Microzine of Microaggressions
zine, Suzy Gonzalez & Elle Minter (ed.), [email protected], yesmaampress.com
Yes, Ma’am is the moniker of the DIY zine duo Suzy Gonzalez and Elle Minter, founders of the feminist zine initiative dedicated to “free speech, promoting local bad-asses, and anything that is woman positive,” according to their website. The first volume of their Microzine of Microaggressions is a short and concise compilation that stays true to these aims, providing space for its authors to share their experiences navigating the microaggressions of everyday life as marginalized folks. Each page contains a single microaggression as recounted by its author, presented in a straightforward and candid manner. Many are tinged with a welcome dose of biting sarcasm and restorative wit. Most are, appropriately, steeped in a frustration clearly born of the lived experience of being harmed by the sexist, racist, ableist, transphobic, classist, and settler-colonialist words of others. Speaking of a microaggression experienced while purchasing jewelry, an anonymous writer submitting under the pen name Brown Girl writes “… but I want gold!” There is no truer feeling after having read this compilation than just that: underrepresented groups deserve better. We deserve gold.
The zine itself is physically small in size, published in a winking 2”x 2” measure, which adds to the outsized effect of reading page after page of microaggressions. While many of the submissions themselves aren’t particularly striking, they don’t owe the reader that — Microzine of Microaggressions offers a place where these experiences of harm, trauma, and frustration can be witnessed and acknowledged, rather than minimized or invalidated. There’s not much more to it than that, which is just as enough as it needs to be. I recommend this zine for marginalized folks in need of affirmation or for others who seek to listen.