Tires, Cigarettes, Tampons, and the Gendering of Instructional Comics

ABSTRACT

Comics-based how-to instructions have historically figured into a gender-aware category of technical communication. Studying such comics-based literature for gendering is a promising endeavor that has not garnered much scholarly attention to date. This analysis attempts to do so within the critical framework of comics studies. Through close examination of examples of gendered instructional comics past and present, this article argues that the comics medium is well suited to inform and persuade readerships through gendered means.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive theory
• comics studies
• gender research
• rhetorical theory
• visual rhetoric/visualization techniques

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. In her study of the history of menstrual hygiene, Sharra L. Vostral (2008) explains that in the 1940s, the denunciation of tampon use for virgins, even among physicians, was quite moralizing: “Although a common concern about tampons was that they could break the hymen, these physicians … claimed that tampons brought about ‘pelvic consciousness,’ and ‘undue handling’ of the genitals ‘may cause eroticism and masturbation’” (p. 97).

2. McKlaren draws heavily from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, whose extensive studies of social behavior have been highly influential in the field.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lawrence Abbott

Lawrence Abbott is a Lecturer in Critical Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in twentieth-century American literature and culture. His current work focuses on comics and other forms of multimodal communication.