Hi!

I was asked a few questions on Friday, but was unable to post my answers here for you. The question was posted on my Twitter as follows:

@fistfulofcrafts: When are you publishing a zine? Why shouldn’t I date a superheroine (besides being married)? And more. Instagram. Now.

My very short answer to him at the time was this:

@MimiScorpion: I had a plan to make a zine and then got too intimidated by it. And read Sunday’s post for why not to date a superheroine. I will work on Instagram….I am not a very visual person

I have a penpal in Canada who I met through her zine “This Is For You.” I found it for free at Bluestockings, read it and felt a lot less alone. At one point I was gungho to write my own zine and put it out there, but then I got distracted by life and this website, but as I said on my Twitter, I think if I were to make a zine, right now, if I dropped everything and wrote what was in my head and weighing on my heart I would have to name the zine #StraightWhiteCisGirlProblems with the # included and in this zine I would un-ironically, but with humor when able, discuss the problems I face as the above. As soon as I said this on Twitter I immediately felt like I should delete the tweet and/or explain myself because a statement like that reads like something that would be castigating on Tumblr for the author being uninformed, steeped in privilege and stupid. I didn’t delete, but I did try to explain.

Yes, I have privilege and I will never deny that and I try to live every day aware of my privilege so I make informed choices and lift up other people, but there are problems that I face. I face problems and I trivialize them and put them to the side because my problems are not as bad as other people’s so I silence myself. My problems may never be as big or bad as others’, but I am allowed to acknowledge them, unpack them and share them if I want.

So, if I were to write #StraightWhiteCisGirlProblems some articles in there would be:

“Be Kind to Your Allies” – an exploration of the hate that I have received from the LGBTQIAGNC community for being one of their allies.

“How to Represent what you Don’t Know” – problems of being a writer and wanting to have a wide representation of class, sex, gender, sexuality, race, disability, etc.

“Street Harassment” – something I never experienced until I moved to NYC and WHY it makes me so fucking mad.

“The Fuck Happened to Monogamy?” – and why do I feel so bad about wanting to have ONE boyfriend who wants ONLY me?

“Straight vs. Androphile” – labels, why the fuck do we need them and why does being called “straight” make me want to cry?

The next question was about why  not to date Supers which shall be answered more over the next 29 weeks.

And finally, Instagram….oh man……I am just so BAD at taking pictures, but here is my instagram:

michelle.austin29

No judgies.

Love and sunshine,

Michelle