IN-OUT: GENDER THROUGH THE BREXIT LENS
Story: Valentino Vecchietti Illustration: Aindri C
A personal comic, which examines gender identity and the politics of the binary.
The protagonist shares their journey of growing-up in the UK in a working class, immigrant, family; being born with an intersex variation, having a lesbian identity,
and their struggle to find belonging.
The comic was created for Gender Bender 2016, funded by the Goethe Institut
Bangalore, India. It has been exhibited and reviewed internationally.
PROCESS
Early discussion drawings and mind maps.
Character design
When I first started the project, the stumbling block for me was creating the intersex protagonist. In the initial stages, the character was too abstract- sometimes monstrous looking- because I drew from my own preconceived ideas which were not at all representative of intersex people. Example, dividing the body in half into male and female. It's a very harmful, inaccurate metaphor that does not represent intersex nor non-binary identities.
Valentino and I had a lengthy discussion on gaze and judgement and this was my window into developing the character. Surveillance was a theme that I responded to.
The clothes behave like X ray which reveal the biological mechanism in the character. The character is alive the character is human. The eye in the pocket is the gaze that reflects back to the viewer.
The clothes behave like X ray which reveal the biological mechanism in the character. The character is alive the character is human. The eye in the pocket is the gaze that reflects back to the viewer.
