Cindy Crabb (born February 19, 1970) is an American author, musician, and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. Her

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

, ''Doris,'' played a central role in the 1990s girl zine movement associated with

third wave feminism Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X third-wave feminists born in the 1960s and 1970s embra ...

. ''Doris'' drew attention for its frank, personal exploration of topics, such as

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual consent. Consent as understood i ...

, abortion, addiction,

queer identity ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non-cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to r ...

intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, which may be politica ...

, death of family members, among other topics. Crabb continues to publish and

self-publish Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...

while also running an on-line zine distro that highlights feminist and personal zines by various authors.

Early life

Crabb was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota. She described her early home life as a difficult one, in which she experienced abuse and financial hardship. She first attended an alternative school, which she liked, but she later moved to a public school in the sixth grade, which was "...a huge, terrible change." When she was seventeen years old, Crabb enrolled in a

Women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

class. During this time, "...I started retreating from society and dealing with some abuse stuff." Some of her friends participated in heated protests against United States intervention in Central America. She did not attend the protests, but the brutal experiences of her friends left an impression on her. She then moved to

Plainfield, Vermont Plainfield, a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States was incorporated in 1867. The population was 1,236 at the 2020 census. Plainfield is the location of Goddard College. Geography Plainfield is located at . According to the United ...

, where she worked at the

Institute for social ecology The Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) is an educational institution in Plainfield, Vermont dedicated to the study of social ecology, "an interdisciplinary field drawing on philosophy, political and social theory, anthropology, history, economics ...

and lived for three years. During this period, she began to explore

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

in her personal studies. Following her time in Vermont, Crabb moved

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. She joined the local chapter of

Food Not Bombs Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, sharing free, usually vegan and vegetarian food with others. The group believes that corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of ...

, after seeing a listing in the local paper that stated some people were interested in starting a local chapter. She lived in a communal house during this period. However, she left the communal house after a falling out.

Doris zine

In 1993, Crabb moved to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, and began creating her zine ‘Doris’ in this period. She was inspired by

Miranda July Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art. She wrote, di ...

and

Johanna Fateman Johanna Rachel Fateman (born May 16, 1974) is an American writer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. She is a member of the electropunk band Le Tigre and founded the band MEN (band), MEN with Le Tigre bandmate JD Samson. Early life an ...

’s zine ''Snarla''. She was particularly interested in secrets, and her zine had a journal-like, confessional quality. As she explained in an interview,

"When I started ''Doris'', I was obsessed with secrets. I felt like everything was secret inside of me pretty much. I definitely had concrete secrets about abuse, about family, and about abusive situations I put myself in, and also feeling crazy. I was very afraid of going crazy. I also had secrets about how beautiful I thought things were. A lot of my friends were very tough and thought everything was disgusting capitalism. And I thought, 'But look at all this beautiful stuff just laying around in hidden places,' and that was secret too. The main reason I started writing zines was because I was obsessed with how alienated people were. Why did we just talk about music and tattoos, or Foucault? I wanted to break the barriers of what you could talk about. In the beginning I wanted to learn to write about political stuff. And then I stopped caring as much about that."

Crabb became close friends with the

Cometbus Aaron Elliott (born May 20, 1968), better known as Aaron Cometbus, is an American musician, author, songwriter, roadie, and magazine editor, best known as the creator of the punk zine ''Cometbus''. Career Born in Berkeley, California, Cometbus ...

zine editor, Aaron Elliott, and was later to form the bands Astrid Oto and The Blank Fight with Elliott. Her diaries, papers, and website are archived at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

at Harvard's

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, it is "th ...

Bibliography

Books and articles

* "How Jane Helped 11,000 Women Get Abortions When the Procedure Was Outlawed." ''Teen Vogue'' (2017). * Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support, (editor) AK Press (2016). * "Feminism…Anarchism…Anarchafeminism" (comic) in ''Perspectives on Anarchist Theory'' No. 29 IAS Press (2016). * "Healthy Relationships" (essay) in ''Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth'', AK Press (2013). * ''Doris'' No. 6 (excerpt) in ''The Riot Grrrl Collection''. The Feminist Press (2013). * ''Encyclopedia of Doris,'' Doris Press (2011). * Piepmeier, Alison. ''Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism''. (Featured/Interviewed) NYU Press (2008). * "The Chain Reaction of Unsilencing" (essay) in ''We Don't Need Another Wave''. Seal Press (2006). * ''Doris: An Anthology'', Microcosm Press (2005). * Kushner, Eve. ''Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women’s Worlds''. (Interviewed). Routledge Press (1997). * Green, Karen & Taormino, Tristan (eds.). ''Girls Guide to Taking Over the World''. (essay) St. Martins Press (1997).

Zines

* ''Doris'' (1993–present). * ''Masculinities: Interviews'' (2016). * ''Filling the Void: Interviews on Quitting Drinking and Using'' (2015). * ''Learning Good Consent'' (2008). * ''Support'' (2005).

Bands

* Snarlas * The Blank Fight * Astrid Oto

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabb, Cindy 1970 births Living people American feminist writers American anarchists Anarcha-feminists Punk zines 21st-century anarchists