‘Maybe I’ll make something with it’: Comics as alternative sex education

Abstract

This article discusses how the comics form is peculiarly suited to deliver affecting, inclusive sex education. Through analysing the comics anthologies Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf, compiled by Saiya Miller and Liza Bley, and Graphic Reproduction, edited by Jenell Johnson as part of the Graphic Medicine series, this article addresses several specific ways in which these anthologies – and the autobiographical comics they include – demonstrate unconventional and effecting methods of conducting sex education. Comparing these collections to sex education film shows how comics are particularly suited to this goal. These comics anthologies demonstrate the importance of inclusive community-building as a central project of sex education, as well as the need to challenge the teacher–student methodology. Specific comics within these anthologies by Eli Brown and Paula Knight demonstrate how comics allow for radical expressions of how bodies relate to sex and sexuality. Other comics, including those by Alison Bechdel and Alex Barrett, reveal how the pauses and ambiguities fostered by comics heighten their emotional impact and educational value. The overarching power of these narrative comics comes from the self-awareness of the form itself, especially the vulnerability of drawing oneself in relation to sexual experiences. This article concludes that these distinct characteristics of comics allow both a healthy way for creators to look back on their own experiences with sex and, in turn, encourage readers to effectively learn from these depicted experiences.