We’re inviting contributions to a zine all about toilets, access, and inclusive/exclusive spaces.
What can I submit?
Contributions in a range of formats are welcome: personal experiences, creative writing/stories, drawings, poetry, political essays, experimental pieces, or whatever you feel like doing. Contributions can be written anonymously if you prefer.
Please keep submissions to under 1,000 words.
What’s a zine?
A zine is a self-published mini-magazine. They can be collaborative or written individually. We’re making a collaborative zine because we’re hoping to express the wide range of different uses and experiences we have of toilets.
What are the themes?
One of our aims is to raise awareness about the ways that toilets can be unsafe, uncomfortable, and inaccessible for some people. However, we also welcome submissions that reflect on positive toilet experiences, the important role they play in our lives, and the privacy and quietness they can often provide for some of us. Themes may include:
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Toilets and mental health
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Disability and accessibility
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Transphobia and public toilets
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Racism, Islamophobia and public toilets
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Intersex, body policing and public toilets
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Toilets and intersectionality (especially experiences from trans, non-binary, queer and/or disabled people of colour)
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Fatness and fat phobia in toilet spaces
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Sex and sex work and public toilets
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‘Invisible’ impairments/disabilities and toilet-use
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Parenting/childcare and public toilet facilities
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Drug-use and toilets
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Homelessness and public toilets
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Funding cuts and the closure of public toilets
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Periods/menstruation and toilet facilities
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Importance of gender neutral toilets
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Toilet door signs/labels
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Queer and radical potential of toilets
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Toilets, campaigns and protest
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Critical ideas about ‘access’
How do I submit?
All zine submissions should be sent by Friday 14th July 2017 to aroundthetoilet@shu.ac.uk or, if you would like to submit your contribution anonymously, then please use our electronic form. You’re welcome to email us an online document, scan or photograph of your contribution, or you can post something through the mail if you’d prefer.
All contributors selected for the zine will be given a small gift of thanks.
Please note: we’re hoping to include a wide range of submissions in the zine but we want to keep the zine readable and easily reproducible, so we can’t guarantee everything we receive will be included in the final publication. We’ll be in touch to let you know either way.
Please get in touch with us via aroundthetoilet@shu.ac.uk if you have any questions or if would like to discuss your ideas with us.
Thank you to the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCPPE) for funding this zine.
Around the Toilet 