“I set out to make a comic that I would want to read”: a conversation on queer motherhood and LGBTQ+ comics with A.K. Summers

ABSTRACT

A. K. Summers’ graphic memoir Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag (2014) visually enunciates the author’s lived experience as a pregnant butch in a cis-normative culture. In this interview, Summers elaborates on her intention behind creating the memoir as bestowing visibility and intelligibility to the reproductive experiences of the LGBTQ+ community. The conversation also addresses the memoirist’s insecurities and fears as a queer parent raising a child in a homophobic cultural setting, also pointing out how being a ‘child’s mother’ accords cultural legitimacy to her non-normative queer family. Identifying comics as a potent medium to represent one’s inner realities, Summers emphasises the wider scope of the visual-verbal canvass in representing lived and tabooed experiences unswervingly when compared to mere verbal expressions. Furthermore, the conversation highlights Summers’ observations on the homophobic attitudes that mediate medical attitudes towards queer motherhood and the significance of queer autobiographical comics in destigmatizing the often complex and diverse LGBTQ+ experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBTQ+ comics
• queer motherhood
• graphic memoir
• homophobia
• heterosexism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Often regarded as one of the classic works of LGBTQ+ community, Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues (1993) is a partly autobiographical historical novel that depicts the life of a butch lesbian in the America of the 1970s.

2. Born intersex, Vaginal Davis’ artistic performances are often categorised as queercore punk. Davis’ performances, laced with nuanced wit and satirical elements, criticises white-privilege, heterosexism and patriarchy, among others.

3. David Sedaris, the author of the popular Santaland Diaries, is a homosexual essayist, comedian and radio contributor.

4. Formally founded in 1936, the Writer’s Workshop at University of Iowa is credited as the first creative writing degree program in the United States which also honed the literary talents of thousands of remarkable authors.