Bleck och den aktiva kroppen

Om representationer av kroppar i ett feministiskt fanzine

Abstract

The feminist struggle has during all its three waves, as they are commonly referred to as, to a great extent been about the ability for women to live their bodies in different and more emancipated ways. Just like Mary Wollstonecraft already in the late eighteenth century did, the Swedish feminist fanzines of today raise this question. This article discusses the ways in which this is done in Bleck, a feminist magazine that started out as a non-commercial fanzine in the late nineties. Bleck has from its early issues on criticized inequalities between men and women in sports. Both representations of female athletes in the media and economic injustice between men and women within grassroots as well as elite sports have been discussed in the magazine.

The main analytical tool for this article is representation in its two meanings — aesthetic representation and political representation — and the interdependent relationship between the two. The concept of aesthetic representation is used to understand the ways in which Bleck condemns representations of female athletes in the mainstream media for being sexist, and the ways in which Bleck creates counter representations that can be said to function as feminist role models. The concept of political representation is used to analyze how Bleck, while doing the above, makes "herself" what can be called a political representative, or a spokeswoman, for other women.