As transfobias na história em quadrinhos “The Pervert” (2018)

Abstract

The graphic novel The Pervert (2018), written by Michelle Perez and illustrated by Remy Boydell, sensitively portrays the experiences of a young trans woman in Seattle, addressing themes such as gender identity, social exclusion, and the everyday effects of transphobia through the specific resources of sequential narrative. According to Butler (1997, 2004, 2015) and Preciado (2018, 2023), transphobias consist of a set of practices and discourses that produce and sustain the marginalization of trans subjects. Based on this understanding, this study takes transphobia as its central axis of analysis, seeking to understand how The Pervert (2018) represents the symbolic, physical, and institutional violence experienced by the protagonist, as well as the strategies of resistance and self-construction she mobilizes.The specific objectives of this research are to analyze the visual and textual strategies used to depict trans experiences in the work, with emphasis on the fragmentation of temporality, the graphic animalization of the character, and the urban spatiality as a setting of exclusion. To this end, a qualitative methodology is adopted, based on the critical analysis of graphic narratives and grounded in the works of Will Eisner (1989), Hillary Chute (2010), and queer theory. The analysis was conducted using the integrative review method (Whittemore & Knafl, 2005), which enables the articulation of different theoretical and empirical sources in the investigation of complex phenomena.The analytical procedures followed three main stages: (1) a review of the state of the art on transphobia, passability, and mechanisms of bodily regulation; (2) the selection and categorization of panels from The Pervert (2018) that address these themes; and (3) an interpretive analysis of the selected graphic and narrative elements, considering the meaning-making processes produced by the interplay of text and image within the sequential narrative. The analysis revealed that The Pervert (2018) challenges the boundaries of traditional representation by deconstructing narrative linearity and rejecting simplified readings of gender identity, thus highlighting the precariousness of trans existence in a cisnormative and hostile context.The findings indicate that the comic offers a symbolic space for elaborating dissident subjectivities, allowing for the recognition of complex and affective experiences. The work represents a significant contribution to gender studies and to the field of graphic narratives, offering a powerful, critical, and ethical representation of trans lives, and reaffirming the comic medium as a tool of resistance and political intervention.