File:Valenzine2015.pdf

An Obstinately Unromantic Valenzine II: group/pack/gang/club/crew/clique/team Teen focus on friendship and community re-centers in adulthood around the dyadic romantic relationship. When we move from dorms and group houses into couples’ apartments, our values move with us. Romantic, familial, and work commitments demand that we devalue friendship and de-prioritize community. Within this framework, it seems reasonable to write poems and songs about objects of romance, to gossip about them endlessly, to proactively seek them with perseverance, and to put hours of thought and discussion into their maintenance and health. To subject a friend to this treatment would seem excessive.

This zine seeks to reimagine friendship and expand possibilities for relationships and expressions of intimacy between friends. Why does friendship play the role it does in your life? What has and hasn’t led you to think about and value friendship and romance differently? What role does romance leave single, celibate, and asexual identities when friendship is devalued?