>>>Our Story (By Jan)
About a year ago the zine Seat Seven was formed. What's a zine you ask? Think [maga]zine. Make more sense now? So it started from a failed zine, where Cera and I decided to branch off and do our own thing. And this thing was Seat Seven, though at the time, we did have some trouble figuring out what we would call it. Needless to say, we did base our name on a few contributing factors. Mainly, on my bust there was a seat where crudely marked in black ball point pen ink read "Nikki had Crabs", and cera and I though it would make an interesting comic, as "Who's Nikki?" "What kind of crabs does she have?" Oh and yes, this message was in a seat number "7". Though in fact, the comic never did work out, Seat Seven was born. The name was a little strange but it worked. Surly it got a few people thinking. As we came to release the first issue we were afraid no one would be into it and of course, that we'd had to dodge flying spittle. Luckily, this wasn't the case. And this we release more. So maybe, if you never saw the first issue where we interviewed ourselves with this information, you understand who we are. We've always tried to have an interest for everyone, and we also take pride that anyone can write for us and be considered. WE love publishing other people's work. It's just better that way. And oh yeah, for those of you confused the comics are part of a series, so you may not understand them completely.
>>>Hate Crimes (by Ashley Haley)
(Note- Informative Opinion Article)
Every person, no matter how hard they try, find themselves seeing hate everywhere. In the movies, media, or in your everyday life. After September 11th or even all the school shootings hate in America seem to have risen. With all of this violence in our lives, how much of it is really a hate crime? In America, statistics show 95% of all crimes committed are considered hate crimes. People who commit these crimes tend to hate anyone unlike them due to race, religion, gender, physical/mental disabilities, or sexual preference.
Of course, hate today is not as often as in the past. People actually made progress in the amount they hate other people. It is not that often that you see mass genocide after Hitler's attack on non-Aryans. In America, many people have become more tolerant towards others. Though there are still people that have this hate. Those people who still hate that badly are worst in the past. These people are the ones that go out and commit hate crimes.
Homosexuals, males more often than females, have had the hardest time being accepted in to society. After race, homosexuals are the next largest group to be attacked. Degrading slurs about gays have become common language in America. This also makes it almost less shocking when a homosexual is beaten or murdered.
What causes these people to act out in a violent way?, no one can really explain. There is no definite answer on why people feel this way towards other groups. When it comes down to it, we are all the same. We are all just humans. People often define others by what they wear or what kind of music they listen to. To take it any further is what brings about the hate that is seen when hate crimes are committed. Personally I feel that defining people with hate is stupid. What is it that makes the victim any lower than the accuser?
>>>The Movement (By Jan)
(Note- This may or may not be a new segment to Seat Seven about women who rock and are advocates for women's right. We're not quite sure how that's going to work out. Whether you like it or not, it's a good thing to be aware of.)
The existence of Planned Parenthood has helped numerous people, especially teenagers in for so many years. But did you ever think where this idea may have come from? It was from an organization American Birth Control League, founded by a woman named Margaret Sanger.
Margaret Sanger was born in the late 1800's and worked as a midwife during World War I. This is where she witnessed women giving birth very often, where they could not even take care of these kids. In this time everything about contraceptive was covered about mostly by the clergy, so women would have to give birth to children constantly, rather than find a barrier method or oral method. This is when she decided to write her thoughts in her own Newspaper called The Women Rebel and actually had contraceptives available at numerous clinics in the areas local to her. Mind you, at this time it was illegal. She was jailed, though later on her case was dismissed and she travels back to the United States. After she founded an organization similar to Planned Parenthood the word spread on her many deeds and struggled for the women�s right to control their own reproductive cycle and she became more well known. This was the catalyst that in the mid 1960's made contraceptives, like the pill, which Ms. Sanger helped make, available and legal for those. The steps were first small, from just those who were married to those who weren't. This kind of thing is what made abortion less necessary to those struggling women. They now had another alternative and could prevent pregnancy from happening. Abortion was legal by the early 1970's, with a woman and her doctor's say so, though the need was no doubt reduced die to Sangers� fight to have women decide.
Imagine if you will, a world without contraceptives, without the right to choose whether or not you want to have a child, or the choice to have an abortion. Sanger lived in that kind of world, and fought to change that. And she did. Her struggles helped many women and families today. Without her efforts, our world would be overpopulated, our women would be miserable, and surely there would be many more women who would try to change that. Now those souls who think they cannot change things, don't have to. Ms. Margaret Sanger already has. Legalization of abortion saved women for the butchering of their insides. Contraceptives have kept the population lower, the people safer, the women much happier, and the future of an unborn child who may not have had fit parents from not having to suffer.
Women's rights have gone a long way in the past century and Margaret Sanger is definitely someone us women have to thank. She was a truly amazing person who changed the world, in general, and politically, for the better.
>>>POINT?LESS. (By Cera)
This is the story of a coloring book and how I relate to it. I write this with some fear that conclusions will be mistakenly drawn, and for that reason, I�ve written it nearly 20 ways. But I guess I can only hope that no one will care enough to assume.
I found this coloring book the other day called �Girls will be boys will be girls.� It was all about how gender stereotypes are harmful and how it�s not a bad thing if you don�t fit into the idea of what�s normal- a breath of fresh air for me.
Although I know it�s not �cool� to care about how you�re perceived, it IS human. And sometimes, I care. I�m most comfortable with a buzz cut in the middle of a pit for some reason. But a lot of people have a problem with this because I am a girl. And I was once the girly girl with ballerina dreams.
I don�t know why I changed, it just happened somewhere in the middle of being 12 and on a diet that consisted of water and popcorn, and dinner (only so my family wouldn�t get suspicious.) I never lost any weight, I was never seriously sick from this, but when you�re 12 your last concern should be your weight. So I stopped caring.
I think half the reason I cared so much about my weight was because I felt I was expected to. In a world of skinny supermodels and friends placing emphasis on their weight, I felt as though I should too. So I did. There was no other option.
When I was in either grade, I became friends with this guy. He introduced me to a lot of new things, some of which lead me to riot grrl music. Along the was, I also had a friend that didn�t care about appearance.
Riot grrl music defined the summer after ninth grade for me, a summer of transformation. I felt like these girls (mostly in the for of Bikini Kill) were speaking my language. And I still feel I learned some valuable lessons that summer.
There are lessons I recall whenever assumptions are made about my sexuality based on the way I look, when my mom tells me I can�t shave my heave again because �we think you�re ugly with it and we have to look at you.�, when the �gentlemen� at shows assume it�s a mistake I�m in a pit and pull me away, or worse, try to protect me from flailing limbs.
But most of all, they�re lessons that are summed up in one of the first pages in my coloring book: �I�m allowed to be angry.�
[Plus a wonderful Handwritten Gem written by Ashley Fucking Bilkay. That's something you must get the copied issue to see!]
