Resistance Is Fertile

by Stacey M. Piotrowski, Zanarchy

More than a year had passed since my last zine, and in that year much had changed. Specifically, my then-partner Zan & I gave birth to a baby girl and subsequently gave her up for adoption. This zine is a chronicle of that year, written from the perspectives of both Zan and myself. Aside from describing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, and adoption, we also touch on many other topics in this account, including: feminism, the medical (mis)management of birth, poverty, the history of adoption, radical parenting, birth control, making reproductive choices readily available to women, and cultivating supportive and strong communities. The revised second edition (October 2007) includes a Frequently Asked Questions section which clarifies & explains many important issues raised in the original writing, & contains a 1-Year-Later epilogue describing the post-adoption grieving/healing/growing process. Also it's been retyped and laid out on a computer for easier readability.

92 pages, Zine

First published September 22, 2006

Reviews

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

jointly written by a girl and her boyfriend, punker-than-thou, more-radical-than-thou, vegan dumpsterdiving biking traveling kid types, this zine, that i randomly picked up at chicago comics, explores what happens when she gets pregnant and decide to give the baby up for open adoption. for a zine, it's well-written and really delves into the details of what was going on with them, and besides, it's totally fascinating to read the different ways they each see the same events. that said, they seem like very annoying people, especially the boyfriend. the girl is at least thoughtful and self-reflective up to a point, even while also being more-radical-than-thou, but the boyfriend really just comes across as a) trying too hard to be feminist and b) not willing to take responsibility for anything. they want to reject mainstream culture SO BAD, and it just makes them come across as kinda immature in their application of their desire to reject culture, which is interesting because they're constantly writing about how being pregnant and all these decisions they're facing are making them *so mature* (especially in comparison to the people whose house they crash at for months without helping pay rent). at some point you have to just admit to yourself that you still live in this culture and that some types of rejecting it are just excuses to mooch off other people. i hope they found a better way to be true to themselves...

[c · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not put this zine down. It was written beautifully, with only one or two typos, and the story was pretty amazing, about a squatting, anarchist couple finding themselves having a baby, and their decision to give their daughter to another couple in an open adoption. I feel like it gave great insight into the birthing process, being pregnant, and giving a baby up.

[Missy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A zine a picked up at the local kids swap & play co-op, Resistance is Fertile is the recounting of a young punk couple's decision to give up their child for adoption. Really readable, quite touching. That I actually finished all 91 pages at a time when I can't finish anything scores it four stars.