Fine: A Comic About Gender

 

Publication date: April 5, 2022

My Thoughts:

This comic starts with the author/ilustrator's own niggling question about gender and how gender is defined. As they went further into collecting stories from a diverse group of people in the American Midwest, Rhea moved from outsider researcher to insider participant. The initial question moves from a scientific curiosity to a personal quest for self. 

What I appreciate about this is that like the anthology Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words, this comic's power is in Rhea's ability to be a participant in their own truth seeking. This kind of honesty around grasping complexity, including going further into culture and diversity to further complicate simple answers is helpful for young students who are themselves trying to identify and define themselves beyond the binary markers that are set forth for them in the home, in the school, even in society.

As teachers, if we do not have a book like this or Growing up Trans in our classroom, the message we are sending is that it is not important. Even if we are well meaning and have just not thought about it or seen something like this as a gap in our classroom library, we are in fact making a statement.  As part of our social equity agenda as teachers, we need to diversify our bookshelves and bring forward stories that address more than just race. This is a great start. 

From the Publisher:

As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns—and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art—and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms.