Ask Me Any (Gendered) Question
CHICAGO — Gender is a fun game to play — if you know the rules and are willing to break them accordingly. As I was working on a story about a queer art show here in Chicago, I found myself thinking about the show as a space for cruising, as if in a bathhouse. Conveniently, much of the art in this sh
CHICAGO — Gender is a fun game to play — if you know the rules and are willing to break them accordingly. As I was working on a story about a queer art show here in Chicago, I found myself thinking about the show as a space for cruising, as if in a bathhouse. Conveniently, much of the art in this show felt like it invited an opportunity for this sort of sidelong, forlorn or even covert gazing at or upon. And as someone who enjoys the feeling of getting “mindfucked,” I did feel like my mind was being “penetrated.” I enjoyed myself in this space of visual pleasure. What does that have to do with gender or perhaps a gendered gaze? Possibly everything.
“Gender is how we see, interpret, and re-interpret ourselves,” says one of the characters of Rhea Ewing’s FINE Comic, which seeks to get some of these gender ambiguities out of the way — or at least clarify some terms and points of view. FINE has a graphic novel in the works (forthcoming 2013); for now it is a series of comics online that “explores gender from multiple personal perspectives” and seeks “to spark and encourage conversations about gender from all people.” The comic puts the conversation into very gender 101 terms, which go like this: “Sex is what’s between your legs, and gender’s what’s between your ears.” And that’s a good place to start these conversations.
The drawings in each panel are simple and clear, with a focus on the person pictured and their answer to the question about gender identity. FINE focuses on people in the Midwest, but in this zine collection there isn’t anything that explicitly demarcates the region. Instead, the zine focuses on geographically abstracted questions like: “What gender do you consider yourself to be? How do you feel about terms and labels?,” “Has anyone ever questioned your gender presentation?” and “What about society, if anything, would you change so everyone could express their gender freely?”, to name a few. The people in the comic answer the questions, giving this text the feel of a general survey minus the predetermined written answers.
An easily flippable 10 pages online makes this a carefree read for a Saturday afternoon at the cafe. The answers spoken in thought bubbles come across as both honest and heartfelt. They do not glorify a feeling of being “othered,” but don’t dismiss that reality either.
FINE might be the perfect comic to send to a friend who seeks to understand more about gender, as opposed to someone who is already deeply entrenched in gender studies. Take that annoying guy friend who refuses to understand his male privilege or masculinity in the context of a broader gender spectrum. If he’s open to it, he could learn from this comic.
And that’s the point — it’s a good jumping off point for starting these conversations about sex and gender, and I’ll look forward to seeing how they expand and tackle larger, more complex issues through their expanded graphic novel.
