Gender Trouble on the Double

Feminist underground comix slowed as a collective movement with the arrival of the 1980s. There was even a woman-led comic backlash to the political correctness of the movement in the form of Rebecca Wilson’s After/Shock, an “anti-feminism” anthology published in 1981. Archie and newer romance titles, like Meet Misty, California Girls, Angel Love and Renegade Romance, reigned in the world of teenagers. The 1980s-1990s, however, saw the rise of alternative comics, and the evolution of feminism from second- to third-wave. Cartoonists like Roberta Gregory, Aline Kominsky and Trina Robbins drew for newer series like Gay Comics (displayed with queer comics), Twisted Sisters and Real Girl, and new cartoonists emerged, including Mary Fleener, Jennifer Camper, Julie Doucet, Jessica Abel and Sarah Dyer. Feminists were expanding their message in response to the trappings of the second wave. Their emphasis shifted from politics to identity. They embraced sex and body positivity, inclusivity, queer theory and a call for the all-out abolishment of the gender binary. The short-lived riot grrrl movement of the early 1990s was synergistic with third-wave comics like Real Girl, Sarah Dyer’s Action Girl, and Jennifer Camper’s Rude Girls and Dangerous Women. Camper, a Lebanese-American lesbian cartoonist, is a particularly important link between the queer and feminist comic communities, and has had a significant role in a number of influential titles throughout her career.

The 1990s were also a decade of taking back “dirty words” and insults. Comics like Mary Fleener’s Slutburger, Julie Doucet’s Dirty Plotte (a French-Canadian slang term for female genitalia), and Roberta Gregory’s Naughty Bits, featuring Bitchy Bitch and Bitchy Butch, signaled a decisive reclaiming of words intended to be hurtful. Gregory describes her lovably raunchy character Bitchy Bitch as a form of catharsis - “something to make men feel as queasy as all [their] sexist garbage makes women feel.”

With the new millennium, strong female characters are increasingly finding themselves assimilated into comics of all genres. Action, fantasy and science fiction comics are featuring more female protagonists - several notable series include Ms. Marvel, Lumberjanes, Rat Queens, Saga, Monstress and Bitch Planet, the latter being an all-out feminist assault on the “women’s prison” exploitation films of the 1960s-1970s. Fans of more traditional feminist fare can’t go wrong with comics like The Big Feminist But, which explores the “shortcomings” of feminists in contemporary society, or the side-splitting humor of Kate Beaton, whose Hark! A Vagrant leaves few major literary works unturned in her quest to catalog all of history’s absurdities. Whether you’re a fan of horror, crime, funny animal, slice-of-life, war, history, superheroes, or non-fiction, you’re sure to find titles that have improved the representation of women in the world of comics.

The strong, unique female characters of Love and Rockets and Tank Girl in the 1990s and the very recent Eisner-winning Paper Girls, all created by men, signify a shift with the new millennium away from female stereotypes and towards individuality. This is not to say women are no longer stereotyped or objectified in popular culture, for they are (Gamergate, anyone?), along with almost everyone else. But this emphasis on women as individuals with strengths in contrast to many decades of highlighting women's flaws is laudable. Cartoonists of influence are contributing more and more to a climate of positive representation, and this is hopefully more than just a trend.