events Organization by Laura López Casado
even after we know its story and its ending. In this same universe, we found a series of figures, characters, eccentric stories that inhabit the cities and imaginary spaces, just like in fanzines. As in the series, in fanzines we have the possibility to unveil mysteries.