i just made this blog as an internet-hub for a zine i intend on making about what i've learned by being an egg donor. zines are labor-intensive processes for me and I don't anticipate being in a place where i can make one for quite a while, so I'm using the blog as a sort of way to archive information that i will later self-publish.
I want to make a zine because I searched things like "egg donor zine" and "egg donation zine" (even "anarchist egg donor"!) and got nothing. there are a lot of egg donor blogs and support for IVF patients on the internet, but I wanted something that is more directed as those of us who inhabit some sort of subculture. that's why I say "radical" in the title of this blog-- it's just a sort of signifier of some kind that my take on this whole process is deeply informed by my radical politics.
WHO?
hi, i'm zee. (or z)
structurally: I'm white, 21 years old, from Chicago (hyde park), college-educated, female-bodied.
other buzzwords to give you a vague sense of where i'm coming from: rad feminist, anarchist, radical environmentalist, queer as all get-out, gender fluid/gender fucker, kind of a primitivist, & a budding bike mechanic, poly kid, zinester, and farmer.
SO, why the fuck would I want to immerse myself in the world of medical technology to genetically engineer one more goddamn white north american consumer (who will grow up in the NW suburbs of chicago)??!
I don't know.
I had thought about egg donation as soon as I heard about it when I was 17 or 18. I've always been really connected to my cycle. (on the first day of my second cycle, january 13th 2003, I made a "period journal" to keep track) It started with keeping tabs on when I bled, and then it turned into what it is now: I take my temperature every day, check my cervical mucous, and occasionally use this information to avoid getting pregnant when fucking male-bodied people! (for more info: Fertility Awareness for Non-Invasive Birth Control zine)
so yeah, i love bleeding, which is why i don't use tampons. i use a silicone cup that collects the blood and then i can play with it and make stuff with it. my blood is something beautiful that my body produces, mmmmm. my blood is red red red, and i bleed for about 5 to 8 days, every 30 days. i don't get PMS, headaches, cramps, or any of that stuff. I am truly lucky for this.
so if I take such good care of myself and treat my body as a holy fleshy wild thing (rather than a vessel), why would I want to go and fuck all this up?
well, i was curious.
and i'm getting paid.
that's it.
further embellishments and complexities of my reasons for doing this will appear in blog posts.
but I think this is a big difference between this project and the other blogs out there-- I'm not doing this because I love babies. I do love families and love and all that stuff, BUT i also think adoption is a totally viable option. and don't really think that the desire to have an engineered kid at age 50 is a basic human right. I don't think i'm doing a great service to society. because I think the world is really really fucked up, I don't even think this kid is going to be that happy. they'll probably just go to college and get a job like their parents and be a very nice person who sits in their position of power and privilege in our society which continually oppresses marginalized peoples.
BUT.
if J and K (the intended parents) didn't pay me, they'd be paying someone else.
plus, I'm curious how my strong flexible youthful body will react to syringes and hormones, doctor's offices and constant heterosexism, prodding and poking and sending vials of blood and urine and spit to the labs.
thus... this zine project.
