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New zine! Relationship Struggles

New zine! Relationship Struggles

Launched today, another new zine! This one is about relationship struggles.

The zine suggests that we often locate any pain and difficulties that we experience in relationships as being something ‘wrong’ with that particular person, or with that particular way of doing relationships (e.g. monogamy or polyamory).

What if it wasn’t the what that was the problem, but the how? What if pain will keep showing up in our relationships (of all kinds and with any people) until/unless we attend to that pain, and address how we are relating?

This zine suggests that we all carry relationship trauma from the existential challenges of relating, from the toxic structures and messages about relationships in our wider culture, and from the development of our particular ways of relating in our family context. This trauma remains in our bodies and impacts how we relate now.

We then explore what diverse relationship styles might have to offer to a more trauma-sensitive way of doing relationships. We consider how learning how to love in a more conscious, consensual, mutual way could be seen as a lifelong journey through all types of relating.

You can download the zine here.


Meg-John (MJ) Barker (they/them) is a writer, zine-maker, collaborator, contemplative practitioner, and friend. They are the author of a number of zines and popular books on sex, gender, and relationships, including graphic guides to Queer, Gender, and Sexuality (with Jules Scheele), and How To Understand Your Gender, Sexuality and Relationships (with Alex Iantaffi).

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