Women,Shame,and Stigma: Responding to (In)justice Through Zine

Abstract

Women, Shame, and Stigma is a zine that has been co-created by academics to communicate and share the connections and commonalities of women’s experiences across a Criminal Justice process. Utilising research findings and lived knowledge of policing, probation, and the prison system, the pages expose the complex continuums of shame and stigma and the gendered nature of systems in inducing and compounding women’s experiences. In making the zine available, the authors have two primary aims. First, to share the experiences of women in a creative and accessible format, enabling readers to visualise the depth of stigmatic and shameful experiences. Second, the authors hope to highlight the reflexive experience of this process, driving home its value as a method of knowledge construction and as an act of resistance towards the fast-paced, neoliberal academia that shapes our senses of accelerating time pressures. The accompanying text piece examines and reflects upon the trajectory of the zine, with a view to sharing both the knowledge and experience with others.