Divine is a sex-positive art and story zine created in Los Angeles, CA. It’s mission is to authenticate and deepen connections to the self and those around us through the celebration of a diverse sexuality, genders, identities, relationships and bodies. It aims to shed light on non-normative sexual practices and ideals that are typically stigmatized in society, such as pro-pleasure, pro-sex worker, pro-kink, and pro-non monogamy.
Website:http://divine-mag.com
Instagram:http://instagram.com/wearedivinemag
Other social media:http://facebook.com/talktodivine
- Handwritten/drawn
- Digital
- Stapled
I started making zines because I was making a bunch of experimental art, which lead me to selfie photography, nude selfie photography, and thoughts about my body and identity...and I thought a zine would be a quick, economical way where I could have a free canvas to say whatever I wanted.
My biggest challenge in making zines is finding the audience that is looking for this type of content and finding ways to fund it. Because we can barely advertise on the internet and sexual content is so often silenced: blocked, banned and otherwise rejected on all social media platforms, especially in the wake of SESTA/FOSTA, we are almost always unable to advertise or crowd fund based on our content.
Zines are important for free speech because almost anyone can make a zine. It gives anyone who wants it, a voice. And there is almost no way to police the content. So bypassing the structures that typically need to either finance or validate our voices in order for them to be heard is really powerful in getting diverse perspectives seen and heard.