Humanity vs Universality

Way back when we launched OJST two years ago, I very much intended to cover abortion. I've been pro-choice my entire life and I want to do what I can to help educate about and destigmatize abortion as a respectable reproductive option. 

In August 2013 I started with the Pregnancy comic (http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/pregnancy/) as a precursor to the Emergency Contraception comic (http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/emerencycontraception/), and I intended to follow quick on its heels with an abortion comic. 

Then I kind of... psyched myself out. 

It's such a huge, important topic. There's SO MUCH valuable information (and correction of MISinformation) that needs to covered and I've only got so much space and, well, it's something I'm so politically charged about that it felt too... I dunno. Too "much" for me, too raw, on a mental and emotional level. (Which is the kind of reaction I'd expect someone who's actually HAD one to feel, but I've never even been pregnant! It's just a big emotional topic for me for a variety of intersecting reasons that I'd explain but that's another whole self-indulgent essay) 

I was also afraid of dealing with backlash. Apparently it's not just pro-choicers who are politically charged and emotionally invested in this topic! ;D 

Matt and I scheduled in this comic about three months ago and I felt this lingering dread every time I saw it inching closer to its due date. After researching for about a week, I finally sat down and banged out a super rough script in a day, expecting Matt to tell me it wouldn't be usable. I was so surprised when he sent it back saying he only made a few edits! WHAT. This is also my longest comic ever, clocking in at 7 pages. We very intentionally keep our page limit to 6, since longer than that is a website loading logistical problem. But, 7 it is. 

Page 4 is where I explain what happens in your body when you get a medical abortion. 

It's... it's really challenging to draw an abortion happening. Like, what do you even DRAW? 

I decided to use one of my iconic-generic-people figures with a peek inside their womb, with lightning bolts and squiggly cramping lines inside to illustrate the physical act of the symptoms I describe. I was a bit nervous I'd be criticized because those symbols could be interpreted as being negative somehow, but after careful consideration I felt they were still the best way to represent "heavy cramping and bleeding" and expelling stuff from the uterus out of the vagina. 

Matt thought I should draw an actual Masturbateer with the same cross-section into their tummy, because it would be more humanizing. I liked this in concept and I DO want to emphasize the humanity of the people who get abortions, but how would I draw that person? Just standing there, chilling out? Hunching from cramps? What expression would be on their face? Do I show them expressing pain (it's described as feeling like a super bad period, and those make MY face scrunch up)? Do I keep them serene and detached (which I... don't think is the expression anyone has at that time)? And WHO do I draw? What body type? What ethnicity? What gender presentation? 

I came back to my original design, of the iconic-generic-person, because it may not express humanness like an actual character would, but it DOES express universality of an experience. Regardless of what you look like or identify as or how you experience cramping, the icon is a blank slate that the viewer can project themselves in to and all the attention is on what's taking place inside the womb. 

Anyway, so there you go, a peek inside the creative process Matt and I went through for one single page. REPEAT TIMES INFINITY FOR EVERY OTHER PAGE WE'VE CREATED TOGETHER. 

Alright sweet babs, I'll clutter your inbox up again later.
XOXO,
Erika