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welcome to the
Body Language zine archive
an introduction to the project:
Language fascinates me. So much of what we perceive to be foundational truths in our society are spoken or written into existence, then have their origins veiled with another few words: “It’s always been this way.”
But often, it hasn’t. Often, in our human desire to make sense of our information dense world, we hastily categorize and label in ways that are more reductive than we’d care to admit.
Body Language is a zine that I wanted to center on the idea of peeling back the labels we’ve attached to bodies and unpacking the categorized boxes. What’s really true, and what’s a construct? How does our language shape our conceptualization of bodies? How do our words, our language about bodies, shape our posturing towards each other, our body language?
This zine was started as a school project for a digital composition class, where we were allowed to pick our topic and mode of composition for a 10-week school project. As someone deeply interested in disability studies, I chose to research the construct of the body norm, given the history of the medical institution’s attempts to pathologize disabled bodies for their “abnormality”. For the project mode, I wanted to create a zine that could be experienced with or without vision, to oppose the ocularcentrism present in much of design today. The plan started as a zine and a companion website that would function to make the zine accessible.
In the process of compiling my research, however, I realized just how much nuance there was to the history of how we talk about bodies. One zine was never going to be enough. So I decided to make my class project an introductory issue of the zine and expand the website to function both for accessibility and archiving of this intial and any future issues of the zine. With an archive, I could give this project the space to grow into more nuanced issues in the future. For now, though, the initial issue can be found in the archive section below.
It’s time we talk about how we talk about bodies.
- Lynn Priestley
issue archive
issue 1: the body “norm”
How did an astronomer play a part in determining the norm for human bodies? Why do we say “ahead of the curve”? What can we do to change how we conceptualize bodies?
As a young adult with a chronic illness, I have found myself on the receiving end of the phrase “But you’re too young to be sick.” Implicit in this wording is that there is an age where it is normal to have health issues, but when you’re young, having them means your body is abnormal in some impossibly rare way. But I’ve met enough young people like me to suggest that the normal isn’t as ubiquitious as people assume. So I wanted to look into it... In issue 1, I explore how we came to believe in this mythical body norm, the consequnces of such a mythos, and what complex truths lie behind simple mythology.
[ released fall 2021 ]
digital version
This version is for those who want to access the zine digitally. It is half-page sized, in spread (rather than single page) form, and in natural order. It can be scaled with zoom for viewing at any size, and the PDF has been made accessible in Adobe Acrobat for screen readers with images alt text, custom reading order, and more. Images with long descriptions are clickable and link back to this website’s page of long descriptions.
Click on this link to download the digitally-formatted PDF.
half-page version
This version will produce a 5.5" by 8.5" zine out of 3 sheets of folded paper. For the final, stapled version to make sense, the spread pages in the document are arranged out of order.
Click on this link to download the half-page size PDF.
Click on this link to scroll to the bottom of the page for half-page printing and stapling instructions.
full-page version
This version will produce a 8.5" by 11" zine made out of 6 sheets of paper. This option has larger images and text, as well as natural page order.
Click on this link to download the full-page size PDF.
Click on this link to scroll to the bottom of the page for full-page printing and stapling instructions.
references
To find a full list of the theory readings that informed this zine’s content, reference image credits, and acknowledgements for this issue, click on this link to the references page.
assembly instructions:
half-page version
printer settings
Many printers require a margin to be able to print. If you have a printer that is able to print without margins, do so. The following settings are for printers that do require margins, using Preview as the PDF printing application.
- In Preview, make sure the printing orientation is set to “Landscape”.
- Also in Preview, select “Scale to Fit” (then “Print Entire Image” from the scale to fit options) to ensure no words get cut off.
- In Layout, set the “Two-Sided” printing option to “Short-Edge binding”.
- This will print the zine pages in the order you need to staple it, with the front and back covers at the bottom of the stack, and the middle pages at the top.
stapling instructions
- Fold stack of pages in half, matching short end to short end (“hamburger” style). The page with the front and back cover should be at the bottom of the stack, with the middle pages facing up (the right middle page should have a medication bottle illustration at the top).
- Gently bend one side of the zine so that you are able to reach your stapler to the middle fold line. Put three staples along that main fold, at the top, middle, and bottom. Remove the stapler and smooth out any creases made by the stapler.
- Enjoy the zine.
full-page version
printer settings
Many printers require a margin to be able to print. If you have a printer that is able to print without margins, do so. The following settings are for printers that do require margins, using Preview as the PDF printing application.
- In Preview, make sure the printing orientation is set to “Portrait”.
- Also in Preview, select “Scale to Fit” (then “Print Entire Image” from the scale to fit options) to ensure no words get cut off.
- In Layout, set the “Two-Sided” printing option to “Long-Edge binding”.
- This will print the zine pages in order, with the cover at the bottom of the stack, and the front cover on the top of the stack.
stapling instructions
- With the pages aligned in natural order and front cover facing you, staple down the left long edge. If you printed with a white border, try to staple as close to where the printed edge begins. If you were able to print without any white border, try to get the staples as close to the edge as possible (to prevent information closer to the inner edges of the zine from getting cut off).
- Enjoy the zine.
