COMIXXX: Grotesque and cyborg corporalities in the independent women’s comics in Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyzes the expression of corporality in Zine XXX, an independent publication organized in 2014 by the cartoonist Beatriz Lopes, in order to diffuse the production of women in the comic book market. Based on an analysis that seeks the convergence between feminist theories about cinema, contemporary research on female visibility and the language of comics, we seek to investigate the expression of the deviant female body in a context of author’s independent comics made by women. To this end, we will use contributions of Nochlin (2003) and Pollock (2011) on the History of Art, considering the place of women’s artistic production, as well as the historical and socio-political characteristics that influenced the construction of their work. Considering Laura Mulvey’s thesis on scopophilia, and her concept of male gaze, comprising the elements of language proposed by McLoud (1993), associated with the concepts of Feminine Grotesque (Russo, 2000) and Ciborgue (Haraway, 2000), which subsidize the analysis. We understand, through this research, that the divergences of representation that mark the female body built by the hands and from the perspective of a possible feminine look are, sometimes, marked by strangeness and dissidence.

Keywords: Comics, women, body and gender, Zine XXX.