It starts with an idea. From there, editors, designers and staffers for Inside Fullerton spend a semester writing, polishing, designing and producing a magazine to share with the community in and out of Fullerton College. On Wednesday, the team welcomed the release of the new issue with a launch party and a workshop on how to make your own terrarium led by Grego Quincho Salas, where participants made and took home small glass jar terrariums.
The day was filled with music, matcha and contemplation of the meaning of “masculinity,” all coinciding with the cover story for the issue: “The Performative Male Era.” The “performative male” is a man who stereotypically dresses in knit sweaters or quarter zips, drinks matcha, reads feminist literature and overall participates in a “vintage or feminine culture.”
In the cover story of the magazine, “MANifest Destiny,” Sal Zinzun delves deep into the trend of the performative male. He opens a discussion about the men who are often overlooked beneath the jokes, who face social pressures and expectations of masculinity.
“I have a podcast where I talked about it,” said Zinzun. “I think it’s important for people to get the deeper meaning and understand what it means to be ‘performative.’”
In his podcast, Zinzun had two of his coworkers, Abby Cesario and Kyrii Valdima, as guests to get the female perspective on what a performative male is.
According to Zinzun, the biggest challenge he faced when writing this article was narrowing down exactly what he wanted the audience to know and finding different perspectives while being true to the story.
Mia Zacatenco, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, said she had a hard time choosing what the cover story would be for this issue. She wanted a cover story that emphasized the stories and voices of people and different characters.
“The people you meet in the story tell the narrative about performative males, other than it just being a trend,” she said. “We find out in the story, it’s kind of rooted in toxic masculinity culture and homophobia.”
Choosing the cover story is just one of many jobs Zacatenco has as editor-in-chief of Inside Fullerton. After two semesters in the publication, the magazine began to feel more like a child to her, something that she has to carry and raise from an idea to the hundreds of copies around campus and the local community.
“There’s nothing you can feel except pride for all that work that you and all these other people have done,” she said.
