Chart Your Cycle: Five Years On

By Chella Quint
www.chartyourcycle.co.uk

I’d psyched myself up. I was ready to read another zine about menstruation. “Let’s do this!” I said to myself. The original Chart Your Cycle zine (which was made for 24 hour zine day back in 2005) was about menstruation, and so I expected this to be as well. Thus I was a little surprised (and disappointed) to discover that most of this zine wasn’t actually about that topic at all.

Most of this zine is devoted to finding out what Quint’s friends were doing five years ago. The results are probably more interesting for Quint than me, as with no idea who these people are or what they’re currently doing with their lives, I’m left with a single paragraph about their lives from five years ago. The interesting ones feel as though they require more than a paragraph or two to tell their story, while the boring ones are, well, boring.

The most interesting pieces in here are two pieces which I believe are by Quint. There’s a piece on using an old fashioned “looped pad and belt” style feminine hygiene product, which gives an interesting look into how that stuff used to be done. There’s also an interview with (I believe) Quint’s mom, about using the rhythm method and getting pregnant. However with no introduction I was halfway through the (admittedly brief) piece before I could figure out who the people asking and answering questions were and what the hell was going on.

To be honest, I think a zine about people who have been using the Chart Your Cycle zine and their experiences with it would have been more interesting overall.