LINDA-GAY 1-1: A FEMZINE [by the Lady and the Fag]

Inspired by feminism, SARK and Francesca Lia Block's Zine Scene, my best friend Gidget and I started our own zine in our early twenties called Linda-Gay.  I remember the rush of excitement we put into finishing an issue of Linda-Gay, as if we were racing against procrastination.  After we completed an issue, Gidget would focus on distributing copies through online distros and I would bring them to local bookstores and community hotspots on the university campus. 

Looking back on Linda-Gay nearly ten years after writing it, the femzine is a great time capsule of my friendship with Gidget.  Our first issue is a real mix of articles and art that includes a review of an autobiography by Roseanne Barr, a tribute to Steve Martin as the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors and a mystical story about being a part of the cosmic order of nature.  My favourite article, though, is one by Gidget about her first time reading a Cosmo magazine when she was at the hairdresser's as a kid.  She writes about how she didn't know if it was meant as porn for men or as a magazine for women and how embarassed she was about possibly getting caught looking at it.

In true Gidget-Zio fashion, our first zine ends with a tribute to Madonna and dancing in our spoof of Oprah magazine's 'What I Know For Sure' column.  I love us.

What I Know For Sure: 

Madonna was Right - You Can Dance

For Inspiration