Talented local artist and cartoonist Ajuan Mance recently published "Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw," a graphic memoir that gives plenty of food for thought.
"Gender Studies" is a fun and worthwhile read. Just 82 pages in length, this book is packed with stories that explore the author's own personal gender journey in addition to other interesting aspects of her life. Plenty of good humor is peppered in.
Mance's previous books include the colorful picture book "What Do Brothers Do All Day?" (2023), "Inventing Black Women: African American Women's Poetry and Self-Representation, 1877-2010" (2007), and "Before Harlem: An Anthology of African American Literature from the Long Nineteenth Century" (2016). A Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at Mills College, Mance explores the relationship between race, gender, and representation.
In the Introduction, Ajuan Mance acknowledges that "Love and Rockets" by brothers Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez was her first inspiration to try her hand at drawing comics, one day.
But it wasn't until Ed Luce, the LGBT creator of "Wuvable Oaf" comics, shared some of his techniques and philosophy of cartooning to Mance that actually she gave cartooning a try. Cartooning is just like writing fiction, he said, except the story is portrayed visually instead of with words.
Beyond binary
In the opening chapters, Mance takes us behind the scenes to witness her own personal gender journey experienced before people had the words to express what they were feeling. Once she came out, things weren't necessarily much clearer.
For example, Mance recalls that she had a lot in common with the male friends she hung out with, such as her love for sports, beer runs, and men's sweaters. But she found herself unable to decipher her feelings for a time, writing that she felt "you're on your own" in trying to figure out a path forward.
The one role model of sorts she can remember having was Tiffany Banks. Even though Mance was just 7 years old, she recalls noticing something extraordinary about Tiffany Banks. Athletic, self-assured, and popular with the guys as if she was one of them, Mance soon started emulating her cool style of dress.
Later when Mance found herself to be the only or one of the only African Americans in her high school, college, or on the job, she observes that the first thing other people noticed about her was definitely not her gender.
Requiem for the Hot Comb
A unique aspect of this book is that it tackles out of the ordinary topics, like the elaborate hair-straightening technique used in the 1960s and '70s: the hot comb.
This is the perfect medium for preserving overlooked aspects of social history like this. Mance's drawings make the topic come alive for readers who may know nothing about it. This section gives us a vivid sense of how onerous the process is, replete with an unusual smell, and her comment balloons include some of the many admonishments about how to maintain the resulting hair-dos.
Memorably, the story includes drawings of natural hair being flattened into straightened hair, and various straightened hair-dos that have been ruined by the rain.
"Getting your hair straightened for the first time was like being inducted into a Black woman's secret society," Mance observes about the potentially dangerous ritual. Today, chemicals or hair weaves do the trick.
In love
The section "Check All That Apply," also packs a lot in using just a few words. Mance fills in the blank next to the last box she has checked, writing "In love." We turn the page in anticipation to learn that PBS's brilliant astrologer Carl Sagan is the smooth criminal who has imperceptibly stolen her heart.
His cartoon depiction seemingly catches Carl Sagan mid-swoon with a far-away look in his eyes as he contemplates the billions and billions of stars in the universe that happen to contain the very same elements as our own bodies, heavenly bodies made of stardust.
Their regular Sunday night long-distance rendezvous contemplating the heavens (via television) continued for some time until Sagan was eclipsed by a yet brighter star. Young Albert Einstein, with his curly black hair and dark features, seemed to her to be at least part Black. This time it was love.
'Gender Studies: True Confessions of an Accidental Outlaw' by Ajuan Mance, $9.95, Rosarium Publishing, www.rosariumpublishing.com
www.ajuanmance.com
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