Comic artist talks narrative, LGBT representation

Between the ever-cooling weather and the preparations for Halloween and other upcoming holidays, October is a month that is by no means devoid of activity. Included in this is the recognition of LGBT History month, which serves to highlight the people and past of the individuals who identify as part of the LGBT community. For the month, NC State’s GLBT Center has put forth the phrase “Strategic Activism: Fighting on All Fronts,” as the theme of this year’s LGBT History month. As part of their event series that brings attention to the ways injustice is combated within our society, the GLBT center will be hosting a conversation and Q&A in an event titled Advocating Through Narrative: A Conversation with Comic Artist Sophie Labelle. 

In the event, Labelle will be talking about her experiences as an advocate for social change through her writing and drawing. She is well-known for her popular webcomic, “Assigned Male,” which follows 11-year old Stephie as she navigates adolescence as a transgender girl. The comic delves into the complex issue that is gender, exploring everything from gender roles to microaggressions.

“The story and the panels have depicted this really cool way of affirming trans youth, and also really cool ways of describing how someone sees their gender, sees their sexuality, sees their role as supporting people with marginalized identities,” said Andy DeRoin, the Program Coordinator for NC State’s GLBT Center.

Panels from the series have gone viral across social media numerous times and have been implemented in trainings over the past few years.

“Individual panels have been used outside of their original context in things like trainings and spread across [platforms] like Facebook,” DeRoin said, “So we’re going to have her talk about her process of developing the characters and deciding how she wants to portray these interactions.”

“Assigned Male” has had such reach due to Labelle’s ability to boil down complex situations into a few panels without sacrificing any depth, especially in situations involving transgender youth.

“When I started following her on Facebook [and] Instagram, I was more depictions of interactions between the youth who are in middle school [or] high school and trying to deal with some of the interpersonal interactions that they have like some of the bullying or questioning gender and sexuality,” DeRoin said. “Sophie just draws really good depictions of how to be affirming in a moment for a trans person.”

Using the comic strip medium, Labelle’s work illustrates how resistance and advocacy can take on different forms. GLBT Center Assistant Director, Preston Keith, spoke about the event.

“In looking at different ways of activism and advocacy, being able to share your story through narrative is a way of one, centering your voice, but also providing an opportunity and a space where voices that have traditionally marginalized are in the forefront and are being acknowledged and are being named and being able to have agency in how you share that story is fantastic and transformative and also engaging and provides a different perspective that hasn’t been seen before,” Keith said. “So this program is a great tool to do so, and also the fact that Sophie does this through comic strip is also very relatable for students, sometimes comical and sometimes real, and merging those two together is a fun way to share a narrative and also engage people in deeper conversation and deeper dialogue.”

The event will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Talley Student Union in room 3210. The most recent editions of “Assigned Male” can be found on Labelle’s Tumblr and her Facebook page. More information about the GLBT Center can be found here.